Scottish agricultural implement makers

Scotland was an important centre for the manufacture of corn rick stands. A number of the makers were well-known, and included Thomas Gibson & Son, Bainfield Ironworks, West Fountainbridge, Edinburgh.

Thomas Gibson & Son started life as another company: Gibson & Tait, iron and wire workers, smiths, and agricultural implement makers at Bainfield; it was operating under that name in 1868. It was renowned for its manufactures, being awarded a silver medal for its collection of gates, fencing and other manufactures at the Highland Show in 1870. In the following year it won a medium silver medal for its collection. A further silver medal was to come in 1872 and 1873.

The partnership between Messrs J. Charles Tait and Thomas Gibson was dissolved by mutual consent on 7 November 1873, leaving Mr Gibson, free to carry on the business of the company. By the late 1860s Thomas Gibson was operating under a new name: Thomas Gibson & Son. It was a name that was to continue until at least the First World War. During that time the company remained a Bainfield, but also had a premises at Gibson Terrace from at least 1901.

The company undertook a wide range of trades and manufactures. From the mid 1870s it was an agricultural implement maker and agent, engineer, engineer and machine maker, iron bedstead maker, iron bridge builder, iron fence manufacturer, iron fence and hurdle manufacturer, iron founder, iron gate and palisading manufacturer, iron girder builder, ironmonger, ironmonger and smith, iron railings and ornamental gate manufacturer, iron roof manufacturer, iron and steel bridge builder, iron and wire fence maker, smith, wire cloth, wire netting and fence manufacturer, and wire fence manufacturer. Its trades are reflected in its manufactures. They included ornamental iron and wire summerhouses, entrance gates, field gates, continuous fencing, turnstiles, hurdles, tree guards, corn rick stands, horse rakes, fodder racks, feeders, wheel barrows, stable racks, iron and wire chairs, garden chairs, potato baskets and wire netting.

The company had started to make iron corn rick stands by 1875. These were a framework of iron spars which interlocked together in an octagonal shape which had a stool at each corner and one in the The stools were designed to ensure that rats did not climb up them: they were mushroom shaped with an overhang which was to be difficult for rats to climb over. They were made in a number of sizes (as were those from other makers). It continued to make a selection of them until 1919.

As with Gibson & Tait, Thomas Gibson continued to exhibit at the Highland Show, also winning awards for his manufactures. They included a silver medal for a wrought iron field gate in 1874 and iron hurdles for sheep pens in 1885; a minor silver medal for its general collection in 1875 and 1876. Thomas widely advertised in the Scottish agricultural press, notably the North British Agriculturist.

Allan Brothers, engineers, 102 West North Street, Aberdeen, were engineers well as a gas engine manufacturer, mechanical engineer, oil engine manufacturer and a machinery oil merchant and refiner.

By 1901 Allan Brothers had moved its premises to the Ashgrove Engineering Works in Back Hilton Road, where it continued its activities until the mid 1950s. The company held its final winding up meeting in February 1957.

A number of the Scottish implement and machine makers became companies limited by guarantee during their years of operation and trading. This transition, made under the companies Acts, involved the transfer of a business to a new legal structure, directors and shareholders.

Ben. Reid & Co., Aberdeen, was one such companies that made this transition to a company limited by guarantee. It did so in 1900, and Ben. Reid & Co. Ltd, was incorporated on 26 April 1900. It was a well-known Aberdeen firm of agricultural implement makers, seedsmen and nurseyemn, already having been in business in the mid 1840s, and exhibiting at the Highland Show from 1858.

The company’s Memorandum & Articles of Association provide insights into the transfer of the business and the activities that the new one would undertake. It states:

“Objects of the company established are:
1. To purchase and acquire (1) from Benjamin Reid & Company, seedsmen, nurserymen and florists in Aberdeen, and William Gibson and Alexander Hay, seedsmen and nurserymen there, the individual partners of and Trustees for that firm, the heritable property, leases, stocks in trade, plant, machinery, implements, working tools and appliances, funiture, goodwill of the business, and gooder assets of that firm, on 31st October 1899, as specified in the Minute of Agreement hereinafter referred to; and (2) from Benjamin Reid & Company, engineers and agricultural implement makers, of Bon Accord Works, Aberdeen, and the said William Gibson and Alexander Hay, the individual partners of and trustees for that firm (whose business has been carried on as a concern separate form that of the firm first above mentioned and under different conditions of partnership), the heritable properties, lease, stock in trade, plant, machinery, working tools and appliances, furniture, goodwill of business, patent and other trade rights, trade marks and trade names and other assets of that firm, on 31st October 1899, as specified in the Minute of Agreement hereinafter referred to, and for the purposes above narrated to adopt and to cary into effect the Minute of Agreement above referred to, being a Minute of Agreement dayted the 25th day of April, 1900, entered into by (first), the said firm of Benjamin Reid & Company, seedsmen, nurserymen, and florists, and the said William Gibson and Alexander Hay, the individual partners of that firm, as individuals and as Trustees for it, and (second) the said firm of Benjamin Reid & Company, engineers and agricultural implement makers, and the said William Gibson and Alexander Hay, the individual partners of that firm, as individuals and as Trustees for it, on the one part and Robert Gordon Wilson, architect in Aberdeen, as Trustee, acting provisionally for this company, on the other part, this company taking the place of the purchaser, thereunder, a copy of which Minute of Agreement is set forth in the schedule of the company’s Articles of Association, and alos to enter into any new agreement with the said two firms of Benjamin Reid & Company or either of them, and the partners and Trustees for these firms or either of them, as such parties and Trustees and also as individuals. …
1. To carry on all or any of the businesses of wholesale and retail seed merchants, nurserymen, arboculturists, horticulturists, florists, fruiterers, farmers, graziers, live stock breeders, gardeners, foresters, seed growers, grain merchants, dealers in and producers and manufacturers of manures and feeding stuffs, and producers of all kinds of farm, nursery and garden produce.
2. To carry on all or any of the businesses of agricultural and general engineers, locomotive builders, bridge builders, agricultural and horticultural builders and implement makers, manufacturers of gardeners’ and foresters’ tools, implements and machinery, and of motor cars and other vehicles,a nd of gas, oil and electric engines, and of wagons and steam road rollers, and of salt and sand distributors for tramways, and of all kinds of fencing, wire-netting and wirework, and of all other kinds of machinery plant. tools, instruments and appliances, cartwrights, millwrights, wheelwrights, founders, moulders, workers, fitters and finishers or iron, brass, copper, and any other metals, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, painters, decorators, general builders, architects and draftsmen. …”
The capital of the company was £50,000, divided into 15,000 preferred shares of £1 each, and 35,000 ordinary shares of £1 each. The company had power to increase or reduce the capital.
The company continued in business for a few years thereafter. The company made an extraordinary resolution to wind up the company on 4 February 1907. The final winding up meeting was held on 10 May 1909.

The photographs were taken at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Rally, June 2015.

A well-known Banffshire implement and machine maker was Auchinachie & Simpson, Mid Street, Keith. It was already undertaking its business at that address by 1868; it continued to be associated with that address until at least the First World War. After 1920 the company, as Auchinachie & Simpson Ltd, was located in Keith, Morayshire. However, it passed a resolution to voluntarily wind up the company on 12 September 1923. It held its final winding up meeting on 25 February 1927.

The company undertook a number of trades. From the mid 1870s it was an agricultural implement maker, general implement dealer, machinery broker and dealer, mechanical engineer, smith, and smith and farrier. Its manufactures included ploughs, harrows, seed sowing machines, grubbers and manure sowers. It was also an agent for a number of key Scottish and English makers, which allowed it to sell a wider range of manufactures, including mowers, reapers and binders, which had a huge impact on north-eastern farming. Its agencies included those for W. N. Nicholson & Son, Newark on Trent, Walter A. Wood, London, Macdonald Brothers, Portsoy, Harrison, McGregor, Leigh, Lancashire. D. M. Osborne & Co., London.

The company was a forward-looking one, advertising and promoting its manufactures at the Highland Show from 1876 onwards until 1923. It was awarded a silver medal for its collection by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1876. It entered its manufactures at a number of the Society’s high profile trials, including the trial for three tined-grubbers in 1885, grass seed sowing machines in 1887 and manure distributors in 1899. It was an advertiser in the North British Agriculturist from March 1870 until July 1911.

