Month: April 2019

Many of us will be familiar with the travelling mills and threshing contracts that went around farms undertaking the threshing of the grain throughout the year. Some were small businesses with one threshing machine while others were much larger with multiple threshing machines and motive power to take them around the country.

So what tackle did a business need to operate a steam threshing business?

Evidence from displenishing sale notices in newspapers, whether agricultural or provincial, record to a great degree items that were to be sold or rouped. There are a number of sale notices for threshing mill contractors throughout Scotland throughout both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These can provide a significant amount of detail.
One contractor, Mangoes Ltd, a company registered in Glasgow, but operated at Niddrie Mill, Portobello, Midlothian, gave up business in 1944, a date when steam contracting was being replaced by other forms of power. The company was a significant sized one with 9 threshing machines and 9 traction engines. It also acted as a motor engineering business. Its displenishing notice in The Scotsman read:

“Highly important sake if steam haulage threshing and baling plant. High class garage equipment, machine tools, land and buildings, including 9 traction engines, 7 and 6HP, boilers insured at from 180 to 120lbs pressure; 9 portable threshing, dressing and finishing machines, by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd, Clayton & Shuttleworth Ltd, and Wm Foster & Co. Ltd, each with No. 4 Hornsby straw trusser; 6 Ruston self-feeding baling presses; Howard self-feeding baling press; 8 living vans, 4 on pneumatics; 20 cwt Morris commercial platform lorry; 10 HP Austin saloon; 7 in centre SA SS and SC hollow-spindle gap bed lathe, by Swift, 7 1/2 ft bed; 20 in Barnes pillar vertical drill; Fortuna power hack saw; DH grinder; 125 HP AC three-phase 50 period 440 volt mootor, revs 960, with starter; van Norman Valve Refacer, volts 250 AC; Black & Decker Vibro-Centric Universal Electric Valve Grinder; Buma Insert and Reseating Tool; Hutto Cylinder Grinder, 2 Black & Decker universal portable electric drills; H and LT battery charging boards; EPCO jack car lift combination; 3 hydraulic jacks; eight 6, 5 and 4 ton bottle jacks; Millennium garage jack; BEN belt driven air compressor, model A2, with receiver; Kismet air tank outfit; Whitworth, gas, BSF, BA screwing tackle in sets (almost new); expanding reamers; hand parallel and taper reamers, Ferodo brake tester, precision crankshaft truing tool; brake living riveter; Britoil Whitworth, SAE and American thread socket spanners, Gedore panel beating set; size 60 Cleco pneumatic riveting hammer (almost new); BOC combined oxyacetylene welding and cuttings et; set of 6 boiler stay taps, 7/8 in, 15-16 in, and 1 in (almost new); Vulcan boiler test pump, with connections; 120 lots valuable garage and engineering tools; 60 lots garage accessories and materials; 60 lots mill, trusser, baler and engine spares, motor, mill and engine oils; living van utensils, army blankets, &c. Also ground and buildings (unless previously sold privately), including garage, store, and large repair shed together with 4 petrol pumps and underground tanks. Area of ground about 1 acre. For further particulars see advertisements in Scotsman tomorrow.
At Niddrie Mill, Portobello, Midlothian, on Thursday, 27th July 1944. At 11am prompt.
Shirlaw, Allan & Co., auctioneers, Hamilton, have received instructions from Messrs Mangoes Ltd, 266 Gorbals Street, Glasgow, C5, who are giving up their threshing and motor engineering business, to see by auction, as above. On view 3 days prior to sale. Catalogues from auctioneers.”

Shirlaw, Allan & Co., was one of the most important auctioneers of industrial plant and sold a number of sets of threshing mills and steam ploughing tackle. Mangoes was using English tackle from the largest Enghlish makers rather than utilising that from Scottish makers such as Garvie of Aberdeen. It was matching the threshing machine with the traction engine, and it is likely that both were ordered at the same time.

I wonder where the traction engines and threshing mills went to.

The photographs of threshing were taken at the Bon-Accord Steam Fair, June 2017.

