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.

Northwest England manufacturing history

 The climate of the north west leant itself to the spinning and weaving of cotton. Later chemicals, electrical engineering and glass fixed the region in the national manufacturing jigsaw. In the sixties Courtaulds bought up a great many cotton mills and so were a highly visible presence.

Mill in Bollington near Macclesfield, formerly Courtaulds.

Manchester

Was home to the cotton traders who provided the raw cotton to the multitude of spinners and weavers in Lancashire who would then sell their finished cloth to those same merchants. The merchants later transformed the industry with the introduction of mills housing machinery for the mass production of cotton cloth. As I explain in this link, Manchester has a genius for re-invention.

Merseyside and the Cheshire salt towns

Liverpool

Was a seagoing town connecting Britain with many parts of the world. Its manufacturing was largely built round the materials it imported. With the decline of the port, Liverpool became one of the firt areas in the country to receive active support in re-inventing its manufacturing. You can read more by following this link.

Blackpool

Home to TVR motor cars. Johnson & Johnson manufacture here. Like many towns Blackpool had an extensive tram system with vehicles built in the city's own Rigby Road Works but also by English Electric in Preston and Brush in Loughborough. Mullard produced components at Lytham St Annes and Fleetwood.

St Helens

Home to Pilkington Glass of which I write much more in Vehicles to Vaccines and in this blog. Like much of the surrounding area St Helens had salt mines and from these the early heavy chemical industry grew with the production of soda which became part of United Alkali. Production did though shrink back as new processes were embraced elsewhere (the Solvay process for producing soda at the ICI plant at Winnington - outside Northwich). Thomas Beecham moved from Wigan to set up as a chemist in the town. Beecham later became part of GSK. I write more in this blog

Newton le Willows

The famous Vulcan Foundry, which became part of English Electric with Ruston-Paxman Diesels, played a big part in building the railways and later in the modernisation of British Railways. Newton-le-Willows also became home to GEC Switchgear.

Runcorn

New Town designated in 1964 with a long history of chemical manufacture. Read more in this link.

Widnes

Close to the Cheshire saltfields, this was a natural place for alkali manufacture. Read more in this link.

Warrington

New Town designated in 1968. A chemical town based on the production of soda from salt. Crosfield, later part of Unilever, had a toiletries and detergent business. In the Second World War Fairey Aviation managed a shadow factory modifying American made aircraft. Historically Warrington had manufactured metal goods and engineering products. It also became an early producer of sheet aluminium. I tell more in this link.

The Cotton Towns

Preston

Preston, along with Chorley and Leyland was designated a new town as Central Lancashire in 1970. Chorley, a cotton town, had been home to a massive Royal Ordnance shell filling factory in the Second World war which was repurposed for textile production. Leyland was dominated by Leyland commercial vehicles. In Preston, Dick, Kerr & Co factories building electric locomotives and aircraft filled a massive gap left by the decline in the cotton industry. I write much more about Preston and neighbouring towns in this link.

Leyland

Leyland under the leadership of the Spurriers was a force to be reckoned with. The subsequent story of British Leyland is well known and I write about it in Vehicles and Vaccines. Leyland still assemble DAF trucks.

Blackburn

A cotton weaving town with now home furnishings. You can read more by following this link

Oldham

A cotton spinning town with machine makers, Platt Brothers. Much later Ferranti Limited moved their heavy electrical business from London in 1900 and later focused there on naval and civil computer systems and fuzes. When Hawker Siddeley was formed in 1935, Avro's operations moved to Chadderton and Woodford in the Oldham borough. Woodford became home to British Aerospace Commercial aircraft production until that ceased in 2001. Read more in this link.

Burnley

A cotton weaving town with manufacturers of power looms. Lucas aerospace and automotive had a big presence derived in part from the Gas Turbine Equipment Company. Mullard manufactured radio components in Simonstone.

Bolton

A cotton spinning town with machine makers, Dobson and Barlow. Home to Warburtons Bakeries.

Rochdale

In the twenties Dunlop bought cotton mills to complete the material sourcing for the production of tyres. Rayon from Courtaulds' Rochdale factory and in thread form was accepted as an alternative to natural cotton by spinners. It brought the company great prosperity and a strong position in the American market, through its subsidiary American Viscose, and in international markets, through its patent and licence agreements.

