Scottish agricultural implement makers

Readers in the west of Scotland will be familiar with the tractor dealer George & Jobling, 140-160 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, from the early 1950s onwards. By 1938 the company was a main Ford and Fordson dealer, holding that dealership until at least the early 1970s. It acted as tractor and implement agents, distributors and dealers, as well as motor car and commercial vehicle agents and dealers.

The company grew and expanded as tractors became more important on Scottish farms. By early 1961 it had set up a tractor depot at Milton Mains Road, Duntocher, where it later, as George & Jobling (Glasgow) Ltd, also continued its business. By 1964 it also had a depot at Uplawmoor Tractor Service Depot, and from 1966 had a branch at Smithy Lane, Lochgilphead, Argyll. Further change came in 1967 when the company was incorporated as George & Jobling (Scotland) Ltd.

When Robert G. Garvie joined Ben Reid & Co., Aberdeen, in 1876 he worked alongside William Anderson. Both became sole partners of that famous Aberdeen implement makers.

On 19 July 1893 the Scottish agricultural newspaper, North British Agriculturist, provided a short biography of William Anderson. It is worth quoting for the insights it provides on this key figure among the Scottish agricultural implement makers and the development and work of that company:

“Mr. Anderson of Messrs Ben Reid & Co., Bon-Accord Works, Aberdeen, is one of the best known and most highly-respected leaders in the ranks of the agricultural engineers. Mr Anderson has risen from the ranks, for his father was a country blacksmith, and he learned that trade with his father. His energies, however, could not find full scope in a country smithy, and before long he became the travelling representative of Messrs Murray & Co., agricultural implement makers, Banff, and by his characteristic energy and good management he soon wrought that business up to a very flourishing state. His marked success and sterling qualities soon attracted the attention of Mr George Reid, who had joined the business established by his uncle, Mr Ben Reid, and on the retirement of the latter gentleman had become the partner in the firm of Ben Reid & Co. This business was originally confined to the seed trade, but the implement department, grafted upon it shortly afterwards, expended so rapidly that the seed business was formed into a separate business under different properties, all the resources of the Bon Accord Works being taxed to the utmost to supply the demands upon them for agricultural implements. In 1876, Mr George Reid decided to select two partners, who, as he felt certain, would be able to make the Bon-Accord Works an enduring monument to the memory of their founder, Mr Ben Reid, and his selection fell upon Mr Anderson and Mr Garvie. These gentlemen closed with this invitation, and since the death of Mr George Reid, in 1879, they have been the sole partners in the firm. The Bon-Accord Works are among the most extensive of the kind in the united Kingdom, and they are splendidly equipped with machinery of the most modern and most approved construction, many of the machines used in these works being the products of the inventive genius of Messrs Anderson & Garvie. In addition to a very large home business, the firm conduct an immense foreign business, and in every country under the sun, where improved methods of cultivation are used, there are the products of the Bon-Accord Works are well known and highly appreciated. Their principal products are the Bon-Accord reapers and ploughs, threshing machines, seed drills, and broadcast sowing machines. They also do a large business in the manufacture of ornamental fences and gates. Mr Anderson regularly attends all the leading shows in the United Kingdom, so that he is better known to the show-goers than Mr Garvie, who is constantly at the head of the business conducted in the works. Mr Anderson is a gentleman of a very marked individuality and robust independence. He is no supple-tongued salesman, who can talk any unwilling purchaser into buying his goods. On the contrary, he stands secure in the high reputation which his firm have long been held for the excellence of their products; and while he displays his goods in the most attractive style, and has a pleasant word for every one, he makes a very strict point of avoiding any appearance of pressing sales: and any cheap jack who attempts to beat down his prices invariably gets short shrift at his hands. It is safe to say also that no one stands higher in the estimation of his fellow exhibitors than he does, and a good proof of that is found in the fact that for four years in succession he was unanimously elected President of the Scottish Agricultural Engineers, from which post he retired only two years ago, and only a few weeks ago he was unanimously elected President of the Royal Tradesmen in Aberdeen.