In 1950 the Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers continued to include a number of major names as well as new players. They included:

Adrolic Engineering Co. Ltd, Clober Works, Clober Road, Milngavie 
Balgownie Engineering & Dairy Utensil Supplies, 631-633 George Street, Aberdeen 
Barclay, Ross & Hutchison Ltd, 67 Green, Aberdeen 
Robert Begg & Sons, Sharon Street, Dalry
William Begg & Sons, plough specialists, Tarbolton, Mauchline
J. Bisset & Sons Ltd, Greenbank Works, Blairgowrie 
B. M. B. Ltd, Hawkhead Road, Paisley 
James Bowen & Sons Ltd, 45-49 Pitt Street, Edinburgh 
J. D. Bryan, Culthill Works, Murthly, Perthshire 
Caledonian Agricultural Co. Ltd, 33-41 Brown Street, Glasgow, and 76-78 Pitt Street, Edinburgh

Cobb of Inverurie, Union Works, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire
Thomas Cochran & Co., 148 Sword Street, Glasgow
James Crichton, millwright and engineer, Turriff, Aberdeenshire
Cruickshank & Co. Ltd, agricultural department, Denny Iron Works, Denny, Stirlingshire
James A. Cuthbertson Ltd, agricultural engineers, Biggar, Lanarkshire
The Dairy Supply Co. Ltd, 12 Grassmarket, Edinburgh
Dairyority Ltd, Old Fafley Mills, Duntocher, Dumbartonshire
William Dickie & Sons Ltd, Victoria Implement Works, East Kilbride
Fleming & Co. (Machinery), 31 Robertson street, Glasgow
P. & R. Fleming & Co., 10 Graham Square, Glasgow and Kelvin Works, Keith Street, Glasgow
J. R. Forrester & Co., 5-9 Weir Street, Paisley
R. G. Garvie & Sons, 2 Canal Road, Aberdeen
Gillies & Henderson Ltd, 59 Bread Street, Edinburgh
Eddie T. Y. Gray, Fairbank Works, Fetterangus, Mintlaw Station, Aberdeenshire
George Henderson Ltd, 18 Forth Street, Edinburgh and Kelso Foundry, Kelso
George Henderson, Catrine Road, Mauchline
Hutcheon (Turriff) Ltd, agricultural merchants, Turriff

Alexander Jack & Sons Ltd, Maybole
Robert Kay & Son, Stirling Road, Milnathort, Kinross
Alexander Laurie & Sons, trailer and motor body builders, Camelon, Falkirk
L. O. Tractors Ltd, Coupar Angus, Perthshire
James McGowan, Dechmont Welding & Engineering Works, Dalton, Cambuslang
Kenneth Mckenzie & Sons, agricultural engineers, Evanton, Ross-shire
Mackenzie & Moncur Ltd, Balcarres Street, Edinburgh
Marshall & Philp, 179 Union Street, Aberdeen
The Mather Dairy Utensils Co. Ltd, 51 Newall Terrace, Dumfries
John S. Millar & Son, 91 High Street, Annan
A. Newlands & Sons Ltd, agricultural engineers, Linlithgow
Thomas Nimmo, Braehead, Fauldhouse, West Lothian
A. & W. Pollock, Implement Works, Mauchline

Ramsay & Sons (Forfar) Ltd, 61 West High Street, Forfar, Angus
Allan W. Reid (Ayr) Ltd, Main Road, Whitletts, Ayr
William Reid & Leys, agricultural implement makers, 8 Hadden Street, Aberdeen
Reekie Engineering Co. Ltd, Lochlands Works, Arbroath
A. M. Russell Ltd, Sinton Works, Gorgie Road, Edinburgh
Ryeside Agricultural and Engineering Works, Dalry, Ayrshire
Alexander Scott (Agricultural Engineers) Ltd, Caledonian Implement Works, St Ninians, Stirling
A. & J. Scoular Ltd, Main Street, Thornhill, by Stirling
Scottish Agricultural Industries Ltd, Rosehall, Haddington
Scottish Aviation Ltd, Prestwick Airport, Ayrshire
Scottish Farm Implements Ltd, Crosshouse, Kilmarnock
Scottish Mechanical Light Industries Ltd, Scotmec Works, 42-44 Waggon Road, Ayr
George Sellar & Son Ltd, agricultural engineeers, 30 Great Northern Road, Kittybrewster, Aberdeen
Alexander Shanks & Sons Ltd, Dens Iron Works, Arbroath
Thomas Sinclair, engineer, Main street, Reston, Berwickshire
Thomas Sherriff & Co. Ltd, West Barns, Dunbar
Smith & Wellstood Ltd, Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire

