Scotland

Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange. The ropes may still be on the sheaves but there will be no more coal wound here.

Adventures in Scotland included a look inside this Belgian Kiln at the Dunaskin Brickworks, Waterside, Ayrshire. This continuous kiln is a variation on the Hoffmann Kiln and was intended to produce less discoloured and overburned bricks by separating the burning coals from the bricks by using fuel grates across the floor. The dampers and flues are controlled from below unlike the Hoffmann. This particular kiln comprises 24 chambers and was built in 1935 by William Cleghorn of Newmains. Production ended here in 1976.

Inside this Belgian Kiln at the Dunaskin Brickworks, Waterside, Ayrshire. A continuous kiln and a variation on the Hoffmann Kiln, it was intended to produce less discoloured and overburned bricks by separating the burning coals from the bricks by using fuel grates across the floor. The dampers and flues are controlled from below unlike the Hoffmann. This particular kiln comprises 24 chambers and was built in 1935 by William Cleghorn of Newmains. Production ended here in 1976.

Giscol (registered as a company in 1888) was the trading name of the Glasgow Iron & Steel Company Limited an iron and steel producer with foundries and iron works situated in West Central Scotland. Today the name is used by Caradale Traditional Brick Ltd after a management buyout of the company in 1997. Today the company has two brickworks - the Etna works at Armadale, West Lothian and the Mayfield works at Carluke, Lanarkshire. Caradale is unique in the traditional brick making sector in that it uses shale clays. They're more difficult to work but they make a harder, more durable brick suitable for the extremes of British weather.

The Broomhill Firebrick Co was located at High Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire and operated from 1915 - 1980. This firebrick was seen at a small limekiln at Denwick Lane Ends, Rennington, Northumberland.

Wooden garages at Philpstoun, West Lothian. Provision of garages in groups such as this was a popular phenomenon in the 1950s. I was surprised to find the practice alive and well in 2002.

The brickworks at Roslin Colliery was established by the Shotts Iron Company in 1937. It continued in NCB ownership until 1969 and then under the Scottish Brick Corporation until 1977.

The brick, tile and fireclay works at Prestongrange Colliery in East Lothian opened in the 1890s and was operated by the Summerlee Iron Company, NCB to 1969, and the Scottish Brick Corporation until 1975.

Dunaskin Brickworks, near Dalmelington, Ayrshire. Closed 1976 by the Scottish Brick Corporation.

Early NCB brick from Dunaskin Brickworks near Dalmellington. This one uses a modified stamp from Dalmellington Iron Company days.

A remnant of the landsale wharf at the Waterside washery site near Dalmellington.

Clearly reading is not top priority for the boating classes in Garlieston, SW Scotland.

Now decommissioning, the Chapelcross nuclear power station near Annan, was very similar to Calder Hall. It did not generate large quantities of electricity, but it was the main source of weapons grade plutonium for Britain's nuclear weapons. The four cooling towers that stood behind the reactor halls were demolished a few years ago.

Auchlochan collieries at Coalburn were part of the Wm Dixon Ltd empire. It appears that the brickworks had either closed or been sold by 1947 as it was not passed to the NCB.

Wm. Baird & Company, later Bairds and Dalmellington Ltd, operated the Annbank Brickworks adjacent to their Ayr 1& 2 (Enterkine 9 & 10) Collieries which supplied fireclay to the works. The NCB operated the works until 1969 and the Scottish Brick Corporation until 1977.

The Balgonie Colliery Company operated the brickworks alongside the colliery in Thornton, Fife. It appears that the brickworks had either closed or been sold by 1947 as it was not passed to the NCB.

Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Coal Company brickworks in Dumfriesshire, closed by the NCB in 1958.

The wreck of the Monreith. On the 12th November 1900, the two masted sailing schooner Monreith, from the Galloway port of Wigton, was carrying a load of 110 tons of granite kerb stones from Newcastle in County Down, Northern Ireland to Silloth in England. A storm blew up and she attempted to take shelter in the mouth of Kirkudbright Bay (behind Little Ross Island, the island with the lighthouse on the horizon.) The bay was not yet deep enough and she grounded and was driven onto the sand banks of Goat Well Bay where her timbers were pounded by the surf until she sank. Her crew were able to launch a boat in her lee and made their way safely ashore just as the Kirkcudbright lifeboat arrived.