We learn a good deal about the company when it became incorporated in May 1919. A prospectus, issued in May 1919 outlines how the company developed, and its aspirations for the future:

“This company has been formed for the purpose of acquiring and carrying on the business of Auchinachie & Simpson, agricultural implement makers and engineers, Keith.
The business of Auchinachie & Simpson is one of the oldest of its kind in the north of Scotland, having been established in 1866, since which date it has been continuously carried on with success. The firm has a wide connection in the north of Scotland and elsewhere. For some years immediately precedung the War, it was developing a connection in the Colonies, and there is every reason to expect that this trade can be resumed and further developed.
Mr James Auchinachie, who has been connected with the business for the last 53 years, and who for the last ten years has been a sole proprietor of the firm, is vendor to the promoters.
It has been decided to convert the firm into a limited company with the view of securing additional capital for the development of the business, for the erection of additional premises if and when necessary, and also with the view to stimulating interest in a local industry.
The vendor has made an offer to sell to the promoters his whole assets, including the goodwill of the business, for the sum of £2300, which will be open for acceptance for three months from the 10th of March 1919.
The business will be taken over with right to profits since the 10th of March 1919. The company will acquire the firm’s property in Mid Keith, held in feu (£300), the whole machinery, fittings, and plant, utensils, office furniture, and others connected with the business (£612 5 6), the whole stock in trade (£864 2 7). output between the date of the above offer (10th March) and date of valuation (20th march) less expenses £145), patent rights, trade marks, designs, patterns, valued by promoters (£178 11 11), and goodwill (£200).
The business in the past has been profitable and successful and that the vendor’s sole reason for disposal is advancing age. Looking to the engineering reputation of the firm acquired and maintained for many years, the numbers of orders on hand, and the large demand for agricultural implements both at home and abroad, shareholders may reasonably expect a profitable return on the capital employed.
The 76 shareholders included a cross-section of the local community, including a manufacturing chemist, plasterer, cattle dealer, farmers, a chartered accountant, grocer, wooden manufacturer, bank agent, solicitor, sadler, hairdresser, collector of taxes, advocate, bookseller, lecturer in agriculturer and a veterinary surgeon. Most of them – some 45 – were from Keith; few others were from outwit north-east Scotland.

The first a.g.m. of the limited company showed that it was making mixed progress. The business was carried out under the management of Mr Robert Boyd, who had been in the employment of the firm for over 20 years. However, two key figures died: James Auchinachie and James McWilliam. The company adopted the policy of equipping the company with the best plant available, so as to provide for economical production and a greatly increased output. New premises were erected inballoch Road, Leith, at a cost of around £2500. New plant was also purchased. The firm’s reputation for high quality continued to be fully continued. The productions of the company continued to be held in high regard by the agricultural community and the company had a large number of orders in hand.
The fortunes of the company changed and by September 1921 the company was making a significant loss (£924). There were further losses in following years, such as 1923, which led the company to resolve to wind up.

Auchinachie & Simpson: a key maker in Keith, and north-east Scotland.

The photographs of the hand drawn byre scraper were taken at the Aberdeenshire Farming Museum, August 2014.

In recent weeks we have posted the details of the key Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers in 1949 and 1964. Today, we post a list of the key makers from 1970. A number of the key names are missing, but a number still remain.

The remaining makers include:

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported Scottish agricultural implement makers Facebook in 2017 (and in previous years). I have really appreciated all your support and enthusiasm.

I’m looking forward to the vintage tractor and machinery rally season in 2018. It isn’t too many many months until the new season starts!

We often think of the large threshing mills that travelled around the farms, or that were stationed in the stackyards, as the only ways that threshing was undertaken within living memory. Threshing mill makers were well-ware of the potential of having smaller mills that could be used on the smallest farms and by crofters.

Back in the 1870s millwrights were starting to develop smaller thrashing machines that could be operated by foot power. In 1876 at the Highland Show, Shearer Brothers, Maybank Works, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, showed for the first time their “foot power thrashing mill” that it described as a “new invention”. It won one of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s medium silver medal.

By the mid 1960s the making of Scottish agricultural implements and machines was undertaken by a smaller number of makers than in the years following the end of the Second World War. A number of the key makers remained, though others had disappeared, or were soon to disappear.

Key names that were still making implements and machines in 1964 included:

Some of the Scottish agricultural implement makers went to England to carry on their trade and became very successful, and even known at every farm gate. One of them was Alex McGregor.