Tullos Ltd, Aberdeen
James H. Steele Ltd, “Everything for the farm”, Harrison Road, Edinburgh
Stenson & Co., 200-204 Strathmartine Road, Dundee
Alexander Strang (Tractors) Ltd, Pipe Street, Portobello, Edinburgh
J. & R. Wallace Ltd, The Foundry, Castle Douglas
John Wallace & Sons Ltd, 34 Paton Street, Glasgow
John Wallace & Sons (Ayr), Towhead works, Smith Street, Ayr
Charles Weir Ltd, Townhead Works, Strathaven.

The photographs were taken at a number rallies throughout Scotland.

What were the implements used to sow the grain crop in 1811? 

Patrick Graham, writing for the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement, provides a detailed account of the implements and practices to use them in Stirlingshire in 1811. It is worth a read:

“Harrows. In the harrows used in Stirlingshire, there is nothing very peculiar. They are sometimes of three beams or bulls, as they are here called, and sometimes of four. These are joined together with cross bars: in every beam there are five and sometimes six teeth, here are called tines. The teeth are of iron, and have a bevil forward at an angle of about 70 degrees, in order the more effectually to tear up the stiff ground and to root out the weeds. two harrows, drawn by two horses, are joined together in such a manner as that the course of the teeth may coincide as little as possible, and so as to pass over the ground in the most equable way.
A heavy harrow, called a break, is sometimes, and ought to be more generally used, for tearing out couch grass, and other obstinate weeds, in summer fallow, or for preparing the ground for barley. It is generally of two pieces and of a triangular form, the teeth very long and stout. The hinder part is furnished with two handles to raise or depress the teeth, as may be necessary. Great attention is required in the person who directs the handles to observe when the teeth os the break are filled with roots; and the horses must be stopped till they are removed. The same operation must be repeated at every turning of the harrow at the end of the rises. The roots are afterwards collected and burned; but, it may be observed, that a more advantageous practice would be to throw them into a heap in some corner of the ground; there the most noxious weeds will ferment, and, in the course of about two years, be converted into valuable manure. The process might be accelerated by the addition of a little lime in a caustic state. This process has actually fallen under the reporter’s notice in Dunbartonshire.

Rollers. The roller is an indispensable instrument in husbandry; and the heavier the roller, the more effectual it is. In no district is the use of the roller more necessary than in the Carses, or clay lands, of Stirlingshire; where, in dry springs, notwithstanding all the efforts of the plough and harrow, in pulverising the soil, the hard consolidated masses of clay, which deform the soil, can be reduced only by the roller. Before the introduction of the roller, it was common n the spring for all the men and women on the farm to be employed for several days in breaking the clods on clay soils, with wooden mallets, or mells, as they are called.
But perhaps the most important use of the roller, is the consolidation of the loose soil, which had either been naturally light, or which had been rendered friable and porous by the frosts, which, in this climate, often succeed the seed time. In such soils the seed, which has begun to send forth in fibres in quest of nourishment, finds nothing but open pores destitute of sap and warmth. By the operation of the roller, these pores are filled up; the roots of the vegetables are fixed in the soil; and the moisture necessary to vegetation is prevented from evaporating.

