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.
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.
There are a few accounts of agricultural implement works in the provincial press in Scotland. These provide details of what the works looked like, the arrangement of the works, activities and sometimes additional information on an implement maker.
One of the best accounts of one of the Perthshire makers is that of J. D. Allan, Murthly, near Dunkeld, renowned for reaping machines and potato diggers. In July 1896 the special correspondent of the Dundee Courier visited the Culthill Works. Here is his account of that visit:
“Leaving the Victoria May Hotel, Stanley, which had been our comfortable and home-like headquarters for a time, we drove out the Blairgowrie road, and, crossing the Tay by the splendid new girder bridge at Caputh, erected a few years ago now, we got into that district of Perthshire known as the Stormont, and soon reached Culthill, where we were to see the workshop and farm of Mr John Allan, of the well-known firm of J. D. Allan & Son, Mr John Allan being the sole partner and representative. Mr Allan is a son of the late Mr Douglas Allan, whose name is as familiar as a household word amongst farmers and ploughmen for the making of high-class light-fraughted ploughs, in which respect the high prestige hitherto attained by the firm is still kept up.
On entering upon the outside premises we were struck with the evidence on every side of the extensive business carried on in timber, the place having the appearance of an American logging yard. The timber grown in the district is famed for its large size and excellent quality, the larch, elm, and ash trees being remarkably fine. Mr Allan purchases the timber mostly on the root from the neighbouring proprietors, and conveys it in the log to Culthill, where it is cut up into planking sized to suit the demand. It is afterwards stored into large, well-ventilated drying sheds until it is properly dried and seasoned, and is then disposed of to the orders of those in the trade, such as cart and wheel wrights, coach builders, town and country joiners, &c, a speciality being made in the turning out of cart and carriage hubs or naves, fellows, and spokes, and all kinds of framing. The ends of the sawn timber in the drying sheds and even the ends of the large unison logs in the outside yard are all thickly coated with a composition of cow dung to prevent splitting or gelling.
The workshops are extensive and comprise a regular blacksmiths’ workshop, for the shoeing of horses, repairing of farm implements, machines, &c, a joiners’ workshop, where all kind of country joiner work is executed, and a very commodious and well-lighted workshop, containing the most modern and ingenious machinery, tools, and other appliances for the making of new farm implements and machines. The machinery is driven by water power supplied by a stream which passes the works, the large overshot water wheel which drives the outside circular saw also supplying the power for the machinery within the works. The water power is for the most part ample, but in case of scarcity a 6-horse power steam engine has been fitted up within the works, which, however, is not required more than three or four days in a year. Mr Allan says that all makers of implements are alive to the fact that it is only by the aid of labour saving, power-driven machines, which will accomplish the maximum amount of work with the minimum expenditure of hand-labour, that such works as his can nowadays be made lucrative. In the large workshops are machines for tenoning the spokes of wheels, and for boring the fellows to suit; shearing and punching machines capable of cutting iron bars 1 inch thick, or punching homes through same; emery grinding machines, which are driven at a very high speed, and are very effective, and also common stone grinding machines; a heavy geared turning-lathe capable of turuing shafts 4 1/2 inches in diameter; circular and band saws; vertical and horizontal drills, the boring tools being an American patent, which ensure the holes made through even the thickest iron or steel plates to be perfectly circular. In the blacksmiths’ department are six forges, the wind for which is supplied by a fan blast making 3000 revolutions a minute. Each forge has its accompanying anvil and hand tools, and in connection with the blacksmith department is an oven for heating wheel tyres, its capacity being four of the heaviest sized tyres at a time. A cool tyre is put in as a hot one is taken out, and this keeps the hands going, and facilitates the work.
Connected with the fitting department are all kinds of modern appliances, such as vices and hand tools, machines for punching out key seats, mandrels, and templates, to ensure the procuring of duplicate parts for any machine when wanted. In front of the works is the large, well-lighted and well-ventilated paint shop full of farm implements, such as farm carts, reaping machines, potato diggers, turnip slicers, &c, in preparation for the Highland Show at Perth. Mr Allan has been remarkably successful with his output of potato diggers, for which he has gained very high repute both at home and abroad. They are specially well known and very highly appreciated in the three sister countries-England, Scotland, and Ireland-a great many going over the Border and across the Channel every year, so much so that difficulty is experienced in keeping up with the orders. At the last trial of potato diggers at the Stirling Highland Show the firm gained the first prize of £15 amongst a lot of 22 entrants, comprising all the leading makers of Great Britain. They also gained first prizes at Glasgow, Coupar Angus, Lincolnshire, and Aberdeen; and silver medals at the kelso Highland, Coupar Angus, Strathearn, Dublin, and Aberdeen, and a handsome massive silver cup. value £10 10s, at Long Sutton in Lincolnshire. The firm further do a good trade in reaping machines, for which they hold several silver medals. For the making of cart wheels and axles the firm is also highly famed, especially for extra strong wheels for wood carting. The fellows are made 4 inches broad, and ringed with steel tyres to suit. These wheels, because of their being made of the very best seasoned wood, and because of the steel tyres being much tougher and harder than iron, are very strong and durable.