The photographs of the Ben. Reid & Co. roller were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Annual Rally and farming Heritage Show, 7 June 2015.

The early tractors in Scotland were not always sold through implement makers and dealers. They could also be sold through motor car and lorry agencies. Indeed, a number of the early car and lorry agencies came to later specialise in tractors. However, not all did.

An early Scottish vehicle dealer that came to sell tractors was The Scottish Motor Traction Company Ltd, incorporated on 14 June 1905. The liability of the company was £50,000, divided into 50,000 shares of £1 each. It was located at 150 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, with works at 29 East Fountainbridge; by 1919 it had Glasgow showrooms at 44 Sauchiehall Street and works at West Graham Street. In the 1920s it also had depots in Linlithgow, Dundee, Galashiels, Bathgate, Selkirk, Blairgowrie, Melrose, Peebles, Hawick, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, and Selkirk.

Robert G. Garvie set up his own business in Bon Accord Lane, Aberdeen, in 1895 to make and sell a range of agricultural implements and machines, including threshing mills. Before that time he was a highly esteemed implement maker. This is what the North British Agriculturist, 19 July 1893 said of his early years:

“Mr Robert G. Garvie. Mr Robert G. Garvie, of Messrs Ben. Reid & Co., is not much known to show goers [of the Highland Show], as his energies have long been focussed upon the personal management of the vast manufacturing conducted at the Bon-Accord Works. In his younger days he served an apprenticeship of five years to the joiner trade, and afterwards, when working as a journeyman in the same trade, he took a leading part in the introduction of labour-saving wood-working machinery. He was for some years a partner in the firm of James Garvie & Sons, which is still one of the largest businesses in the north. He retired from this business in 1875, in order to take up an appointment as manager of the Northern Agricultural Implement Company, Inverness. In 1876 he, along with Mr [William] Anderson, joined the firm of Messrs. Ben. Reid & Co., of which, for the last fourteen years, they have been sole partners.

Mr Garvie has a thorough practical knowledge of the agricultural implement business in all its details, and many of the notable labour-saving appliances in use at the Bon-Accord Works were designed, and in some cases the patterns were made by himself. Every implement of whatever kind produced at these works is made under his personal supervision, and when he once puts upon any machine the stamp of his approval, that machine may be safely accepted as being perfect of its kind. As showing the appreciation which the products of the Bon-Accord Works have met with of recent years, it may be mentioned that, during the last ten years, no fewer than three gold, fifteen silver, and five bronze medals, out of a total of ninety prizes, have been awarded to them in recognition of the superiority of their products. It may also be mentioned that during the last year they have erected no fewer than eighty threshing mills on farms throughout the length and breadth of the country; and in the week prior to the Chester Show of the “Royal” they completed the erection of a threshing mill fitted with all the latest improvements on Lord Londonderry’s farm at Wynard, County Durham.

Though very fully occupied in designing new, as well as improving existing, machines, together with the work entailed in the management of a large manufacturing business, Mr Garvie, as an enthusiastic burgess of Trade, finds time to take a leading part in the Wright and Cooper incorporation, one of the incorporated trades of which he has been a member for many years. Mr Garvie and Mr Anderson are remarkably well fitted to act as the mutual complement of each other in conducting a large and most successful business such as that at Bon-Accord Works, as the former is naturally of a retiring disposition through his energies being engrossed with inventive and manufacturing work; while the latter, in addition to his thorough practical knowledge of the business, possesses in a conspicuous degree the bonhommie which is so essential to success as a showyard exhibitor. Intellectually, Mr Garvie is a man of splendid parts, and socially he is a gentleman whom to know is to admire and esteem.”

The photographs of the Garvie and Clark & Sutherland threshing mills were taken at the B.A. Vintage Country Fair, May 2017.

The company of William and Thomas Avery of Birmingham is a household name in weighing machines and apparatus. The chance is that you will have seen one of their weighing machines on a farm – or even in the household kitchen.