There is another application of the roller which merits attention. The seed time of 1808 was uncommonly early. Oats were sown in a considerable quantity in this district in February, and the whole oat seed was over early in march. Drought, accompanied by very severe frosts, succeeded for several weeks. In light dry field soils, especially in the western parts of Stirlingshire, the ground swelled and became open and porous. Whether from something peculiar to the season, or from the porousness of the soil, the oat-fields became infested with myriads of slid worms, which devoured the tender roots of the grain; rendered the whole acres unproductive; and threatened the ruin of the crop. It was remarked that this devastation was most fatal in grounds that were in the best condition, as in old lets which had been let out in grass. A field of about seven acres, occupied by the reporter in the immediate vicinity of the western district of Stirlingshire, was threatened with the total ion of the crop; so that, at one time, thoughts were entertained of ploughing it down, and sowing it a second time. By the use of the roller, this disagreeable operation was rendered unnecessary. The field was rolled twice; first, to obviate the effects of the frost in heaving up the soil; and then, after the young corn had got up, to destroy the slug worm. This second rolling was given after sunset, and before sunrise; as it was understood that it is during the night that these insects come forth from their lurking places and commit their depredations. In this operation, it is to be presumed that many of them were crushed to death; and what is perhaps of more importance, the earth was consolidated, and the pores, by which they had issued forth, were compressed and shut up. It is sufficient to say, that the operation was completely effectual, and that the ensuing crop was abundant.
Rollers of every kind are used in Stirlingshire. Some are of wood, but not the most approved; many are of stone; hollow rollers of cast iron are frequent. Rollers divided into two parts, and fluted rollers are not uncommon.

Drills. Drilling machines are generally used in sowing turnips and beans; and, by their means, the operation is no doubt performed with greater regularity and expedition, and the ground afterwards cleared of weeds with greater facility. Drill husbandry, however, has not been yet introduced into this county upon ne extensive scale. As far as the reporter haas found, it is only practised with regard to potatoes, turnips, and beans; and with respect to beans, he meets with a considerable difference of practice and opinion amongst the most intelligent agriculturists. In the Carses of Gargunnock, the drilling of beans is not found to answe, and is disused. Such, it appears, is the tenacity of the soil, that in horse-hoeing, large masses of compacted clay are torn up,and the crop materially injured. In the Carses to the east of Stirlingshire, and in the rich loans of Kilsyth, beans are generally drilled. The difference between the practice in the Carses of Gargunnock, and in the eastern parts of the county, arises probably from this, that the latter having been longer under the operations of agriculture, the soil has been rendered more friable than that of the former, which has been more lately brought under a proper mode of cultivation.”

The cultivating and sowing machinery were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Rally, June, 2015.

Steam power played an important role in mechanising Scottish agriculture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, the national agricultural society, recognised the importance of steam power for the farmer and agriculturist, and encouraged its use and development though a range of means, including premiums, competitions and special committee investigations.

It was at the Highland Show that farmers and agriculturists got to see the latest developments in steam power for the farm. The first steam powered exhibit at the show was at the Glasgow Highland Show of 1850. In the “extra implement” class Clayton, Shuttleworth and Co., Lincoln, exhibited a seven horse power portable steam engine for thrashing and other purposes. This would set the purchaser back £209, and if they wanted it felted and cased they would pay a further £8 extra. Richard garrett and Son, Saxmundham, also exhibited a portable steam engine for agricultural purposes for £205.

While the early Highland Shows in the 180s generally had a small number of steam exhibits, their numbers increased significantly as steam power became more widely adopted on Scottish farms.
At the 1875 Highland Show held in Glasgow, there were eighteen exhibitors of steam powered engines and machinery. They included some of the major English makers whose names came to dominate the making of traction engines and portable steam engines – William Foster & Co., Wellington Foundry, Lincoln, John Fowler & Co., Steam Plough Works, Leeds and Edinburgh, Richard Hornsby & Sons, Spittlegate Iron Works, Grantham, Marshall, Sons & Co. Ltd, Britannia Iron Works, Gainsborough, and Robey & Co., Lincoln.

But there were also Scottish makers and exhibitors, some of whom were well-known at that time for their steam manufactures. One of them was Alexander Chaplin & Co., Cranstonhill Engine Works, Glasgow, with a portable winding engine. D. Gordon & Co., Newton Works, Ayr, had an eight horse power vertical engine and boiler combined, built on a strong cast-iron foundation, as well as a light two-horse thrashing machine and horse gear. Another from Ayrshire, J. & T. Young, Vulcan Foundry, Ayr, exhibited a five horse power improved horizontal tank steam engine and independent vertical boiler with cross tuber in fire box as well as a patent stone dressing machine. William Young, engineer, Ardrosssan, had a three horse power (nominal) vertical engine and boiler combined suitable for driving, thrashing, churning and other machinery.

