If you were a farmer or other agriculturist looking to buy a hay sweep in 1952 you could choose one from a number of makers. Although most of the makers were from England – such as Harry Ferguson Ltd of Coventry or Rickery Ltd, Carlisle, there were still a small number of Scottish makers.
In Aberdeenshire Tullos Ltd, Greenwell Road, Aberdeen, had sweeps for a wide range of tractors including Ferguson, Ford Ferguson, Fordson Major, David Brown, International and nuffield. Its sweeps had a width of 9ft 10 inches with tines of 8feet 11 inches.
In Perthshire you could get a tractor front attached sweep of 10 feet width from J. Bisset & Sons Ltd, Greenbank Works, Blairgowrie. Another maker intuit county was A. Proctor & Co., of Perthshire. The company made a sweep for tractor front mounting. There were two types: one with a universal fitting or hydraulic linkage with a capacity of 10cwt; a second was a combined sweet and a tripod hut transporter which could be converted by fitting with different tines. (This was an area where hay was forked onto tripods to dry). A third Perthshire maker was Alexander Thomas, Guildtown, which also made sweeps for tractors.
From the west of Scotland a key maker was Wm. Dickie & Sons Ltd, of Victoria Works, East Kilbride. The company made a folding hydraiulic sweep, mounted or fixed type, which would fir most makes of tractors. In Ayrshire, Thomas McKellar & Sons of High Fenwick, made one for attachment to tractors.
In the south-east farmers could by a tractor mounted sweep from John Rutherford & Sons Ltd, Home Place, Coldstream, Berwickshire.
A good selection of hay sweeps from a number of key makers in Scotland.
The photographs were taken at the Ayrshire vintage agricultural rally, July 2017.
The Royal Show was the most significant agricultural show in England. While it was largely attended by English exhibitors – there was a huge number of English implement and machine makers – a number of Scottish exhibitors made the sometimes long journey to the English show. What did the Show look like 100 years ago and which Scottish implement makers exhibited at it?
The Scotsman newspaper provides an account of the Show:
“The extensive section of the show devoted to agricultural implements and machinery, seeds, feeding stuffs, and manures is always inspected with much care by agriculturists, who are able to watch and profit by the progress of invention in the production of labour-saving and effective appliances. There are 371 stands with 4000 exhibitors, representing practically every department of commerce, catering for those engaged in the cultivation of land and the breeding of livestock. The requirements of the great landowners, the gentleman farmer, the practical agriculturist, and the small holder, are all kept in view, and the miles of shedding included in this section are fitted with machinery, implements, seeds, and their produce, and the numerous requirements of a modern farm and estate.
Scottish exhibitorsAlthough the Show is so inaccessible for Scottish implement makers, there are no fewer than sixteen exhibitors from north of the Tweed, an increase of six compared with eighteen years ago. Some of these are well known and enterprising firms that are never absent from the Royal Society’s annual gathering, and a few make their appearance in the Society’s showyard for the first time. Of the eighty-one entries of new implements, three are from Scotland. They comprise the latest improvements in things mechanical as applied to the farm. The Glasgow tractor, which is manufactured by the D.L. Motor Manufacturing Company, Motherwell, is shown on the stand of John Wallace & Son, Glasgow. A working model has already been tested on three farms in Scotland-at South Hillington, near Glasgow, Dolphingstone, Tranent, East Lothian, and Wellfield, Gateside, Fife. Mr G. Bertram Shields, who was convener of the Implements Committee at the tractor trials of the Highland and Agricultural Society, testifies that the Glasgow tractors will revolutionise the whole tractor building of the present day, and adds that “as a practical proposition it will have advanced, or rather shortened, the time when we will have the tractor an everyday tool on most farms. The tractor can plough 1 ¾ acres of medium quality land per hour, working this at a depth of 8 ½ inches to 9 inches in stubble land, and 6 to 7 inches in lea land, with a composition of 1 ¾ gallons per acre. The cost under favourable climactic conditions works out at 7s 8d per acre, and under unfavourable conditions at 9s per acre. The tractor seems to have solved the difficulty of ploughing steep land, for it has gone up a gradient of 1 in 5, pulling a three furrow plough in medium soil working at a depth of 7 inches.
Messrs Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole, exhibit an artificial manure distributor which has been manufactured by Mr Archibald Hunter, blacksmith, Cross Hill Road, Maybole. It is adapted to be attached to any ordinary construction of a drill or ridging plough. By its use the drawing of the drills or ridges and depositing of the manure in the drills can be done at one operation, which means a considerable saving in time and labour, and ensures a more even distribution of the manure than is attainable by hand sowing, and with very little addition to the draught. The hopper is capable of holding about half a cwt of manure, and can distribute from five to twelve cwts per acre. The manure distributor was tried by several Ayrshire farmers last spring for their potato and turnip crops, with satisfactory results. Mr David Wilson, East Linton, Prestonkirk, shows a potato raiser of his own manufacture. Since this machine was in the Royal and Highland Society’s competitions it has been enlarged, so that the straws or haulms get passed through. It however. Retains its salient feature, that it cannot damage, bury, or spread the tubers, thus saving labour in gathering. He also exhibits two different types of potato sorting machines, a haulm or straw cutter for one horse, which takes two drills at once, a washing machine for potatoes, and carrots, and an ingenious machine which mixes and riddles artificial manure at the same operation. The Albion Motor Car Company shows a hydraulic tipping wagon of 32hp which can carry a load of 3 ½ tons, and a motor lorry, 32 hp which can carry a 3 ton load.
Messrs Barclay, Ross & Hutchison, Aberdeen, have on view threshing machines to suit the needs of all sizes of farms. They have in all six types for fitting into barns. Messrs Robert G. Garvie & Sons, Aberdeen, exhibit specimens of their oil engines and threshing and finishing machines; and Messrs Marshall & Philip. Aberdeen, show spraying machines for lime-washing and fruit trees. Messrs George Sellar & Son, Huntly, exhibit a varied collection of ploughs, including their well-known double furrow self-lift tractor plough, manure distributors, and harrows.