The North British Agriculturist tells of his story on 19 July 1893:

“Mr Alex McGregor- Although the works of Messrs Harrison, McGregor & Co. Ltd are situated south of the Tweed, we nevertheless, from his nationality, feel justified in including Mr Alex McGregor, one of the members of the firm, amongst representative Scottish agricultural engineers. Mr McGregor was born in Scotland, and spent a number of his earlier years year in this part of the country. After a time he migrated south, joining, as traveller and outdoor representative, the large and well-known firm of Picksley, Sims & Co., Leigh, Lancashire. Messrs Picksley, Sims & Co. did a large business in harvesting machines and general farm implements, and Mr McGregor, who had early shown much natural aptitude for practical mechanics, there found ample scope for the exercise of his undoubted talent and ability. He soon became widely known all over the country, and was the means of adding largely to the already influential position which his employers held as farm implement makers. Mr McGregor continued in the service of Messrs Picklsey, Sims & Co. for some years, but an opportunity printing itself of going into business on his own account, he, in conjunction with his friend and co-worker, Mr harrison, founded and started the now widely-known firm of Harrison, McGregor & Co. The new firm, with its works also in Leigh, Lancashire, proved very successful, the same good fortune which had followed Mr McGregor in his capacity of employee also attending him in his capacity of employer. Largely through his instrumentality and ability, trade increased year by year, until now Messrs Harrison, McGregor & Co hold a position second almost to none in the Kingdom. In the mower and reaper trade in particular they are practically unsurpassed, their “Albion” makes of mowers and reapers being universally admitted to be marvellously perfectly types of reaping machines, whether regard be had to appearance, style, finish, or workmanship in the field.”
Harrison, McGregor & Co., was superseded by Harrison, McGregor, Guest & Co. in 1946.

The major agricultural shows dominated the agricultural calendar. If you were a Scottish farmer, the peak of the show year was the Highland Show or the Royal Highland Show. For the Scottish implement and machine makers, it was one of the highlights, if not the highlight of the year. It was the place to launch new implements and machines (and enter one for the prestigious “New Implement” award), and to sell manufactures to the Scottish and other farmers and agriculturists. For some of the most important Scottish makers the Royal Show, or the “Royal”, usually held in June, was another important event in their calendars. So too, was the Smithfield, held in the middle of December.

The Smithfield was one of the most important shows for the English implement and machine makers to launch new manufactures. For the most important Scottish makers, the Smithfield was a chance for them to bring their manufactures to the attention of the English makers where all the “big” names were in attendance, as well as the English farmers and agriculturists. It was also an important forum for them to extend their reputations and their markets.

The number of Scottish implement and machine makers that attended Smithfield was, however, small. Their attendance reveals a great deal about who were the key players in the Scottish implement and machinery industry, their aspirations and the manufactures that they wanted to promote to the English agriculturist. Their numbers varied from year to year according to whether they had new manufactures and other factors. In 1903 there were six Scottish exhibitors; there were 14 in 1914.

Some of the Scottish makers were regular attenders. they included: Andrew Pollock (later A. & W. Pollock), Machine, J. D. Allan & Sons, Murthly, Thomas Hunter & Sons, Maybole, Alex Jack & Sons, Maybole, Ben Reid & Co, Aberdeen, and John Wallace & Sons Ltd, Glasgow. It is interesting to note how many of them are from Ayrshire.

Because of the limited amount of space at Smithfield, and the expense of taking implements, the Scottish makers exhibited key implements and machines. They also reflected their key manufactures and new productions, as well as improvements to them. They were also ambitious in what they took, as well s the stands that they hired: in 1903 the Scottish farmer reports “Andrew Pollock, Implement Works, Mauchline, Ayrshire, deserves credit and energy and pluck that promoted him to take stand 50, where his wares were on show”.

In 1903 J. & R. Wallace exhibited several of their manure distributors. Andrew Pollock’s manufactures included a cart with hay loader. J. D. Allan exhibited their thistle and bracken cutters. Thomas Hunter had a scarifier, drills, food coolers, hoes and many other implements. Alex Jack had potato-diggers, and manure distributors. ben Reid & co., had manure distributors, cultivators, pumps and other implements. John Wallace & Son Ltd, had “their usual exhibits” which included mowers and reapers, ploughs, potato-difggers and harrows.

All of these implements and machines were intimately associated with these makers. By 1903 they were associated with them. For example, the implements of Alex Jack & Sons were “well known: while John Wallace & Son was “already famed for their agricultural implements”.

We no longer have the Smithfield Show. But if you ask members of the agricultural community and implement makers what they associate December with, they might hjust say “Smithfield” and start reminiscing about the show and going to London.

The photographs of nameplates, seats eetc were taken at various rallies and events in Scotland in 2014 and 2015.