Todmorden

Weir Group had an iron foundry in the town

Accrington

Cotton and coal, bricks and textile machinery. Read more in this link.

Wigan

A coal and cotton town at the centre of canal and railway mania. Beecham originated here as a chemists shop in 1850, but then set up his first factory in St Helens. Heinz Baked Beans set up their UK production here. A major steel works was located adjacent to the Wigan flight of canal locks. In the Second World War the Royal Ordnance factory produced five and half million 25lb shells. You can read more by following this link.

Horwich

One of the six major railway workshops was established here in 1887 transferring activity from Manchester.

Skelmersdale

A new town designated in 1961. Thorn set up a plant for the manufacture of colour picture TV tubes. Union Carbide set up production, as did Dunlop.

Poynton

A coal mining town where Ferranti located its microwave division.

Macclesfield

Home to silk with reputedly two hundred mills at one time. Home also Hovis and now Astra-Zeneca. Follow this link to read more.

Congleton

Home to ribbon manufacturers, the Beresford family. Over the years there were mills in Congleton itself but also Macclesfield and Derby. Products included ribbons for lady’s wear, medal ribbons and fustian - a velvet made from cotton and laboriously cut by hand.

Wilmslow

Quarry Bank Mill at nearby Styl is open to visitors to gain a sense of what cotton production was like.

Knutsford

Ilford Ltd manufactured here

Stockport

Was where more than half of the hats made in Britain were produced in 1900. It was an industry dating back to the seventeenth century and earlier. You can read more in this link.

Southport

The Vulcan motor company manufactured chassis for the War Office in the First World War. Mullard manufactured radio components.

Northwich

Winnington Hall was home to much brilliant ICI research of which I write in Vehicles to Vaccines. The same building had been a girls boarding school at which John Ruskin had spoken about the education of women. Nearby, ICI (formerly Brunner Mond) manufactured soda ash (Carbonate of soda) using the Solvay process which had been patented in 1863. It is now the headquarters of Tata Chemicals Europe. Read more in this link

Chester

The Romans set up forts across the country and Chester was one such. Much later, the coming of the railways brought three railway workshops and a LNWR factory manufacturing railway wagons. Vickers managed a large shadow factory to meet the demand for Wellington bombers during the Second World War. The factory subsequently became part of Vickers-Armstrong. Also in the town were Hydraulic Engineering Company, the Westminster Coach and Motor Works, the aluminium manufacturer Williams & Williams and Brookhurst Switchgear Ltd. (with thanks to Stewart Shuttleworth and Stanley C. Jenkins and their book Chester at Work. Bristol Meyers Squibb have a presence in Chester and manufacture at nearby Moreton.

Barnoldswick

A cotton town which welcomed a shadow factory in the Second World War working on jet engines first for Rover and then Rolls-Royce. Silent Night, the largest bed and mattress manufacturer in the UK, which started business in 1946.

Carlisle, Cumbria

Home to Carr's Biscuits subsequently part of United Biscuits. Separately Carr's Flour Mills produced both flour for human consumption and animal feeds. Nestle make instant coffee at nearby Dalston.

Kendal, Cumbria

K Shoes was founded in 1842 and manufactured in the town until 2003.

Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria

Vickers began building ships having bought land from the Duke of Devonshire. The shipyard is now part of BAE Systems and builds mainly submarines. Ferranti had a semiconductor plant here. You can read more in this blog.

Whitehaven, Cumbria

Chzech refugees Frank Schon and Fred Marzillier created the Marchon works in Whitehaven in 1940. Albright & Wilson adopted their new process of sulphuric acid production from anhydrite using reserves at Whitehaven when they bought Marcon in 1955.

Sellafield, Cumbria

A Royal Ordnance factory manufacturing TNT was set up here in the Second World War. It is now the site of a nuclear power station.

Distington, Cumbria

A shadow factory managed by High Duty Alloys (later part of Hawker Siddeley) produced Hiduminum (an alloy developed by Rolls-Royce) for aircraft parts.

Ulverston, Cumbria

Glaxo built a new factory, modelled on their Brentford HQ, to manufacture antibiotics.

Ellesmere Port and Stanlow

The German Hoechst Elsmere Port plant produced nearly all indigo dye. The same factory produced the major anti-syphilis medicine. Although not manufacturing, these areas provided vital port facilities for oil and although its subsequent refining. British Dyestuffs had an indigo plant here.