From the south of Scotland there are two exhibitors. Messrs J. & R. Wallace, castle Douglas, show their milking machines which gained the Royal Society’s silver medal, with new patent pulsators requiring no lubrication; and a manure distributor with revolving axle. Messrs John S. Millar & Son, Annan, have forward several specimens of their windmill pumps and cream separators, combining petrol, motor and separator in one unit. Messrs William Elder & Sons, Berwick on Tweed, are again well to the front with an extensive stand comprising many articles of utility in farm husbandry, including broadcast sowing machines and drill rollers and scarifiers.
Messrs John Wallace & Sons, Glasgow, have a varied assortment of ploughs, manufactured at the Oliver Chilled Plow Works in Indiana, potato planters, potato diggers, manure distributors, and harrows; and Messrs Watson, Laidlaw & Co., Glasgow, show a number of cream separators for steam and hand power. Messrs Alex Jack & Sons, Maybole, are well represented by potato raisers and manure distributors; and Messrs Thomas Hunter & Sons, Maybole, have an excellent selection of the cultivating implements for which the firm have earned a name. In addition, they show their Scottish farm and harvest carts. The Edinburgh Roperie and Sailcloth Co., Leith, exhibit plough lines and waterproof covers.
An attractive stand is provided by Messrs P. & J. Haggart, Aberfeldy, who demonstrate to farmers and wool growers what can be produced from homegrown wool. The stand is draped with the Duke of Rothesay’s tartan, in honour of the Prince of Wales’s visit.”
You will still recognise some of the names. They included some of the foremost Scottish agricultural implement makers.
The photos are from the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery rally, June 2017 and other rallies.
The horse fork was an indispensable part of the stackyard at hay-making time.
It was a means to lift hay in hay from a ruck or rick onto a stack that was being built. It was, according to Stephens’ Book of the Farm in 1908, “a simple and convenient arrangement for hoisting the hay”. It was a pole “about 35 feet high, which is held in upright position by three or four guy-ropes rom the top of the pole to iron pins driven into the ground. A short “jib” or “gaff”, 10 feet long or so, is arranged to slide up and down the pole, being worked by pulleys from the ground. The fork is attached to an inch hemp rope or 1/2 inch steel strand rope, which passes over a pulley at the point of the jib or gaff, thence down the upper surface of the gaff to its lower end, where it passes over another pulley, from which it runs down the side of the pole to about 3 feet from the ground, where it passes through the pole and under a pulley fixed in it, where it is attached to the tree or chains by which a horse draws up the forkful.
The pole is set with a slight lean to the stack which is being built, so that as soon as the ascending load has been raised above the portion already built, the gaff or jib with its load always swings round over the top of the stack, where it can be dropped on almost any part of even a large stack.”
The horse fork had a number of advantages. Stacks built with one were more easily kept perpendicular than those built from hand-forking. They allowed hay to be more evenly distributed onto the top of the stack as it was being built. They allowed a larger number of forkers to work at one time, and for them to more efficiently build a stack. And, of course, it was a great labour-saving device!
There were a number of makers of horse forks in Scotland. In 1904 Alex Sloan, Greenhill, Crosshouse, developed one that was manufactured by Wm. Wilson & Son, Plaan Saw Mill, Crosshouse. According to the Scottish Farmer, in that year “it has now been tried by some of the leading agriculturists, who bear testimony to its superiority.”
In 1910 other makers included P. & R. Fleming & Co., 16 Graham Square and 29 Argyle Street, Glasgow, had a “Flemiing” grapple horse fork and a “Fleming” spear horse fork. Both cost £2 10s. Thomas Turnbull, Pleasance Implement Works, Dumfries, sold a patent clip horse fork made by McGeorge, Dumfries. In the north of England, William Elder & Sons Ltd, also made one.
The photographs from the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club rally, June 2014, show a horse fork in use.
We are familiar with English agricultural makers at the Scottish agricultural shows including the Highland Show. English makers were exibiting at that show in increasing numbers from the 1850s. However, while there was a significant movement of English makers northwards, there was not the same movement southwards. Relatively few of the Scottish makers exhibited at the English agricultural shows, including the Royal Show. They tended, however, to be the major companies with a national and international reputation.
An account of the Royal Agricultural Show in 1908, published in the Scotsman in June that year provides insights into the major Scottish makers who took their manufactures south to exhibit at that show, together with the specific implements and machines they took.
“The Scottish implement trade is well represented, there being twenty-five firms from the other side of the Border exhibiting typical collections of the agricultural appliances which are manufactured in the northern part of the kingdom, and in the production of which the makers show a commendable amount of skill and enterprise. Most of them are regularly seen at the Royal Society’s Shows, no matter how remote the district may be in which the tents are pitched, and they never fail to bring with them an interesting display. That they can do so with success is shown by the fact that out of eleven competitors, exhibiting nineteen implements in the trial of artificial manure distributors, the two medals have been gained by makers from Scotland. Messrs Allan Brothers, Aberdeen, have a neat stand of a thoroughly practical character, embracing manure distributors, seed-sowing and threshing machines, and a simplex pump, all manufactured by the Bon Accord Engineering Company, together with horizontal oil engines, constructed to work with any brand of oil, and with claims to be specially applicable to farm work. On a small but compact stand Messrs J. D. Allan & Sons, Murthly, show a farmyard dung spreader for drills, one advantage which it possesses being that it can be attached to any ordinary from cart. They also sow, among other useful articles, the potato dresser, which Mr David Wilson, East Lothian, patented a few years ago, and which has been found to do its work vey satisfactorily. Three Ayrshire firms, which are always in evidence at the national agricultural shows of England and Scotland, as well as the principal district shows, are again well to the front in the implement department. Messrs Alex Jack & Sons, Maybole, make a feature of their broadcast manure distributors, for one of which they were awarded the bronze medal in the competitive trial, and in addition to these they have a varied assortment of reapers and mowers, horse rakes, the “Caledonian” potato