Steam power continued to be an important feature of the showyard (especially the “machinery in motion” section) of the Highland Show for a number of following engines. However, from the 1880s steam power had to compete with new forms of power, including gas power, diesel power paraffin power, and electric power, and their increasing use on Scottish farms.

Traction engines continued to be exhibited at the Highland Show until the early 1930s. The last traction engine that John Fowler & Co. (Leeds) Ltd, Leeds, world-famed for its steam ploughing and cultivating engines and tackle, exhibited at the Show was in 1933. This was a 10hp (nominal) traction engine, single cylinder, on rubber-tyres wheels and fitted with front tank and Pickering governors, with a rotary plough, its gyro tiller, of 170hp. By this time a number of the traction engine makers were making diesel powered engines.

A number of traction engines for agricultural use can be seen around the rally fields today.

The photographs from the Bon Accord Steam Fair, 2015, Fife Vintage Rally, 2015, and B. A. Country Fair, 2016, illustrate aspects of agricultural steam from the past.

Obituaries are a good source of evidence for revealing the lives and interests of a number of the key Scottish agricultural implement makers. They reveal information such as how their careers developed, their training, and their relations with the local communities. 

Detailed obituaries of one of the members of the Sellar family of Huntly were published in a number of local newspapers. Those of Mr R. H. N. Sellar, Huntly, a well-known member of that important family of plough makers are worth quoting at length. 

A lengthy one was published in the Aberdeen daily journal of 31 July 1918:

“We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr R. H. N. Sellar, Vice-Convener of Aberdeenshire, and senior member of the well-known form of Messrs G. Sellar and Son, agricultural implement makers, Huntly and Alloa. The sad event took place at his residence, Battlehill, Huntly, at a quarter to ten o’clock last night. Mr Sellar had not been in robust health for some time, his illness taking a serious turn about three months ago, but after an operation in a nursing home in Glasgow he was able to be removed to Bridge of Allan. After a short residence there he returned north about five weeks ago. He was 58 years of age. Mr Sellar had lived a very active business and public life, and the sincerest sympathy of a very wide circle of friends will go out to his widow and family in their great sorrow.
Mr Robert Hunter Nicol Sellar was the eldest son of the late Mr George Sellar, and was born in Huntly in 1859; the other members of his father’s family still alive being-Miss Sellar, Polwood, Huntly; Mr James Sellar, solicitor, Penang; and Mr John Sellar, who is in business in South Africa. He was educated at the Huntly Parish School, under the late Rev John Macdonald, best known and still remembered as Dominie MacDonald, and afterwards at Aberdeen University. Returning to Huntly to join his father in business, he received a thorough training in all its departments.On the death of his father in 1884 he became head of the firm, and by his personal energy and enterprise extended its ramifications and added to its high reputation in the agricultural world. Implements, designed, patented, and manufactured by the firm, have long enjoyed a high reputation. Indeed, not only in the north, but in the home and colonial markets, and in many countries abroad. “Sellar, Huntly” is a name that stands everywhere for merit. Mr Sellar was also himself personally well known, having travelled extensively to further the interests of his business. About five years ago a considerable part of the Huntly establishment was transferred to Alloa, where a large business was successfully established. The war has brought with it many improvements in agricultural machinery, and the Sellar centres have been prominent in war-time features of the industry.
Besides attending closely to the demands of his business, Mr Sellar found time to play an active and acceptable part in public life, which, in certain spheres, was by no means confined to the district of Huntly and the county, but was of a national character. In his native town he served on the School Board for nearly 30 years, and sat for five years at the Town Council, being elected a Councillor and Baillie in 1898, and retiring in 1903 owing to the pressure of business. His deepest interest undoubtedly lay in the domain of education. Soon after his father’s death, he was elected a member of Huntly School Board, an on the retirement of the late Mr John Wilson, factor, in 1909, he was appointed chairman, a position he occupied to the last. The extension and development of the local schools were greatly due to his personal efforts and initiative; and the handsome Gordon Schools, in their present splendidly equipped state, might almost be said to be a memorial to his educational service to the Huntly district.
In 1898 Mr Sellar entered the Aberdeen County Council as representative of the burgh of Huntly in succession to Colonel W. A. Mellis, but latterly he represented the electoral division of Cairn, Glass, and Huntlt. In 1902 he was appointed Chairman of the Huntly District Committee in succession to Mr John Wilson, and continued in that post until his death. The interest he showed in, and the grip he was able to take of the business which came before the Council gave him an assured position amongst the members, and in July, 1909, following upon the death of Provost Hutcheon, Turriff, he was elected Vice-Convener of the County. The duties of that office, as, indeed, those of every post he was placed in throughout his public career, were discharged with zeal and acceptance, while making himself conversant with all phases of local government, he showed himself invariably to be a man of prescience and broad outlook. Mr Sellar, who was also convener of the Lands Valuation and Finance Committee of the County Council, was elected Chairman of the County Committee on Secondary Education, and also Chairman of the Aberdeen Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers-selections which testify to the confidence of those with whom he was associated. Not without cause was it humorously suggested that the Secondary Eductaion Committee and Mr Sellar were practically synonymous terms, and his energy, tact, and business capacity in dealing with the difficult and complex questions which came before those bodies were readily acknolwledged. He held those offices throughout important periods of educational development, and in each revealed an enthusiasm and foresight worthy of the best educational traditions of the north-eastern area of Scotland. His six years’ tenure of office was marked by the erection of the magnificent new Training Centre at Aberdeen. He was a member of Sir Henry Craik’s Committee which reported upon the salaries of Scottish teachers several months ago. 
The North of Scotland College of Agriculture was another institution in which Mr Sellar rendered useful service. He was one of the original governors, and had been vice-chairman for some years, and was chairman of the Central Studies and Staff Committee, whose work whas much to do with the success of the College throughout the north. He manifested a deep interest in the promotion of the educational side of the various branches of forestry, and in 1911 he was appointed to a Forestry Committee of Inquiry for Scotland. This Committee recommended the purchase of Ballogie was a forest area for the north of Scotland. That the scheme was not gone on with is matter for regret, as the purchase price of the ground would have been more than met by the timber which it has yielded during the past four years.
Amongst Mr Sellar’s most recent appointments was that of chairman of the County of Aberdeen Local Food Control Committee. He was a Justice of the Peace for the County and a Hon Sheriff-Substitute.
A specially warm corner in his heart was reserved by Mr Sellar for Huntly and its institutions, and his untiring, educational services for it have already been alluded to. He was Chairman of the Jubilee Cottage Hospital Managers, and Chairman of the District Nursing Association. He took a keen interest in the welfare of Huntly United Free Church, and or over thirty years had been its treasurer. In politics he was a Moderate Liberal, and held the office of the Huntly Liberal Association.
Mr Sellar leaves a widow and a family of three sons and one daughter, one son-Lieu J. M. Sellae, of the KOSB- having been killed din the war. Mrs Sellar is a daughter of the late Mr Thomson, of Messrs Glegg and Thomson, Aberdeen. The eldest son, Mr Robert Thomson Sellar, after being in Canada for some years gaining business insight, returned home a few months ago, and has been associated with the management of the firm.” 

The Aberdeen press and journal also published a further one on 6 August 1918. This time, the Rev A. S. Laidlaw of Huntly UF Church referred to him: 