While an English company, closely associated with Birmingham, it had a presence in Scotland and was one of the key makers and sellers of weighing machines. Its presence was already established in 1886 when a branch was established at 8 and 10 Stockwell Street, Glasgow, in 1886. A further one was set up at 38 Robertson Street, in the city, by 1889, where the premises was enlarged to embrace numbers 28, 38 and 40 by 1891. By 1895 the company had established a Scottish works, known as the Patrick Weighbridge Works.

Expansion continued, and by 1898 the company had a presence in the east of Scotland, at Edinburgh, where it had opened a shop at 23 Bread Street; by 1909 a further Edinburgh address was at Victoria Street. Further premises were opened: by 1904 there was one at 69 Back Sneddon Street, Paisley, and at 4 North Street, Aberdeen. By 1909 there was also one in Dundee at 42 Castle Street. A shop in Ayr was set up by 1911 in the Butter Market, at 90 High Street. In 1913 the company advertised that it had “branches in the principal towns throughout the Kingdom”. In the 1920s and 1930s they included Aberdeen, Alloa, Ayr, Coatbridge, Motherwell, Dunfermline, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Govan, Greenock, Inverness, Kirkcaldy, Paisley.

During its expansion, it brought over at least one existing Scottish weighing maker: A. Wood and Sons, by 1897. It continued to note that take over in its directory entries for the next couple of years. In 1885 Alexander Wood & Sons of Stockwell Street, Glasgow, had described the Glasgow Weighing Machine Manufactory as the oldest Glasgow house. As a key manufacturer of “every description of weighing apparatus”, it shared a range of activities with Avery; it was also a key competitor.

Avery manufactured and sold a wide range of weighing apparatus: in 1899 it described these as “all sizes of weighing apparatus for railways, collieries etc, shop and store outfitters for grocers, butchers, weigh bridges, etc” By 1899 it described itself as “manufacturers of every description of weighing apparatus for agricultural purposes, &c; special machines for weighing grain in bags, farmer’s cattle machines, patent automatic machines for auction marts &c”. By 1934 this was as “manufacturers of modern weighing apparatus, testing and counting machinery; weigh bridges up to 300 tons for every purpose; special self-indicating machines for modern industrial weighing; platform weighing machines, beams and scales in all sizes, visible weighing and price computing scales”.

The company had a wide range of trades and skills which it undertook. Before 1914 the included: agricultural implement manufacturer; agricultural implement maker and agent; barter; barrow and hod maker; beam and scale maker; butchers’ outfitter; colliery plant manufacturer; engineer; engineers’ furnisher; japanner; machinery maker and millwright; machinist; mill furnisher; millwright; patentee; railway plant merchant; scale and beam maker; scale and beam manufacturer; steelyard maker; shopfitter; testing machine maker; tinplate worker and merchant; weigh bridge manufacturer; weighing machine maker.

Keep an eye out for Avery weighing machines around the rally fields. While they have an English company behind them, they also have a strong tradition of manufacture and sale in Scotland.

There were a number of well known names of weighing machines and apparatus in Scotland and throughout Britain. One English maker that was well known in Scotland was Henry Pooley & Son of Albion Foundry, Liverpool.

The company was founded around 1790 to make scale beams, and continued in business into the second half of the twentieth century. It became the biggest manufacturer of weighing machines in its time. Their range and diversity was extensive. In 1877 the company described itself as “patentees and manufacturers of every description of weighing apparatus for railways, ironworks, collieries, etc. A few years later in 1870 this description was “patentees and manufacturers of every description of weighing apparatus for agricultural purposes &c”. By 1984 we clearly see the wide range of sectors which the company made weighing machines for: “every description of weighing apparatus for railways, iron works, engineers, collieries, mills, warehouses, farms &c”. In later years by 1913 it was a maker of “every description of weighing machines and scales”.

The range of trades carried out by the company was also significant. Between 1880 and 1914 the company variously undertook the following trades which included: agricultural implement maker and agent; agricultural implement manufacturer; beam and scale maker; colliery plant manufacturer; contractor; contractors’ plant maker; engineer; iron founder; machine maker and millwright; machinist; mechanical engineer; mill furnisher; millwright; railway plant contractor; railway plant merchant; scale beam maker; scale, beam and steelyard maker; scale and weight manufacturer; shoplifter; steelyard manufacturer; weigh bridge manufacturer; weighing machine maker.