diggers, which won the first prize at the Royal Society’s Leicester Show twelve years ago, when these machines were brought to a degree of perfection which had not up till then been attained, and several ploughs, with the latest improvements for dealing specially with soils of different texture on both lea and stubble are also shown. Messrs Thomas Hunter & Sons, Maybole, have a select display of useful implements in every-day use on the farm, inclusing their well-known root-cleaning and turnip-raining inventions. The exhibits of Mr Andrew Pollock, Mauchline, are mainly connected with the hay harvest, for securing which he has several implements for facilitating work at that critical period of the season. The Carron Company, Carron, Stirlingshire, display fittings for stable, cowsheds, and piggery, in which cast-iron stall divisions, feeding troughs, and other up-to-date contrivances figure prominently. They also show a portable boiler, with loose inside pan and close base. there is a large display of purely agricultural implements at the stand of Messrs William Elder & Sons (Limited), Berwick on Tweed. The latest in sheaf-binds, mowers and reapers, horse rakes, straw trussers, sowing machines, drill rollers, grubbers, &c are on view. Messrs P. & R. Fleming & Company, Argyle Street, and Graham Square, Glasgow, make a feature of a milking machine by Lawrence & Kennedy, Glasgow, and a nw type of oil engine. Waugh’s patent sheep-dipping apparatus, potato and charlock sprayers, and horse forks are also on the stand. The exhibit of Messrs John McBain & Son, Chirnside, Berwickshire, is a varied one, including a corn bin, turnip cutter, horse rake, oil engine, swath turner, sheep rack, scuffler, and a “Monarch” windmill. Messrs Mackenzie & Moncur Limited, Balcarres Street, Edinburgh, have on view a conservatory, a complete with staging and fitting, and garden games. A set of stable and cowhouse fittings, and a collection of sanitary and other castings complete the exhibit. Messrs J. & R. Wallace, Castle Douglas Foundry, Castle Douglas, exhibit a serviceable manure distributor, with adjustable hopper, which secured the gold medal in the trial competition. There are also to be seen at their stand two other types of distributor,a sheep dipper, and a milking machine which was awarded a silver medal by the RASE at park Royal in 1905. Windmills and pumps are what Messrs John S, Millar & Son, Annan, have to show the visitor. The former include the “Ideal”, which pumps water up to 300 feet, vertical lift, or drains low-lying lands and quarries; and the “Samson”, for water supply to farms and dwellings, or for draining low ground. Messrs Robertsons & Company, Tweed iron Works, Berwick on Tweed, have on view mowers, reapers, hay rakes, corn bins, ploughs, turnip cutters and slicers, each with special advantages of their own.
A collection of two wheel ploughs is shown by Messrs george Sellar & Son, Huntly, who also have on their stand double furrow ploughs, and 11 tine harrows. Messrs Thomas Sherriff & Company, West Barns, Dunbar, have forward a drill and broadcasst seeder for small holdings, drills for corn and seed, for turnip and mangold, and a broadcast sower for all kinds of grain and grass and clover seeds. A choice display of churns of the “Waverley” and duplicate end-over pattern is made by Messrs Sinton & Son, Waverley Churn Works, jedburgh. these range in capacity from 3 gallons to 20 gallons. Two nice types of weigh bridge are shown by Messrs W. Smith & Co, New Broughton, Edinburgh-“The Standard” and “The Farm Live Stock weigher” with self-locking and expanding cattle weighing cage, Machines for lime washing and disinfecting and a syracuse “Easy” washer are at the stand of Messrs Marshall & Philp, 179 Union Street, Aberdeen. Messrs John Wallace & Sons Ltd, Graham Square, Glasgow, make a brave show, with manure distributors, potato diggers, mowers and reapers, “Oliver” ploughs of various types, and other farm requisites. Cream separators of the “Princess” type, driven by steam turbine, and of the “Princess” and “Princess Victoria” make, hand driven, are shown by Messrs Watson, Laidlaw & Company Ltd, Dundas Street, Glasgow, who also have on their stand hydro extractors, an oil separator, &c. Messrs Kemp & Nicholson, Scottish Central Works, Stirling, exhibit a hay baler, manure distributor, turnip cutting cart, and farm tipping cart.”
An eminent collection of implements and machines by leading Scottish makers.
the photographs were taken at a number of rallies throughout Scotland from 2013 onwards.
Congratulations to Pollock Farm Equipment which has been awarded a silver medal by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for its Pollock Rope Scraper System. This is the third medal that the Society has awarded to the company which started in 1867 under the name of Andrew Pollock of Mauchline. Silver medals are awarded in recognition of outstanding technical achievement in the field of agricultural machinery and technology.
Andrew Pollock of Mauchline started his business by establishing a shop in the Cowgate, Machine. By 1877 his address was the “Implement and Machine Works, Mauchline”. He was an agricultural implement maker, a smith and a smith and farrier.
Andrew quickly recognised the importance of providing farmers with a broad range of implements and machines. In addition to making his own ones, he also acted as an agent for other makers. By 1886 he acted for W. N. Nicholson & Son, Newark on Trent, famous for their horse rakes. In later years he also sold manufactures from other of the makers such as Thomas Corbett, Perseverance Iron Works, Shrewsbury, and Harrison, McGregor & Co. Ltd, Leigh, Lancashire. All are major English makers.
Andrew became well-renowned for his own manufactures, winning a number of awards for them. But it was those implements for cultivation of the soil, hay and straw trussers, potato diggers and cheese presses that he was especially known, even well through the twentieth century. His manufactures were, according to the North British Agriculturist in 1893, “characteristically those designed for farming as carried on in Ayrshire and the adjoining counties”. He was also an inventor, applying for two patents in relation to his machine for topping and tailing turnips in 1878. He was well-known throughout the implement-making community of Scotland, also exhibiting his manufactures at major agricultural shows including the Highland Show where he was a regular exhibitor from 1875 onwards.
The development and reputation of his business was summed up by the North British Agriculturist in 1893. It noted how “Mr Andrew Pollock has worked his way up from the position of a local blacksmith to that of possessing one of “tidiest little” implement businesses in the west of Scotland”.
By the time Andrew died in 1904 he had a well-regarded and successful business. His widow, Mrs Martha Jamieson or Pollock, carried on the business until it was transferred to his sons Andrew and William, to form A. & W. Pollock on 31 December 1912. In 1981 the company became John Pollock (Mauchline) Ltd. In 1998 it became Pollock Farm Equipment Ltd.