Another speciality is the making of turnip-slicing carts. The box is made to hold a load of 15 carts of roots, which, with the horse going at plough speed, it slices and distributes in from ten to twelve minutes. The cart is made with a grated bottom so that earth and grit may fall through. It is used principally for feeding cast ewes on grass land, and for lambs in the spring before the grass comes. Mr Allan’s make of banker carts for transporting large trees is unique. They are fitted with shafts which gives the horse full control over them, and makes them much safer to work than common bankers. They have a high rainbow axle, and two other strong iron bows, the one forward and the other shaft, with a powerful screw on each bow. Chains are attached to the screws, which are put round the trees, and by actuating the screws one man can load a tree weighing 1 1/2 tons with the greatest ease, and with no danger. One of these banker carts will be exhibited at Perth Show.
In addition to the works, Mr Allan farms Cairnsmuir, a farm of 96 acres. The soil is rather poor, but being liberally treated, good crops are produced. Cross cows are kept and mated with an Angus bull, and 7 or 8 calves, mostly blue greys, are produced. They are hand-fed on sweet milk and lined cake, no other condiments being used, and if there is reason for pride in the workshop, there is noels reason for pride in the production of excellent calves. They are kept on till two years of age, and being liberally dealt with all the time, come out splendid specimens. In the spring of 1895 the strikes, when about two years old, were purchased by Mr Morgan of Ardgaith, Glencarse, at nearly £20 each. They were well kept until Hay & Company’s Christmas sale at Perth, where two of them gained first prize for bullocks under three years of age, and were sold for £60 10s the pair. This year the stirks were sold to Mr Gellathly, Drumbachlie, another famous breeder, and doubtless they will be heard of at future shows. Mr Allan purchases annually a lot of grit blackface ewes in the spring. He sells the lambs when weaned, and keeps the ewes to feed. He finds that he can buy grit ewes in the spring for not much money than he can buy black ewes in the fall, and that they pay him much better than any other kind of stock. Mr Allan speaks in the most laudatory terms of the kindness and liberality of his proprietor, Sir Alexander M. McKenzie, Bart, of Delvine, who at great cost erected the extensive workshops, and gave him every possible facility for the carrying on of his large business. Before leaving, we had the pleasure in shaking hands and having a conversation with Mr Allan’s mother, widow of the late Mr Douglas Allan. The old lady was born in February, 1812, and is 84 years of age. She is hale and hearty, and has all her intellectual faculties unimpaired. She lives in a cottage on the preises, and is never happier than when bustling about doing her own household work.”
A contemporary account of Mr J. Douglas Allan in the North British Agriculturists provides some further information on the company and its activities:
“Amongst the whole Scottish implement trade there is no better liked man than Mr J Douglas Allan, of Culthill Works, Dunkeld. To fully appreciate the geniality of his character he must be visited at his works, which are driven by water-power, and are situated on Gourdie Braes, a picturesque slope on the Tay valley, about five miles from the fashionable summer resort of Dunked. Besides being an important maker, Mr Allan has also the advantage of being a practical farmer, occupying a fair-sized holding on the estate of Sir Alexander Muir Mackenzie, the genial baronet of Delvine. The potato digger is the implement by which Mr Allan’s name is best known. He was the first in the country to make those on Hanson’s principle wholly of iron, and shortly after their introduction by him they were generally made all over the country. Mr Allan, however, has succeeded in retaining his reputation for making one of the strongest, lightest draught, and easiest working machines in the market, and with it he succeeded in taking the first prize of £15 offered by the Highland Society at their Stirling meeting in 1881, twenty one diggers competing. At the Royal Society of England’s Newcastle trials in 1887, Mr Allan’s machine was not quite so fortunate, but in the opinion of many who witnessed the trials, it did the best work, and was entitled to a better place than that allotted to it. On the excellence of Mr Allan’s machine we need not dwell, but only quote the common saying throughout the trade. “For a tattie digger Allan is get ill tae beat”. Besides the digger Mr Allan also manufactures carts, reapers, mowers, and other implements, and he also does a very large and regular business in hickory spokes. Mr Allan never misses a Highland Show, where his kindly manner makes him one of the most universally respected men in the yard, whilst his constant attendance in the Perth market has made him one of the best “kent” figures in his county.”
The photographs are of a range of potato diggers at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Rally, June 2016.
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.
