Eastern Scotland manufacturing history

 Scotland became home to high tech in the area now known as Silicon Glen between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh. At Grangemouth it was home to oil refining and cracking for the plastics industry. Aberdeen was the heart of North Sea oil. Earlier, there was wool and iron and, in Dundee, jute.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh was a capital city of many trades: publishing, printing, paper making, bookbinding, wool, linen, cotton, glass and electronics. Read more by following this link.

Grangemouth

Grangemouth is home to the Ineos, formerly BP, refinery and cracker. The Distillers Company had its headquarters in the city but owned distilleries across the country. I tell in Vehicles to Vaccines of its involvement in chemicals, plastics and man made fibres. ICI also had a plant at Grangemouth (formerly part of British Dyestuffs).

Rosyth

The Royal Naval Dockyard at Rosyth was commissioned in 1909 and opened in 1916 in order to support the fleet in the North Sea just in time to deal with the aftermath of the battle of Jutland. Babcock International now run the Rosyth dockyard

Falkirk

Where the Carron Iron works, one of the earliest of which I wrote in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World, set up. I write more in this link.

Stirling

As wool production spread across much of Scotland in the eighteenth century, mills were established in Stirling using steam power. It was an important military centre.

Perth

The Glenturret distillery produces many of the malt whiskeys that are blended into Scotland's top brand Famous Grouse now owned by William Grant & Sons.

Livingston 'Silicon Glen'

A new town designated in 1962 and thought of as the capital of silicon glen. NEC set up a major plant but closed it as a result of the downturn in electronics in 2000. Its proximity to Edinburgh means that is is now benefitting from the growth in indigenous software development companies.

Galashiels

A centre of the wool industry and the place chosen for the Heriot-Watt University's School of Textiles and Design.

Hawick

In the early nineteenth century framework knitting of hosiery produced in Hawick accounted for half of all Scottish production which in turn was one quarter of the total for Britain. I write of framework knitting in my blog piece on Leicester.

Dalkeith

Home to Ferranti measurement and inspection equipment which was later sold to Plessey.

Dundee

Home to linen manufacture which in the eighteenth century accounted for nearly half of Scotland’s exports (much to England) and also to Jute manufacture for use in sail cloth now largely gone overseas except for Jute Products Ltd at Kidderminster. The coming of steam power caused a massive increase in coal imports into Dundee from the coal fields of Fife and the Lothians shipped from the ports of Alloa and Charleston on the Forth. The largest of the linen manufacturers was Baxter Brothers Dens Works said to be the biggest in the world in 1840. Paper manufacture also took place here. Ferranti made components and laser systems here. NCR set up cash register and adding machine manufacture after the Second World War. It finally left the city after the downturn in electronics in 2000.

Dunfermline

Home to fine linen manufacture. Marconi Electronic Systems established here in the Second World War and subsequently became part of BAE Systems.

Montrose

A Glaxo primary manufacturing factory

Kirkaldy

Linoleum was manufactured by the Nairn family

Glenrothes 'Silicon Glen'

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War 1948. Elliott Automation and English Electric semiconductor plants were based here. Rodime, founded by former American and Scots employees of Burroughs, pioneered the 3.5 inch hard disc drive in 1986. In 1960 Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon) manufactured germanium and silicon diodes. General Instruments established a wafer fab

East Kilbride 'Silicon Glen'

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War in 1947. Home to CVH Spirits formerly Burns Stewart whisky distillers. Quartztec Europe's site in East Kilbride, Scotland has been operational for over 35 years (owned by Motorola), manufacturing and supplying the Semiconductor, Solar and Fibre Optic markets.

South Queensferry

Digital Equipment operated a semiconductor manufacturing plant and sold it to Motorola. It was closed as a result of the down turn in electronics in 2000.

Linlithgow

Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) set up a major plant but the downturn in 2000 caused its closure.

Hillend, Fife

Home to BAE Systems electronic engineering. Fife is also home now to the distilleries making Tanqueray and Gordon's Gin, owned by Diageo.

Aberdeen

Home to shipbuilding dating back to clippers for the tea and silk trades. The UK base for North Sea oil and gas and now home to British Energy. Read more in this link. In nearby Rothienorman, Mackie make ice cream and chocolate.

Inverness

Nearby Speyside is the largest centre of Scotch whiskey production. In Dufftown is the Glenfiddich distillery and headquarters of William Grant and Sons.

Western Scotland manufacturing history

 To many this area is synonymous with the Clyde and shipbuilding. Interestingly it was also where Singer set up their first UK sewing machine factory. The image is of hydroelectric power at Fort William.

Glasgow

It is said that one half of the world's shipping was once built on the Clyde. Nearby Ardgowan had an industrial alcohol distillery run by the Distillers Company. There were and indeed are whisky distilleries in many places in Scotland. I write about how Distillers brought many of them together and diversified into industrial alcohol in Vehicles to Vaccines. You can read about Glasgow's remarkable history by following this link.

Renfrew

The American Babcock & Wilcox boiler makers established in 1895. They built tanks and other armaments in both world wars. They provided the boiler for the Battersea power station and the ICI complex at Billingham.