Details of the company’s history are recorded in Jimmy McGhee’s book, Pollock Agricultural Implement Makers 1867-2017 which is available from Pollock Farm Equipment – http://www.pollockfarmequip.co.uk
The photographs show Pollock’s stand at the Highland Show, the winning implements and some of the company’s manufactures from its 152 year history.
Into the 1960s there continued to be a number of makers of agricultural implements and machines in Scotland. Some of them had been established in the early nineteenth century while others had a more recent origin.
Trade directories are an important source to identify who was making implements and machines. They usually indicate names, addresses, together with trade names and years of implements and machines made. They sometimes also note the trades carried out. They can provide very helpful information when other sources are not available. As the Scottish implement and machinery makers covered a number of trades it is important when consulting some of these directories not only to look under the heading of “agricultural implement maker”. We also need to look under other headings such as agricultural tractors, iron and steel buildings, dairy machinery, diesel engine makers, agricultural engineers, hydraulic engineers, grain dryers, iron founders, mill and factory furnishers, millwrights, to see the full extent of makers of implements and machinery.
The “agricultural implement makers” from one trade directory in 1964 included a number of names that ill be well-recognised by readers, as well as some that are not so familiar as they were making and trading in particular localities. They include:
Ballach Ltd, Gorgie Road, Edinburgh Barclay, Ross & Hutchison Ltd, 67 Green, Aberdeen, and Montrose and Turriff. B.M.B. Ltd, Hawkhill Road, Paisley Alexander Bros, Ruther, Watten, Wick, Caithness Wm Dickie & Sons Ltd, East Kilbride William Elder & Sons Ltd, Tweedside Works, Berwick on Tweed, Newton St Boswells, and Haddington Forfar Foundry Ltd, Service Road, Forfar R. G. Garvie & Sons, 2 Canal Road, Aberdeen James Gordon (Engineers) Ltd, Newmarket Street, Castle Douglas Gray’s of Fetterangus Ltd, Fetterangus, Innes, Walker (Engineering) Co. Ltd, Brown Street, Paisley Alexr Jack & Sons Ltd, Cassillis Road, Maybole Johnson’s (Implements) Scotland Ltd, Colquhoun Street, Stirling Macdonald Bros, Roseacre Street, Portsoy, Banff James Mackintosh, Don Street, Forfar, Angus George Macleod Ltd, 106-114 Candleriggs, Glasgow
Massey Ferguson (UK) Ltd, Banner Lane, Coventry, Manchester and Moorfield Industrial Estate, Kilmarnock George J. Maude & Co (Engineers) Ltd, Kerse Road, Stirling Alex Newlands & Sons Ltd, St Magdalene Engineering Works, Linlithgow Paxton & Clark Ltd, Waverley Terrace, Bonnyrigg, Midliothian A. & W. Pollock Ltd, Station Road, Mauchline, Ayrshire Reekie Engineering Co. Ltd, Lochlands Works, Arbroath; Laurencekirk, Forfar
David Ritchie (Implements) Ltd, Whitehills, Forfar David Ross (Engineers) Ltd, St Leonard’s Street, Lanark A. M. Russell Ltd, Sinton Works, Gorgie Road, Edinburgh Scottish Mechanical Light Industries Ltd, Scotmec Works, Ayr Geo. Sellar & Son Ltd, Granary Street, Huntly, Aberdeen, Alloa and Perth Shepherd’s Engineering Works, Harbour Place, Wick, Caithness Thos. Sheriff & Co. Ltd, West Barns, Dunbar Wm Simpson, 28 Mid Street, Keith
J. & R. Wallace Ltd, Cotton Street, Castle Douglas John Wallace & Sons (Agricultural Engineers, Glasgow) Ltd, 34 Paton Street, Glasgow, Perth, Cupar, Forfar, Laurencekirk and Stirling Charles Weir Ltd, Townpark Works, Strathnaven, Lanarkshire.
Agricultural merchants included: The Angus Milling Co. Ltd, Meikle, Kirriemuir and Buckie Associated Agricultural Oils Ltd, 10 Forth Street, Stirling George Bruce & Co., 14 Regent Quay, Aberdeen Alex Buchan, Brechin Chemical Straying Co. Ltd, Chemical House, Glenearn Road, Perth Gillies & Henderson Ltd, 59 Bread Street, Edinburgh, Leith Walk, Edinburgh and Cupar and haddington Thomas Henderson & Co. Ltd, 121 St Vincent Street, Glasgow J. & J. Kent Ltd, 1392 and 1396 gallowgate, Glasgow and 447 Caledonian Road, Wishaw John McDougall & Co., 137 Cardross Street, Glasgow Mitchell & Rae Ltd, Quay, Newburgh, Ellon, Huntly and Stuartfield J. & W. Tait Ltd, Broad Street, Kirkwall, Orkney Robert Walls & Sons, Stirling and Oban.
The New Statistical Account of Scotland published in the 1830s and 1840s includes a great deal of information on agriculture including farming practices and implements and machines for each of the parishes throughout Scotland.
In East Lothian, one of the leading agricultural districts, there are a number of reports on threshing mills, the use of steam in threshing and material culture of the stack yard.
In the parish of Dunbar the minister, Rev John Jaffrey, included a detailed account of the use of stack stones. He wrote “pillars, whereon to build the corn in the barnyard, should have been more generally introduced. Some individuals have them of stone, but cast-iron ones are the best. They have a cover with a turned-down edge -which renders them a complete defence against vermin. They admit a free circulation of air to the stacks, and the saving is beyond calculation. “
Steam threshing was regarded to be a great improvement. in Dunbar the “thrashing of corn by steam is the greatest improvement which has lately been introduced here.”
In the parish of Ormiston, the Minister wrote “about twelve years ago, a thrashing mill was erected by the tenant of the mill lands, which has been let out to the villages, and been of the greatest service to the place. Before that time, all the grain about the village was thrashed by the flail, whereas very little is thrashed in that way. Several of the tenants have had thrashing mills erected within these few years; and there is now not a farm of any consequence without one. The tenant of the Murrays, six years ago, erected a steam engine upon that farm for thrashing his crop, which answers the purpose remarkably well.”
In the parish of Gladsmuir “steam engines for thrashing the crops have been erected on many of the farms, and there are at present in the parish no less than ten employed for that purpose. It is in contemplation to erect more.”
