About our shop

The Orry Mill was started to share our love of crafting and colour with the local community. The shop was to be more than a retail outlet, a place to visit and spend time in, to leave having learned something new, or to have found something that inspired you just a little bit.

The shop was started midway through 2018 by Thilde Olsen-McBride and her husband Stephen McBride.

Thilde is originally from Denmark where she attended Steiner School with a focus on Arts and Crafts learning to knit and various crafts. Taught to knit and crochet by her mother and grandmother, Thilde maintained her craft and designs and teaches knitting and crochet.  Thilde has MA in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art. 

Stephen is a full-time IT Consultant and supports the operations of the shop.  Before working in IT, Stephen ran his own Production and Post Production Broadcast Audio company and worked on commercials, TV shows and feature films.  Stephen grew up in the village of Eaglesham and has a strong connection to the history and importance of crafting and textiles to Glasgow.  

 

 

Image of yarn and products sold at the Orry Mil knitting shop


We wanted to have a shop that was full of colour, where you would be surrounded by quality vibrant yarn, yet also be a calming, inspiring and tactile place and to provide support and advice to expand your crafting.

The wider benefits of crafting for relaxation or to develop your creativity are well known.  There is a wealth of published papers that demonstrate taking time to craft is beneficial to your health. It creates ‘head-space’ to reflect, focus and quiet the busy mind in our unsettled times.

These deliberate pauses we carve out for ourselves can be nurturing for body and mind and if we can help to encourage and support creating the time, space, and tools to do that, then that would make us very happy indeed.

We believe that crafting can be a deeply personal, solo activity but at the same time a social community activity, and we would like to create the space to switch between the two.

Image of women knitting in The Orry Mill shop knitting classes


Our focus is on natural fibres and sustainable products and we review our stock all the time to curate, in our view, the loveliest yarns and tools to support your craft.  It is a changing world and yarn and accessories come in a huge variety of materials and its difficult for them to all to be 100% truly environmentally friendly and affordable and available to all, but we do strive to make that our focus when stocking our materials.

Over time we will be doing our best to move our range towards truly sustainable and ethical for producers and the environment.

Let us know what you think.

Email us: info@theorrymill.co.uk

 

What is 'The Orry Mill' ?

The name ‘The Orry Mill’ refers to the open space in Eaglesham known as ‘The Orry’ (Old Scots for 'area') in which there are the remains of a cotton mill.
The mill and the village were designed by Lord Alexander Eglinton, but built by his brother Archibald. The Eglinton family were responsible for a series of cotton mills and key agricultural developments throughout the late 18th and early 19th
Century.  
The area of Busby, Eaglesham, Clarkston and Newton Mearns are south of the city of Glasgow in Scotland.  As small villages they all had water powered cotton mills, and this drove the development of these villages, the buildings, geography and layout as we see it now.

The Village of Eaglesham

Eaglesham is on the edge of Greater Glasgow in the region of East Renfrewshire.  It is well known as a destination village with pubs, restaurants, gift shops a bi-annual village fair, annual beer festival, amateur football team, golf club and bowling club and generally a lovely place to live and visit even for a day.

The village was originally built around a cotton mill and what remains is a large green space with a burn (stream) carving through a mix of woodland and open space.  Houses built on the edge have ancient rites to graze their sheep and cows or even hang washing, however that is yet to be tested and the space is a community and public park.  It is well worth a visit any time of year for a pub lunch, ice cream and coffee or just a stroll up to the reservoir at the top of the village.

Eaglesham Orry and The Eglinton Arms Hotel

The Eglinton Arms Hotel

Eaglesham Parish Church

Eaglesham Parish Church - there are Covenanter graves, as well as families, lost to the sinking of the Lusitania

 

Montgomery Street

Montgomery Street is one side of the letter A that forms the shape of the village.  Named after the Montgomery family who hold the seat of the Earls Of Eglinton.

 

The Village was built around the mill in the shape of the letter 'A' after the the Eglinton brothers Alexander and Archibald.

 
 
 

Sign up & Save

NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS GET EXCLUSIVE OFFERS AND GIFTS... PLUS 10% OFF YOUR NEXT ONLINE ORDER