The company was not only a key player in England, but also in Scotland and internationally, also acting as contractors to H.M. Government, British and foreign railways by 1905. In Scotland it had an extensive network of branches which allowed it to have a wide, and local presence, throughout the country. By 1875 the first of these was in Glasgow, at 113 West Nile Street, an address it remained at until 1879, when it moved to 41 Hope Street. By 1884 it had established a head office and works in Scotland, the Albion Works, at 69 and 71 McAlpine Street, Glasgow. The company also had other addresses in Glasgow: they included Paisley Road (1895), 25 South Kinning place (1903), and 21 Stockwell Street (1909).

Other towns quickly had a branch establishment of Pooley’s. By 1877 there were ones at Dunfermline, Fife and Aberdeen. In 1880 there were mechanics stationed in Edinburgh, Dunfermline and Dundee. There was a branch at Inverness in 1901 and at Perth in 1904.

The company maintained a strong presence in the agricultural community. It was a regular attender at the Highland Show from 1876 onwards. It was also a regular advertiser in the Scottish agricultural press from 1876. It also actively participated in the trials of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. For example, in 1887 it was awarded £10 for its cart and cattle weighing machines, and in 1893 also won £10 in the Society’s weigh bridge competition. It also won awards for its exhibits at the Highland Show. In 1876 it won a silver medal for its patent three ton self-contained agricultural cart weighing machine, as well as a silver medal for its general collection.

There are still examples of the various weighing machines from the Albion Foundry to be seen around Scotland. One is located on the station platform on the Bo’ness and Kennel Railway. Go and have a look!

Stack pillars were an important feature of the stackyard in Scotland, and also formed an important part of Scottish implement making from at least the 1850s, with some large makers being well-renowned for them.

Stack pillars were made from a number of materials, depending on what was available locally. They could be carved from stone, or made at tileworks (which also manufactured troughs for byres and other products). In these cases, they would be linked together by a framework made of wood, or other materials.

Most frequently, the pillars and their associated framework were made of iron, by local foundries. Some of these foundries were important makers, also manufacturing a range of different designs of pillars and associated framework to meet the needs of farmers, and also regional differences in stack-making.

North-east Scotland, and especially Aberdeenshire, is famous for its plough makers. Well, there’s George Sellar, Huntly, Thomas Pirie, Kinmundy and Robert Mitchell, Peterhead. And there is also Alexander Newlands of Inverurie. You will probably know the latter as Newlands of Linlithgow.

Alexander Newlands was born in 1834. He spent his early years working for George Sellar & Son, Huntly, “with whom he has had great experience” in general country work – “plough and other Agricultural Implement Making, and Horse-Shoeing”. In June 1860 he took over the stock in trade of William Crichton, blacksmith, Port Elphinstone. But he did not stay in Port Elphinstone for long. By 1864 he had moved to Inverurie where he had set up shop at 43 High Street.

1868 was an important year for Alexander Newlands: it was the first one that he exhibited at the Highland Show which was being held in Aberdeen. He exhibited a two horse plough with steel mould and a ridging or drill plough, both of which he made himself.
Alexander was an ambitious and successful plough maker. He recognised that while there was a trade for his implements in the north-east, he could expand his business elsewhere. On 11 September 1880 he sold, by public sale, the property at 43 High Street. He took the ambitious step of moving to Linlithgow, the county town of West Lothian, to expand his business. In 1884 his son, also named Alexander, joined him in business, which became Alexander Newlands & Son, Provost Road, Linlithgow. The name of St Magdalene Engineering Works, is not recorded until around 1913.