In Dirleton, “the steam engine for thrashing is coming into general use, there being now nine in the parish.”
The firm name of Alexander Jack of Maybole, or Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole, was well-known throughout Scotland from the 1830s until the early 1970s.
Alexander Jack was first noted in the Scottish agricultural press in 1843 with the name and address Alexander Jack, Sawmill, Auchendrane, Maybole. By the early 1950s he described himself as a wood merchant at Culroy, Maybole.
By the late 1850s Alexander was joined by one son, and later into the early 1860s by another. The name Alexander Jack and Sons was to be known until 1905 when the company incorporated itself and became limited by guarantee as Alexander Jack & Sons Ltd. In 1930 it became the proprietor of another major Ayrshire maker – Thomas Hunter & Sons (Maybole) Ltd.
While the company was always based in Maybole, it opened a branch in Glasgow in the late 1870s. By 1879 its Glasgow premises was at 427 Gallowgate. With the move of the other implement makers to Graham Square, Alexander followed. By 1884 the company of implement makers and wood merchants was based at 20 Graham Square where it remained until at least the Second World War.
The company undertook a range of trades and activities – as agricultural implement makers, cartwrights, railway waggon builders, engineers, timber merchants, steam saw millers, smith and farrier, spring van and lorry builder and wood merchant. It was especially noted for its mowers and reapers, potato diggers and carts. In 1935 it noted how it had been a maker of Scotch carts for over 90 years.
By the 1870s the company also acted as an agent for a range of other makers. In 1875 they included W. N. Nicholson & Son, Newark On Trent, Ransomes, Sims & Head, Orwell Works, Ipswitch, John Williams & Son, Rhyl, Richmond & Chandler, Salford, Manchester, Picksley, Sims & Co. Ltd, Leigh, Lancashire, James Pattison, Hurlet. In 1909 they were International Harvester Co. of Great Britain Ltd, London, Cockshutt Plow Co. Ltd, Brantford, Canada.
The company was a regular advertiser in the Scottish farming press as well as a regular at the Royal Highland Show, where it travelled to all of the show districts. It also frequented major shows in Northern Ireland as well as the Royal Agricultural Society of England. In Scotland it did well at the shows, especially the Highland Show. For example, in 1859 it was awarded a bronze medal for second best sowing machine for turnips as well as other awards for Norwegian harrows, a one row sowing machine for beans. In the early 1870s it was awarded silver medals for its collection of implements and machines. But it was its potato raisers, such as its Caledonian, that won it national awards in England at the Royal Agricultural Society of England trials in 1896. This was a major accolade for a Scottish company against the major English players.
There are still a number of Jack of Maybole implements and machines to be seen around the rally fields.
Earlier in the week we started to look at the exhibition of agricultural implements at the Dumfries Show of the Highland Society from 1830 to 1910. Today, we will look at some of the implements and machines exhibited at that show.
The wide range of implements and machines exhibited at the Dumfries show were sometimes described in detail in reports on the show in the provincial newspapers and the agricultural press. In 1895 the North British Agriculturist commented that James Gordon had ‘an immense variety of ploughs, harrows, mowers, binders, weighing machines, measurers, grinding mills, chaff cutters, meat coolers, corn bins, and churns; in fact almost everything that is wanted on a well-appointed farm.’ Others had a more limited range, or only one type of implement or machine. For example, in 1860 Peter Anderson, Innermessan, Stranraer, had a two horse plough for general purposes.
The implement and machine makers had a range of trades that shaped their manufactures. The largest makers, usually located in foundries, manufactured a range of implements and machines from metal. They included ploughs, implements to prepare the seed bed, sowing machines (having both metal and wood), horse hoes, hay rakes, potato raisers, turnip cutters, sheep fodder racks, feeding troughs, barrows and field gates. Carts were made by general implement makers as well as specialist cartwrights. Other specialist activities included the making of dairy utensils and machinery, threshing mills and a range of barn machinery, including fanners and bruisers, which were made by makers with specific trades. For example, William James Kelly, Dumfries, who exhibited dairy implements at the 1910 show was in 1912 a dairy utensil manufacturer, ironmonger, and a tinplate worker and brazier. Thomas Turnbull, Dumfries, who exhibited a range of implements between 1870 and 1910, including threshing machines, was a millwright as well as a mechanical engineer, engineer and ironfounder and agricultural implement maker.
The exhibitors from the Dumfries show district largely focused on the manufacturing of implements and machines for specific tasks, especially ploughing, cultivating, sowing, and food processing and dairying. This focus is not surprising given the focus of the agriculture of south-west of Scotland on the rearing of livestock and dairying. They therefore manufactured (and exhibited) implements and machines that met the local needs of the farmer and agriculturist. Indeed, there were particular implements and designs of them associated with the region. For example, in 1895 Gavin Callander exhibited ‘two heavy grubbers of the Dumfries pattern’.
There was a distinct relationship between the Dumfries-shire made implements and machines and the county and region they were used in. Some makers expressed this through the trade names of their manufactures. Thomas Turnbull manufactured his ‘Dumfries’ broadcast sower for grain and grass from 1870. James B. A. McKinnell, Dumfries, had a ‘Dumfries’ grubber in 1878. Gordon & Coltart had a two and three horse ‘Dumfries’ grubber and ‘Galloway’ turnip cutter in 1886. In 1910, Eric Nicholson, Annan, made the ‘Annan’ oil engine in a series of four patterns.An important aspect of implement and machine making by exhibitors in the Dumfries show district was the manufacturing of turnip sowers. An analysis of the show catalogues (or Catalogue of Implements, Machines, and Other Articles) for the eight Dumfries shows between 1845 and 1910 reveals that they were exhibited by a total of 91 exhibitors. Those from the Dumfries show district were well represented, though their numbers fluctuated between shows; they had the smallest presence at the 1910 show. Of the 22 exhibitors from that show district, 19 exhibited a turnip sower at one show, while a further two did so at two shows; one exhibited at three shows. Before 1878 all of them exhibited machines that they had made. After that date six of them exhibited ones from other makers: in 1878 James Gordon and James Payne both exhibited machines from G. W. Murray & Co., Banff Foundry, Banff. Some exhibited machines made by local makers. In 1895 and 1910 Gavin Callander, Dumfries, exhibited a machine from James Gordon, Castle Douglas, as did Thomas Turnbull in 1910. In 1910 John Charlton & Sons, Dumfries, had one from Lillie & Co., Berwick on Tweed.
