Ford mill had very mixed fortunes over its lifetime, but was reasonably prosperous in the early 1900s under the Cairns family from Galashiels.
In the photo below, Ford is at the centre with the Parish Church behind it and the Mission Hall to the right.
It began as Boatford mill in 1866, a hand weaving operation. It was expanded, then became Ford mill in 1878.
It had various owners before being bought by Mr McIntyre of Glasgow and James Cairns (1831-1905) of Galashiels in 1889. McIntyre soon left and James Cairns was joined by his sons John (1856-1938) and James (1861-1924), and later by James junior’s son Lawson (1889-1948), who wrote a diary on the Western Front in 1915.
During the war, John Cairns was on the Town Council as senior bailie (magistrate) and his brother James was a prominent figure in the Townhead Literary Society. Lawson was with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (see 26th April in the 1915 Diary) and later the Langholm Burgh Medal.
The Ford mill was next to the Hope Hospital, whose records include a complaint to the mill that hospital windows had to be closed when the wind was blowing from the direction of the Ford chimney. The mill and chimney can be seen in the photo below.
After difficult conditions in the 1930s and trying to compete on price, the company went into liquidation in 1939 and the mill was requisitioned as a navy warehouse.
In 1949 the mill was was bought by Woolly Mill Co. of Blackburn, Lancashire, run by the Armitage family. It was later majority owned by extravaganza promoter John Packer but went into receivership in 1991. It was then bought by Illingworth Morris but was demolished in 2006.