From the 1880s onwards Alexander Newlands & Son specialised in the making of ploughs, grubbers and harrows. Later it ventured into horse rakes. In 1900 its manufactures included a two horse swing plough; medium drill plough with marker; baulking drill plough; combined drill and potato plough; one horse drill grubber; horse or drill hoe as a drill grubber; house or drill hoe as a ridging up plough; field grubber; diamond harrows; and drill scarifier.

The company was a progressive one. From 1884 when the young Alexander joined his father, it exhibited nearly every year at the Highland Show and advertised in the agricultural newspaper of the day, the North British Agriculturist. In later years advertising was also under taken in The Scottish Farmer.

Even after Alexander senior died in 1907 the company continued to be an innovative one. By 1914, it acted as an agent for McCormick and Bamford, and in 1919 was selling the Austin farm tractor. In the following year it became an incorporated company: Alexander Newlands & Sons Ltd. Two years later in 1922, it took the important step to participate in the famous exhibition of farm tractors and tractor implements arranged by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. In that year it also won a silver medal for its self-lift brake harrow at the Highland Show at Dumfries. In 1934 it exhibited as a new implement a cultivator and ridging attachment for tractors.

It was its ploughs that Newlands continued to be closely associated. In the 1950s and 1960s they couldn’t be beaten in the ploughing matches in the Lothians. Newlands carried away the prizes. Even the followers of Ransomes turned to Newlands.

Alexander Newlands & Sons Limited continued in business until 9 September 1986 when the company was dissolved.
Next time someone asks you to list the famous plough makers of Aberdeenshire, remember to include Alexander Newlands. He had a reputation that went far beyond the boundaries of the county of his birth.

The photograph of the Newlands name plate on a three furrow Newlands plough were taken at Farming Yesteryear, September 2014.

Agricultural implements and machines provide the greatest steps in mechanisation of tasks. But the role of sundries is often overlooked. They too could play an important role in making a task easier or more difficult to undertake. Just think about the baskets used for gathering tatties at the tattle harvest.

Do you remember the wooden spale baskets or “skulls” as they were often called? They were a great shape to “scoop” the potatoes from the ground. But the trouble with them was that soil easily adhered to their bottoms. So along with a stone of tatties you also had an additional stone of earth stuck to the bottom of the basket. And pulling it or dragging it along your stent of ground became ever-more tiresome as the day wore on. It became heavy work.

Then came the wire basket. What a difference they made to the job! They were a revolution! A lightweight basket that you could also easily scoop your tattoos into and lift! And they didn’t have the soil sticking to the bottom of the basket. But if you got one with a loose wire and caught your fingers on it, you soon knew about it. These baskets could be easily mended: a job for the winter months.

Then the plastic basket reigned supreme. They came in all shapes and sizes. There were ones that were the same oval shape as the wire baskets. There were ones that were the same shape as your mother’s washing basket. Then there were the ones in-between. Some were larger than others. There were the ones that the kids could sit as they waited on the digger coming up the drill in and pretend that they were in their own spacecraft or other imaginative vehicle. Some were better than others: the best were the shallow oval ones that were the same shape as the wire baskets. They were the right size: not too large, not too heavy, and held about the right amount of tatties in them. The soil didn’t stick to their bottoms too easily. If it did, you got a wee stone and scraped it off. One of their advantages was that if one of the tractors ran over them they bounced back in shape: the wire baskets were simply flattened. They didn’t need to be mended. You just phoned up the stores for more baskets.

Elevators diggers were introduced into Britain from the United States in the 1930s. They had a number of advantages over the spinner differs: they did not scatter the potatoes as far and were thought to be more gentle than the spinner with its tines which threw the potatoes out of the drill.

However, even by the 1950s the spinner digger continue to dominate the market for implements and machines to harvest the potato crop. There was a limited number of successful Scottish makers of elevator diggers. In 1952 the most important was John Wallace & Sons Ltd, Glasgow, with its tractor mounted digger. In addition, Jack Olding & Co. Ltd, Herts, which was to open Scottish offices, had its “Angus” elector digger for tractors. Another English maker that was also to open Scottish branches, and sell elevator diggers was Johnsons (Engineering) Ltd, March, Cambridgeshire.