Another area of importance for a number of the implement and machine makers in the Dumfries show district was the making of dairy utensils and machines. They were included on 59 stands at 8 shows between 1845 and 1910. They comprised a wide range of utensils and machines, such as churning machines, curd mills, curd cutters, curd makers, milk pans, milk stirrers, milking pails, milk ripeners, milk coolers, milk cans, butter workers, butter churns (end over end, barrel, disc), whey drainers, cheese vats, cheese presses, refrigerators, measuring cans, and sundry small dairy utensils. The number of stands with them varied greatly from show to show. With the exception of the 1870 show, the Dumfries show district always supplied exhibitors of them to the Dumfries show. Most of these exhibitors exhibited at only one show, though John H. Ferguson, did so at two and John Gray, Stranraer, at three. By 1886 John Gray was ‘well known in the south of Scotland as a manufacturer of dairy requirements’. Most of them made their own utensils though some, including John McKerlie, exhibited ones made by other manufacturers such as D. Noble, Stranraer. In 1878 James Payne sold cheese presses from J. & T. Young, Ayr, a curd cutter from A. Pollock, Mauchline, Ayrshire, and barrel churns from R. Tinkler & Co., Penrith; all were leading makers. In 1910 Robert Armstrong exhibited sundry small dairy utensils and acted as an agent for one of the well-known English dairy and refrigerator makers, R. A. Lister & Co., Dursley.
The manufactures of the implement and machine makers in the Dumfries show district did not provide the full range of implements and machines that were required by the farmer and agriculturist in that show district. Especially as agriculture became increasingly mechanized from the mid nineteenth century onwards, these makers together with other businesses, such as ironmongers, were also selling a range of other implements and machines made by other manufacturers in order to provide a comprehensive range to the farmer and the agriculturist. They were able to become agents for some of the leading makers in England and America, and in doing so, introduced new technologies into the show district, such as chilled ploughs and reapers and mowers.
In 1895 the Glasgow herald summed up the character of the exhibitors in the implement yard of the Highland Show at Dumfries. It stated that:
“Although there are not many manufacturers in the immediate vicinity, makers in all parts of Scotland and England find it to their advantage to exhibit at Dumfries. In this respect its proximity to the Border is a further inducement to Southern firms to place their manufacturers on view.”
The character of the show districts and the geography of the show districts from one another, observed in relation to the Dumfries show district, was also noted in relation to the other show districts throughout Scotland. Large numbers of exhibitors from the Glasgow and Edinburgh show districts were found in their home show districts. For example, in 1882, some 74 of the 201 exhibitors at the Glasgow show were from that show district, while at the Edinburgh Show of 1899 some 24 of the 221 exhibitors were also from that show district. In 1893 some 34 of the 196 exhibitors at the Edinburgh show were from that show district. Other rural districts, notably Stirling, Inverness and Kelso, provided smaller numbers of exhibitors to their home show districts. For example, at the 1883 show at Inverness, some 17 of the 105 exhibitors were from that show district. At the 1900 Stirling show, 18 of the 176 exhibitors were from that show district. Geography was also an important factor for exhibitors from other show districts attending shows. For example, there were small numbers of exhibitors from both Edinburgh and Glasgow at the Inverness show in 1883 and 1911. There were also few exhibitors from Aberdeen at both the Kelso and Dumfries shows. Therefore, the Dumfries show reflected a number of wider patterns of exhibition that were also found in the other show districts.
The Scottish exhibitors were augmented by a growing number of ones from England, especially from 1870 onwards, though their numbers fluctuated from show to show. In Dumfries their number was higher than in most of the other show districts. As one observer noted, Dumfries was, ‘considering its situation and accessibility to implement makers on both sides of the Border’ an ‘attractive show location’. The number of English exhibitors was generally lowest in Inverness and Aberdeen, furthest from the Scottish Border and highest at the most important Scottish shows, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as those on the Scottish border.
While the exhibitors from the Dumfries Show District did not themselves manufacture all of the agricultural implements and machines used by farmers and agriculturists in that show district, they made an important contribution in making particular types of them while also selling ones from other makers throughout Scotland and further afield. An examination of the implements and machines exhibited at the Dumfries Show in 1886 shows the place occupied by these exhibitors in the supply of implements and machines in the Dumfries show district. The implements on the 130 stands (24 were held by exhibitors from the Dumfries show district and a further 64 from England could be classified into 71 different categories or types. Some of these were small, with only one or two exhibitors, though others had large numbers. For example, there were 15 exhibitors of steam engines, 16 exhibitors of root pulpers, slicers and cutters, or the 17 exhibitors of ploughs.
The exhibitors from the Dumfries show district exhibited implements and machines in 45 of the 71 categories. Those from the other show districts in Scotland were represented in 56 categories, while those from England were recorded in 46 of them. The exhibitors from these three provenances – the Dumfries show district, the rest of Scotland, and England – played a number of roles in exhibiting their implements and machines. Some were the only exhibitors of particular types or categories of implements and machines. For example, there was one such exhibitor from the Dumfries show district, 10 for the rest of Scotland and 8 from England. The Dumfries exhibitor specialized in cream separators while the Scottish exhibitors did so in potato planters, rakes for attaching to reapers, rick and stack stands, hay or rick lifters, hay and straw barrows, hay loaders, saddle harrows, turnip thinners and water barrows. The English makers specialized in bone crushers and mills, butter washers and coolers, root washers, horse hoes, scythes, stone breakers, straw trussers, and traction and locomotive engines. The English makers were were-renowned for making these manufactures, and for which there were no makers in Scotland.
The character of the Dumfries show and the exhibitors of implements and machines was shaped by a number of factors. The first was the character of the Dumfries and Galloway region as a rural area with a focus on the rearing of livestock and dairying (before 1900 the show had strong exhibitions of Galloway cattle, there were only small displays of Aberdeen Angus and Shorthorns; it was the home district of the Ayrshire cow). As a rural area, it had a relatively modest manufacturing base, also reflected in the number of agricultural implement and machine makers, whose numbers were much smaller by comparison to other areas of Scotland, especially the Glasgow show district, with its heavy industries. Because of its location, close to the Scottish-English border, it was an important show district for the attendance of English agricultural implement and machine makers; their number was larger than in most of the other show districts, especially from the 1870s onwards.
