Scottish agricultural implement makers

If you are familiar with the Scottish ploughing scene, you will know the name of the plough maker Robert Begg & Sons, Dalry, Ayrshire.

Robert Begg set up as a ploughmaker in Dalry, Ayrshire in 1864.  By 1914 he could advertise in The Scottish farmer: “R. Begg, 50 years reputation, Dalry, Ayrshire”.

We know little of his early activities, though he was advertising his ploughs in the North British Agriculturist in April 1876.  By 1903 he is recorded as being an agricultural implement maker, a retail ironmonger, a smith and a smith and farrier.  By 1912 he was joined by his sons, naming his business Robert Begg & Sons.  It was run by Robert Begg and his son John. Robert died in early 1927, and the business was carried on his son.  John died by 1941 and the business was transferred to Robert Wilson, Barrhead, who continued it under Begg’s name.  In 1951 the business became incorporated as Robert Begg & Sons Limited, but was out of existence by October 1976 and was dissolved in the following year.

Begg’s business was associated with Sharon Street, Dalry, where it is recorded in 1886 and into at least the 1950s.  From 1914 his address was the “Implement Works, Dalry.”

Robert Begg took an important step in developing his business in 1912 when he exhibited at his first Highland Show, held in that year at Cupar.  This was the start of an association with the show that continued, more or less continuously, until 1960.  Begg also took the important step of entering a plough into the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland’s exhibition of farm tractors and tractor implements in 1922.  In following years, he also entered ploughs and other exhibits for the Society’s new implement award: in 1923, a double furrow self-lift tractor plough with self-lifting gear, and in 1928, Falconer’s patent mouldboard and Falconer’s coulter.

While Begg’s business changed with the times, so too did his ploughs.  In 1914, Robert made a range of ploughs which included drill ploughs, double furrow ploughs, as well as bar point chill ploughs and chill ploughs.  His chill ploughs were sold under the name “The Begg”.

In 1926, Begg’s ploughs included a double furrow-self lift tractor plough, with moveable points and swivel disc coulter (sold at £36 10s), a moveable point plough, with double wheels for lea and stubble ploughing (£10 10s), chill plough, plain beam, single wheel, for lea and stubble ploughing (£9).  As well as drill ploughs, he also sold baulking ploughs, diamond harrows, zig zag harrows, grubbers and drill harrows.

In 1956 the “Begg” tractor ploughs included power lift ploughs, single furrow general purpose; power lift, double furrow, general purpose, single furrow, bar point digger, single furrow, spring-loaded bar point, three furrow general purpose and double furrow with adjustable land wheel.

Begg’s ploughs were also well-known on the ploughing match fields. For example, in 1925 it sold its “prize chill ploughs” and in 1928 and 1929 its “champion swing ploughs”.

Today, you can still see Begg’s ploughs at some of the ploughing matches and at vintage agricultural machinery rallies around the country.  Ask anyone who Begg was and they will say a leading ploughmaker from Ayrshire.

The photographs of of the Begg ploughs were taken at the Scottish National Tractor Show, Lanark, September 2014.

© 2016 Heather Holmes

As well as the larger implement and machine makers in the towns, cities and some larger villages, there were a large number of small businesses scattered throughout rural Scotland which served the farming community with implements and machines or repaired them.  They included engineers, millwrights and smiths.  Over time, some of them also started to stock a small number of implements and machines from other makers, and acted as local agents, a role that could transform their businesses.

Have you ever noticed how many machines have belts or chains to drive power?

Balata belting was made by a number of companies in Scotland.  They included R. & J. Dick Ltd, Greenhead Works, Glasgow, established in 1846, and maker of “Dick’s Original” balata and rubber belting.

Weekly markets were, and still are, an important place for farmers to meet their fellow farmers and members of the agricultural community and to conduct business.

Back in the late 1860s when agricultural implement agents were starting to emerge in Scotland, they needed a place where they could set up their stands and promote and sell their implements and machines to farmers and other agriculturists.  The corn exchanges and cattle markets in the Scottish towns and cities, and especially the large markets in Edinburgh and Glasgow, were a natural choice for them, being established places for farmers to conduct their business.

By the mid 1870s a number of implement agents, as well as makers, had stands at the corn exchanges and in the Corn Exchange Buildings throughout the market towns of Scotland.  Some simply had a stand at the market, others an office space or rooms.  For example, in 1864 John Pringle of the Scottish Agricultural Implement Depots, Edinburgh, Kelso and Dunse, was also found “at the Corn Exchanges, Edinburgh, Dalkeith, Haddington, Dumfries, Cupar, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy”.  Another important user of the markets was A. & J. Main & Co., Glasgow.  In 1870 that company had an address that included the “Corn Exchanges Stirling, Falkirk, and Ayr, and Cattle Market Glasgow on market days”.  By 1874 it advertised that “representatives of the company attend the markets at Edinburgh, Dalkeith, Cupar, Kirkcaldy, Kelso, Glasgow, and Stirling.”  That maker must have had the largest network of any implement and machine maker in Scotland.  Across Scotland, in 1877 Harper & Co., had an address at Market Buildings, Hadden Street, Aberdeen. In 1886 A. T. Pringle, had an address in the Corn Exchange Buildings, Grassmarket, Edinburgh, an address and place where a number of other makers and agents were located.  They included A. & J.Main & Co., Edinburgh (from the 1880s) and Jonathan Mack (in 1890).  In Glasgow the Corn Exchange Buildings was the home to companies such as W. G. Morrison & Co., timber merchant and importer of foreign pit wood, from the late 1870s.