“The loss occasioned by the death of Mr Sellar, he said, was very great when they thought of the manifold and distinguished service of which his life was full. He was a pillar of that church, a conspicuous figure of the community, an eminent public servant in the county, and a man of growing importance, even in the national sense. Graces of person were accompanied by intellectual and practical qualities of a very high order; he had a wise and understanding mind; he could think on a large scale and arrive at clear conceptions, and this he knew his own mind and could trust his judgement. It was this characteristic that marked him out for leadership. If he were to compare him with any well-known personage in public life, it would be with Mr Joseph chamberlain. Neither went to councils wit confused, unseeing minds, to pick up some ideas in the course of the debate. The business was mastered, and, naturally, people of less thorough habit of mind could usually do little else but follow.
At the early age of 24 he was called to the his father’s place in the management of the family business, and speedily made his power felt. His grasp, initiative, and organising faculty enabled him to build with splendid success on the foundation already aid. The School Board ws the gateway by which he entered on public service. he developed a strong interest in education, especially in its administrative aspect,and by close study qualified himself to deal with its problems with an expert’s knowledge and authority. His accession to the County Council greatly enlarged his sphere of action nd influence. With the coming of the war the scope of his labours was further enlarged and became more than provincial, even national.
He has no more than fully matured his powers by experience of affairs and knowledge of men. If he had been spared, its seemed clear that he was only coming into his kingdom. If not greater, more conspicuous, service lay before him, and honours would have come. He had the consciousness of power, which was bound to be a spur to ambition; and it is certain that no matter with what body of men he might be called to work his weight would be felt, and high responsibilities would come to him.
All the while he was assiduously developing, and on a large scale, the business of his firm. The transferrence to Alloa was a heavy and courageous undertaking, hard upon which, unfortunately, came the unforeseen complications produced by the outbreak of war.
In his long association with the leader they had lost he recalled only one occasion when a very important decision was reached, which defeated a cherished scheme of his. A smaller man would probably have taken offence, and perhaps withdrawn himself and his support on which a great deal depended, but he accepted the ruling and played a leading part in carrying to completion the plan adopted.
The reference closed with an expression of sympathy for the bereaved family.”

The development of new implement and machinery works were sometimes recorded in the newspaper press, especially where they were of a significant size. One such new works was built at Linlithgow by A. Newlands and Sons before the outbreak if the First World War. 

The new works were announced by the Linlithgowshire gazette in January 1912. That newspaper noted that: 

“The new works which are being erected at Linlithgow by Messrs Alexander Newlands and Son, the well-known agricultural implement makers and engineers are now approaching completion. The works, which will occupy a considerable portion of ground, are situated in the vicinity of St Magdalene’s. Besides the implement and engineering departments there will be, we understand, a large garage in connection with the works. A new road has been formed by the proprietors leading from the works to the public highway, and it is anticipated that railway siding accommodation will also be provided. “

Work had started on the new works in August 1912. The Linlithgowshire gazette recorded that: 

“Messrs A. Newlands and Sons, engineers and agricultural implement makers, have now had a beginning made with the erection of their new works at St Magdalene’s. The site seems a desirable one, being in convenient proximity to the main line of the N.B. Railway, and also the public highway. The new premises will be more extensive than those formerly occupied by Messrs Newlands, and, as may be expected more up-to-date, to permit of business development in the respective departments. Already good progress has been made with the construction of the new buildings. As we have previously stated, the ground formerly occupied by Messrs Newlines is to be taken over by Nobel’s Explosive Co. Ltd, and will, in due course, be utilised as a pertinent of the Regent Factory. At present a retaining wall is being erected, and a large tank constructed within the ground for the storage of water for the works.” 

By October that year the Linlithgowshire gazette provided a further update on the building works. It noted: 

“The new works which are being erected at Linlithgow by Messrs Alexander Newlines and Son, the well-known agricultural implement makers and engineers, are now approaching completion. The works, which will occupy a considerable portion of ground, are situated in the vicinity of St Magdalane’s. Besides the implement and engineering departments there will be, we understand, a large garage in connection with the works. A new road has been formed by the proprietors leading from the works to the public highway, and it is anticipated that railway siding accommodation will also be provided. It may be expected more up-to-date, to permit of business development in the respective departments. Already good progress has been made with the construction of the new buildings. As we have previously stated, the ground formerly occupied by Messrs Newlands is to be taken over by Nobels’ Explosive Co. Ltd, and will, in due course, be utilised as a pertinent of the Regent Factory. At present a retaining wall is being erected, and a large tank constructed within the ground for the storage of water for the works.”