They say Penicuik Blue Paper was taken on the Darien expedition to Central America three hundred years ago. Blue paper was commonly used for keeping records
in the Navy, as a wrapper for sugar refined from the cane plantations of Jamaica, and as touchpaper
for gunpowder. Rags were collected and
sorted in Leith and brought in huge cartloads to Penicuik for further sorting
by colour and quality in wooden sheds at Valleyfield,
where they were then soaked and pounded to fibre, using the pure waters of St Mungo’s Well for the mix and the power of the River Esk to drive the great mill wheels and belts.
French artisan tradition was strong at the Valleyfield mill, where the papermaking rooms
were known as salles.
At Valleyfield House, Marjorie Cowan (brought
up in France in Jacobite exile)
would have called her big plates ashets
like most other Scots.
Penicuik paper in those days was made by hand – so too is today’s
Penicuik pottery, which has been made for more than 25 years here in Valleyfield House on the potter’s wheel. Traditional Blue stoneware and blue
decorations remain popular today.
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