As a result of these factors, the Dumfries show was characterized as having a small core of local exhibitors within the area of the show district augmented by significant numbers from other parts of Scotland and England. Two show districts each provided significant numbers, Glasgow and Edinburgh with the latter generally having half the number of the former district. The remaining districts in Scotland generally provided around twice the number of exhibitors to that of the Dumfries show district. Exhibitors from England comprised around three or four times the number of ones from the Dumfries show district. These exhibitors together with their exhibits, created a distinct show with its own character.
The exhibitors from the Dumfries show district ranged from small businesses to the most important agricultural implement and machine makers in the district. Some were renowned makers and were also well-known throughout Scotland, as also overseas where their manufactures were used. The basis of their exhibits were manufactures that reflected the character of the agriculture in the show district district. They included ploughs, cultivating implements and machines, turnip sowers and cutters, threshing machines, and dairy implements and machines. Their implements and machines were associated with the region through their trade names and the names of their makers. They were augmented by other manufactures from throughout Scotland and England, especially as agriculture became increasingly mechanized. The exhibitors from the Dumfries show district and their manufactures were therefore part, and a distinct part, of a wider tradition of agricultural implement and machine making throughout Scotland and also Britain, exhibited at the Highland Show.
The photographs were taken at the Dumfries vintage rally, 2014.
The Highland Show or the general show of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, the national agricultural society, was the most important agricultural show in the farming calendar in Scotland. It was the focal point for the agricultural community in the district where it was held, enabling its members and exhibitors from further afield to exhibit their livestock and agricultural implements and machines. Each year until 1960 the show traveled around the country to a different show district, each of which focused on the main agricultural regions. These districts included the Dumfries Show District comprising the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown, or the Dumfries and Galloway region. In the Dumfries show district the show was always held around or close to the town of Dumfries, at the heart of that show district and at ‘the centre of a wide agricultural territory’.
The implement department developed at a fast rate at the Dumfries Show. For Wellwood H. Maxwell, looking back over eight shows at Dumfries between 1830 and 1895, ‘perhaps in no department of the Show has there been a greater change than in that of implements. In the show of 1845 there were but 143 exhibits of implements. In 1895 the number was 2265.’ The rapid expansion of that department was also seen through the development of the ‘motion yard’ where machines were seen at work or in motion. In 1895 one observer commented that it ‘has perhaps made the most conspicuous advance during the past few years’. By 1910 it included some 50 of the 220 stands in the implement yard.
While the number of exhibits in the implement department increased significantly from 1830 until 1910, they also fluctuated between shows. They included the increasing importance of the show for the agricultural community, and the development of and changes to Scottish agriculture, including the increased mechanization of Scottish agriculture, especially from the 1850s and 1860s onwards, the development of the Scottish agricultural implement and machinery industry in these two decades, and the increasing range of manufactures made. By the 1890s larger scale makers of agricultural implements and machines were emerging which also acted as agents to provide a comprehensive range for the farmer and agriculturist. Wider economic conditions also had an impact: the 1860s and 1870s were favourable decades for Scottish agriculture (reflected in the significant increase in the number of implements at the Dumfries show and the large number of exhibits at the 1878 show). After 1879 British agriculture sank into a long-running agricultural depression that continued throughout the 1880s and 1890s, though it was not as severely felt in Scotland (reflected in the significant fluctuations in the number of implements at the Dumfries show). During such adverse economic conditions implement and machine makers were more reluctant to exhibit at the show as there were fewer opportunities of sales. That period of depression was followed by a more favourable period from 1906 until the First World War (and a slight increase in the number of implements exhibited as well as exhibitors).
Wellwood H. Maxwell was clear about the importance of the implement department for the farmer and agriculturist. He saw it as being ‘by far and away the greatest emporium for the display and sale of all sorts of agricultural implements, and particularly of such implements as tend to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of the labour of the farm’. For the 1895 show, he commented on their ‘varied and interesting collection’, also observing that ‘practically everything in the implement and machine way wanted on the farm is to be seen on one or other of the different stands’. In 1903, one reporter writing in the North British Agriculturist considered that ‘practically all classes of farm machinery’ were ‘represented’ in it. Another noted that ‘specimens of all classes of machinery in use on the farm at the present day’ were found. In 1910, there were:
“Close on 2000 exhibits, representing practically every department of commerce catering for those engaged in the cultivation of land or in the breeding of live stock. The requirements of the great landowner, the gentleman farmer, the practical agriculturist, and the small holder are all kept in view, and the shedding in this section are filled with machinery, implements, seeds and their produce, artificial manures, feeding stuffs, veterinary preparations and appliances, and the numerous other articles, seemingly of endless variety, required in the equipment of the modern farm and estate.”
The exhibitors in the implement yard at the Dumfries Show included businesses from that show district. They provided a core of exhibitors at the Dumfries Show. There were always 21 or more of them at a show. They were present in similar numbers at consecutive shows, such as those of 1860, 1870 and 1878 and also 1886 and 1895. However, their role generally declined as the overall number of exhibitors to the show increased, especially after 1860; they declined significantly after 1878.
The exhibitors from the Dumfries show district exhibited at varying numbers of shows in that district. As the show was held every 8 or more years, most only exhibited at one or a small number of them. Before 1870 most of them only exhibited at one show. The first year when they started to exhibit at more than one was 1870. Though the number of these exhibitors fluctuated in following years, there was a tendency for the exhibitors at the 1895 and 1903 shows to also exhibit at later ones. However, only a small number exhibited at three or more shows: there were ten at three shows, four at four shows and four at five shows. The first exhibitors to exhibit at three shows did so in 1860 and continued until 1886. However, it was more usual for them to start at a later date: two started in 1870, another two in 1878, a further one in 1886; four started in 1895. Those that attended four shows first did so in 1878, though more usually from 1886; they continued to exhibit until 1910. Those at five shows exhibited from 1870 until 1903 or 1910.