Inverclyde and Greenock

Texas Instruments took over the National Semi Conductor plants which manufactured in Greenock from 1970 until 2014. IBM also had a major presence in Greenock since 1953.

Prestwick

Home to Scottish Aviation, a company dating from the thirties when Prestwick airport was bought for pilot training. During the Second World War, the USAF used the airport and Scottish Aviation provided maintenance. After the war the company repurposed surplus aircraft before going on to build their own military aircraft. The factory is now part of Spirit Aerosystems and, at the time of writing, possibly Airbus.

Motherwell

Colvilles at their Motherwell works were set to become a major steel producer. In the sixties, Colvilles Ltd at Ravenscraig had the largest hot strip steel mill in western Europe. It closed in 1992. Honeywell Controls set up here after the end of the Second World War.

Lanark

David Dale founded the New Lanark mill in the late eighteenth century using imported cotton and technology borrowed from the Lancashire cotton masters. Dale was committed to provided better working conditions and this was taken further by his son in law Robert Owen.

Irvine

New Town designated in 1966. Hosted a Royal Ordnance explosives factory in the Second World War. Beecham built a factory to manufacture antibiotics.

Coatbridge

A steel town now known for Tablet, the sugar bar made by Lees of Scotland.

Kilmarnock

W.B Dick and John Kerr formed a partnership in 1875 which became Dick Kerr later merged into English Electric and then GEC. The company Dick, Kerr & Co manufactured locomotives and some ships. In time it expanded into electrical engineering and competed for generation projects. It set up a subsidiary in 1898 in Preston

Cumnock

Home to Emergency One Fire Appliances

Cumbernauld

One of the new towns designated after the Second World War in 1955. Home to Smurfit Kappa packaging and Alexander Manufacturing, one of the last remaining luxury garment manufacturers in Scotland. Burroughs later Unisys was one of the first manufacturers to set up. Honeywell were in nearby Newhouse. AG Barr manufacture Irn Bru

Paisley

90% of the world's cotton thread was made here including by Thomas Coats. The town also made imitation Cashmere shawls which bore its name. In nearby Linwood, the Rootes Group manufactured their Hillman Imp and in Inchinnan Dunlop produced tyres. Both of these investments came with the encouragement of government; neither succeeded. I offer some thoughts on government intervention in this blog.

Ardeer

The first dynamite factory was established here by Alfred Nobel, later part of ICI. I tell more of the story of Nobel and explosives in this link.

Fort William

The British Aluminium Company began production at Foyers and Kinlochleven in the late nineteenth century powered by hydroelectricity. Later Fort William hosted hydroelectricity and aluminium production.

Dumfries

Glaxo set up a primary manufacturing unit at nearby Annan. British Aluminium embarked upon a third major hydro-electric scheme in Lochaber, the first of three phases of which completed in 1924. In the late nineteenth century Britain had produced one third of the world’s total production, but other countries had caught up.

Girvan

Nestle manufacture milk chocolate crumb for incorporation into confectionary.

Northern Ireland manufacturing history

 The traditional manufacturing industry in the six counties was linen. However, the presence in Belfast of Harland & Wolff underlines the importance of shipbuilding

Shorts Stirling bomber

Belfast

Home to Irish textiles. Harland & Wolff has been a longterm employer in the city and was joined in 1948 by Shorts aircraft which moved from Rochester. Read more by following this link.

Moira

Harry Ferguson began manufacturing farm machinery and tractors. I tell in How Britain Shaped the Manufacturing World of the businesses he worked with before and during the Second World War eventually to become Massey Ferguson.

Larne

Home to the AEI turbine plant that became something of a White Elephant as I write in Vehicles to Vaccines.

Carrickfergus

Courtaulds had a viscose yarn works here. Carreras manufactured cigarettes.

Ballymena

Historically the home of handloom brown linen weavers. Designated New Town in 1967. Wrightbus, set up in 1946 and in the 2000's employ 1400 people manufacturing environmentally friendly buses. Michelin manufacture tyres and Gallagher cigarettes.

Antrim

Designated New Town in 1966. With a history of linen production. You can read more in this link.

Craigavon

Originally a linen town with major mills including Gilford Mill. Craigavon was designated a New Town in 1965 and welcomed Hyster-Yale to manufacture lift trucks. Sir Allen McClay, opened the doors of Almac his pharmaceutical development business on its Craigavon headquarters. Goodyear manufactured drive belts for DAF trucks.

Derry (Londonderry)

Home of shirt manufacture. Designated New Town in 1969. Read more by following the link.

Southern Ireland

This history covers a period very much longer than the division of Ireland into north and south.

Dublin

Linen and later cotton spinning, weaving, dying and bleaching were the business of Ireland, north and south. Before partition, Dublin handled most of the textile exports as well as having the more skilled calico printers. The main manufacturing industry was brewing, but also shipbuilding. Read more in this link

Waterford

Home to linen spinning and weaving and later to cotton. Malcolmson's integrated spinning and weaving factory at Portlaw provided Lancashire with strong competition for half of the nineteenth century.

Waterford Glass began manufacture in 1783 and still produces fine glass today. It is owned by the Finnish Fiskars Corporation.