Agricultural districts also developed around the agricultural markets.  In Edinbrugh these included the streets around the Grassmarket, including Victoria Street and the top of George IV Bridge, where for a number of years the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture and the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland had their offices.  You can still see the former offices of the Highland Society if you stand outside the National Library of Scotland and look across the road.  There you will see the Society’s “Museum”.

In Glasgow, Graham Square was an important centre for implement and machines makers in Glasgow and the west of Scotland from the mid 1860s onwards. Some of the most important companies had an office there.  From 1865 John Wallace & Son had an address at 7 Graham Square (by the mid 1870s, it premises extended to numbers 7-15).  In that year Dunn & Co., “agricultural implement and reaping machine agents” had an office at number 11.  In 1870 H. Lyall & Sons, agents, had premises at numbers 15 and 17.  The business was an important, but short-lived, focus for a number of Scottish as well as English implement and machine makers including J. & T. Young, Ayr, A. Mollison, Kelso, Thomas Hunter, Maybole, Trustees of William Sawney, Beverley, Yorkshire, Picksley, Sims & C. Ltd, Leigh, Lancashire, Lillie & Elder, Berwick on Tweed, and Brigham & Bickerton, Berwick On Tweed. In 1879 J. P. Cathcart, an agricultural machinery merchant, which had an office at 135 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, and Ayr, also had a depot in the Square.  In 1880 Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole, had an address at number 32, and by 1886 this maker had located to no. 20.  In 1886 the English maker Harrison, McGregor & Co., also had an address in the Square; this was an early date for an English maker to have a business address in Scotland.  In 1889 Andrew Bullock had an address at number 16, while in 1892 P. & R. Fleming & Co., had an address at number 16; it had its works at Market Street which adjoined Graham Square.  By 1906 Charles Weir, Strathaven, had a Glasgow depot at the “corner of Graham square”.  This was later described as the “right hand corner” of the Square.

When the cattle and corn markets moved addresses in the large towns, as a result of town planning needs, and to established new market centres, such as at Chesser, Edinburgh, home to the Edinburgh cattle markets, slaughterhouses and the Edinburgh Corn Exchange, until recent decades, implement and machine makers also moved with them.

My grandfather was a regular market attender at Chesser on a Wednesday.  It was an important place for him to make contact with the Edinburgh implement and machine makers that had a stand there and to conduct business.

The mart was a focal point for a number of Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers and for farmers.  It was a place that facilitated business between the two. It brought new innovations, the latest developments, as well as the stock implements and machines, and news of second hand machines, to the attention of farmers and other agriculturists.  It let farmers and other agriculturists purchase these implements and machines and for them to use them on their farms.  The mart was therefore a key part of the business of selling and diffusing agricultural technology in Scotland.

Photographs: India Buildings, Edinburgh, and the former Glasgow cattle market and Graham Square, Glasgow.

© 2016 Heather Holmes

The machines for dressing tatties have come along way since the mid nineteenth century.

They had been simple affairs.  In 1875 P. & R. Fleming, Glasgow, sold a potato-riddler, invented by Sawney, for £3 10s.

By 1900 there were a range of riddles and machines available. Matthew Dunlop, Glasgow, sold Dunlop’s potato screen, galvanised for the cost of £1 5s while P. & R. Fleming & Co., had a galvanised potato riddler at a cost of £1 7s 6d.  There were also potato sorting machines. John Scoular & Co., Stirling, had a new patent potato dressing riddle for £6 10s while A. & J. Main & Co Limited, Edinburgh, had a patent potato sorter for £7 10s.  Penney & Co Limited, engineers, Lincoln, had a potato separator and riddle which divides the potatoes into three sizes at one operation for £9.

A number of companies that made potato diggers started to also make potato sorters.  Noted names included Pollock of Mauchline, Ayrshire, (making a range of potato equipment in the 1870s), David Wilson, East Linton, East Lothian, and John Munro, Kirkcaldy, Fife.  In 1914, David Wilson was making and selling potato cleaning and sizing machines as well as potato washing machines and potato sporting boxes, a recent development.  Wilson had won an equal premium (with 3 other machines) at the all-important Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland trials of potato digger or lifters in 1911.