The most extensive exhibitors who exhibited at three or more shows had a distinct character. They were long-established businesses, also trading for a number of generations. As is revealed in their business names, they included a number of family members, usually a father and son or sons, though also other ones, as in the partnership of J. & R. Wallace, Castle Douglas. They included some of the best-known businesses in the district. For example, ‘no one was better known in the implement yard shows for many years’ than Thomas Turnbull who ‘never failed to exhibit at the Dumfries local shows’.
Most of the exhibitors from the Dumfries show district only exhibited at the Highland Show when it was held in Dumfries. They included ones that attended three or more shows: Andrew Boyd, Gavin Callander, William Cotts & Sons, James Gordon, Wellwood Herries Maxwell, and John Tweedie. However, some of them also exhibited at the show when it was held in other show districts. These could be shows held consecutively before or after the Dumfries show. Three exhibitors exhibited in this way, though for two of them their first show was not in their home show district. All of these show districts were in the south of Scotland, in the show districts of Perth, Stirling and Edinburgh. A further 11 exhibitors also exhibited in other show districts. These were either neighbouring ones, such as Kelso, or Glasgow, or a nearby one, always located in southern and central Scotland, such as Edinburgh, Stirling or Perth.
The exhibition patterns of the exhibitors demonstrate how they saw their businesses and how they promoted them and their manufactures. Exhibitors that only attended the show in the Dumfries show district focused on these aspects within that geographical area, acting as local businesses with a sphere of influence in the Dumfries and Galloway region. Ones that did so in two show districts had a wider sphere of influence, usually to a neighbouring show district or a nearby one in southern or central Scotland, though this was not always the case. Caldow & McKinnel, Maxwelltown, exhibited in three show districts that extended from the most northern one to the most southern: Inverness, Dumfries and Kelso in 1856, 1860 and 1863. Those that exhibited in six show districts had a much wider sphere of influence throughout most of the country. Ones that exhibited in all of them were national businesses with a national influence and standing. However, this latter type of exhibitor did not emerge until the 1890s.
The exhibitors from the Dumfries show district included the most important agricultural implement and machine makers in that district. James Gordon established his business at Castle Douglas in 1865. In 1893 the North British Agriculturist could state that ‘from his long-established reputation for turning out first-class material, there is hardly a steading of any size in the Galloway district where some of “Gordon’s” implements are not to be found.’ Another of the leading makers was Thomas Turnbull, Dumfries. In 1869 one observer notes that ‘no one was better known amongst the farming community’ than him. By 1918 ‘specimens of his good, sound, and reliable workmanship may be seen all over the county’.
Some of them were renowned for making important innovations and developments in particular implements and machines that came to be more widely used throughout Scotland and further afield. Two were especially important in the development of the milking machine. John Gray, Stranraer, ‘an old-established’ maker in 1910, was considered to be ‘the original inventor of the milking machine’. J. & R. Wallace, Castle Douglas, was described as ‘pioneers in the invention of the milking machine’. Other machines were also important throughout Scotland. Thomas Turnbull’s ‘turntable broadcast sower’, of 1870 ‘will for all time be best associated with his name in the implement trade and amongst agriculturists’. One observer considered that: There are few counties in Scotland where the sower is not at work. It is extensively used in Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Wigtownshire, Berwickshire, and Ayrshire. Large numbers have been sold into the north, south, and midlands of England, into Ireland, and Wales, and a goodly number shipped to Australia, New Zealand, South African and America. Thomas Payne’s patent adjustable scythe was widely used, with 900 being ‘sent out’ in 1860 alone. Mr Rome’s sheep dipping machine was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and later at the Highland Show in 1854, 1860, 1876 and 1878.
Some of the exhibitors were also award-winning agricultural implement and machine makers. They gained their awards from a range of agricultural societies, usually at their annual shows. They included local societies, such as those at Torthorwald and Ruthwell, county societies including the Union Agricultural Society, as well as ones from further afield, in northern England, such as the East Cumberland Agricultural Society, and the national societies, the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and the Royal Agricultural Society of England. William Cotts & Sons, established by 1860, won two premiums, a bronze medal and one soverign, in 1860 for its tools for cutting field drains from the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. James B. A. McKinnel was another award-winner from that society, of a medium silver medal for his collection and his patent turnip drills, in 1870. In that year Thomas Turnbull also won a medium silver medal for his collection at the Highland Show. He won a total of six medals for his turntable broadcast sower, invented in 1870. James Payne, ironmonger, Kirkcudbright, secured three awards for scythes, including his patent adjustable scythe, in 1857, 1859 and 1860. J. & R. Wallace, Castle Douglas, was awarded a silver medal for its milking machine by the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1905; it was one of a small number of Scottish implement and machine makers to receive a medal from that society. Its manure distributor also won the first prize of the ‘great Newcastle trials of the RASE’, and in 1910 ‘still continues to enjoy that measure of success which such a unique honour implies.’
The status of these local makers was reflected in their presence in the Dumfries showground. The most important ones commanded large stands. In 1895, A. Thomson, Dumfries, had ‘the largest stand of local firms engaged in the implement trade’, while James Gordon, Castle Douglas, ‘is a large exhibitor at the show’. In 1886 ‘Gordon & Coltart, of Castle Douglas and Dumfries, occupy a large space crowded with well-known implements’. Some of them also had comprehensive displays of implements and machines. In 1870 James B. A. McKinnel, Dumfries, exhibited ‘a great variety of farm implements in and out of motion’. In 1886 Gordon & Coltart had ‘a large and varied collection of useful implements’. At that same show, J. & R. Wallace, Castle Douglas, had ‘a goodly array of farm implements, including many of their own manufacture’. That maker had ‘a large and miscellaneous collection on view. In 1903 it had ‘an interesting assortment of machines’. In 1895, A. Thomson, Dumfries, ‘has a very extensive assortment of all kinds of implements’. In 1903 James Gordon ‘has on view a good collection of machines’. In 1910, John Gray, Stranraer, had ‘an excellent variety of cheese-making utensils for inspection’.
The next instalment will look at further aspects of the exhibition of implements and machines at the Highland Show in the Dumfries Show District.
The photographs were taken at the Dumfries vintage rally, 2014.