In 1939 potato sorters were made and sold by a number of makers.  J. L. & J. Ballach, Edinburgh, made the Ballach’s potato sorter, new improved, with angle-iron frame and steel spared elevator.  Thomas Sherriff & Co., West Barns, East Lothian, had a power driven potato dressing machine. Eapecially popular were ones made by John Monro, Kirkcaldy, and Cooch & Son, Commercial Street, Northampton. Cooch’s machines were sold in Scotland from at least 1914, by dealers such as Kemp & Nicholson, Stirling.  In 1939 Cooch exhibited six potato sorters at the Highland Show in Edinburgh, ranging from £7 10s to £60 for the potato sorter no 6A, with patent roller conveyor, feeding elevator, and petrol engine.

Cooch’s machines remained popular in Scotland as did those of Munro.  By 1948 Kenneth Mckenzie & Sons, Evanton, Ross-shire, was to become associated with one of John Munro’s potato sorters, the “Eclipse potato sorter no 3”, which was the “outcome of forty-years’ experience in the manufacture of potato sorters.”  It is worth describing the machine, as it was entered for a New Implement award at the Highland Show in that year:

“This machine … delivers both seed and ware onto the conveyor, which is wider than on the earlier models, and which has a division up the centre thereby delivering seed size at one side and ware size at the other, where both can be hand-picked before being discharged into bags, four of which can be fitted at the delivery end.
The machine uses the flat riddle principle with a circular movement, resembling hand-riddling.  The potatoes do not suffer damage, and are better dressed and cleared than by other methods.
Although designed for power drive to handle large quantities of potatoes, the machine can be operated by hand in an emergency.
The machine and 1hp air cooled power unit with clutch are mounted on four large-sized wheels for travelling.  These are fitted with very strong endless conveyor chains with octagon revolving slats so constructed that they revolve, thereby continuously turning the potatoes over and over, enabling defective tubers to be removed.”

The experience of working at the tattie dressing changed greatly over the years.  Hand riddles represented an important step forward in dressing, as were the early sorters.  My father recollects, in the 1950s, turning the handle on the dresser to power the machine (and what hard work that was!); my mother the cold of standing at the dressing table in the “straw shed” and the women wearing the fur coats to keep warm after they were no longer in fashion.

My father invested in a new dressing line in the 1970s.  I spent many an evening at the 28lb and 56lb weighing machine while he was on the smaller bagging machine.  The work got me through my English exams at school – what a great way to learn all the literature quotations!  My mother spent nearly 40 years working at the dressing table on the winter evenings, and I spent nearly 20 years on the 28lb bags.  It was a far-cry from the earlier days at the tattie dressing.

Source: The riddle was photographed at the Scottish National Tractor Show, 2014, and the dressing shed at Pilmuir, Balerno, Midlothian, in the 1990s.

© 2016 Heather Holmes

If you were really keen on competition ploughing in the second half of the nineteenth century (and into the twentieth century), you would have kept a keen eye on the work of the ploughs of Gray of Uddingston, Lanarkshire, at the Uddingston Iron Works.  John Gray & Co, followed by George Gray & Co, were the most important makers of competition ploughs in Scotland.  Their ploughs carried away numerous prizes at the ploughing matches throughout the length and breadth of the country. 

If you were an Aberdeenshire farmer at the turn of the twentieth century you may have been familiar with the name of Allan Brothers, engineers, 102 West North Street in the city.  From 1901 the company moved to the Ashgrove Engineering Works, Back Hilton Road, in the city, where it continued its business for the next half century.

The company was started by James Allan and Richard Allan, but their partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in February 1899.  James took over the business, carrying it on under the name of Allan Brothers.  The company became incorporated as Allan Brothers (Aberdeen) Limited in 1847, and finally wound up its business in 1857, having ceased business in the summer of 1956. 

Some machines on the farm were worked by foot power.  Two come to mind: the hand and foot threshers made by Shearer Bros, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, and grindstones for sharpening knives and other hand-tools.

What other machines did you use that were powered by foot?

The photographs were taken at Highland Folk Museum rally, May 2015.

© 2016 Heather Holmes

Horses provided an important source of power for a range of grain processing activities on the farm such as threshing and dressing from the late eighteenth century onwards.  The remains of that horse power can still be seen on some Scottish farms.  Some farms, especially smaller ones and crofts, had a “horse walk”, a raised, circular platform, in part of the farm steading.  This was linked to a drive-shift which powered a mill.  On the larger farms, there were horse mill buildings.  These can be easily recognised: they are generally round(ish) buildings with pantile or slate roofs with full-height openings between sections in the wall to provide ventilation from the working animals.  Next to them was a building in which was a mill. 

Have you ever stopped to look at how many forms of power there are around the rally fields? There is hand power, foot power, horse power, steam power, petrol power, diesel power, gas power …

There are a number of examples of machines powered by hand around the rally fields and agricultural museums. They include some of the older exhibits – hand thrashers, turnip cutters and a range of barn machinery as well as lawn mowers. And, of course, the early tractors had to be started by hand. 

© 2016 Heather Holmes