History

February 22 2010

Lorna Kinnaird the Great Grandaughter of Margaret Stewart Samuel Donaldson who worked with North British Rubber Company has sent us this very interesting piece of history which the Editor is delighted to show on this History page of www.nbrinklies.com web site
It also serves to acknowledge the hard work and many years service that Lorna's Great-Grandmother did for the Rubber company.

Lorna writes
My Great Grandmother Margaret Stewart Samuel Donaldson, m.s. Milne worked with the NB Rubber Company during the First and Second World Wars. Around 1920 she worked in the North British Rubber Co Ltd in Dundee St, and while there she and another lady made special shoes for Queen Mary’s daughter (Princess Mary), and then went down to Buckingham Palace to present the shoes to her. When World War II broke out, she became a Post Woman. Later returning to the Rubber Mill and then retiring after many years’ service after a presentation of a Carriage Clock (which still works and is in the possession of her daughter, 95 years old this year). Margaret continued to live at 73 Angle Park Terrace, Edinburgh , until she became ill and stayed with her daughter and husband at 34 Shandon Crescent , Edinburgh . Margaret Milne or Donaldson is pictured here on the left of the picture.

“The Princess was also pleased to accept a pair of model patterns made by the last working pattenmaker of the City of London . He died in the year 1904, and carried on his trade in Bartholomew Place until within a few years of that date. The Master was accompanied by Sir Philip Dawson, M.P. L.C.C., the Renter Warden ; the Renter Warden Select, and hon. Secretary of the Rubber Boot and Shoe Manufacturers’ Association of Great Britain; Mr Charles Fitch, Clerk of the Company; and Miss Lena Brown, Miss Harriet Carran, Mrs Margaret Donaldson, and Miss Nellie Pendleton, who had been selected by their fellow employees in the various factories to represent them, and who had personally assisted in making the galoches and other rubber footwear comprised in the presentation.”

Lorna is working on scanning from the original paper another picture and news cutting of the ladies with the whole footwear presentation Lorna also said: "We would be honoured if this would be possible as my Great-Grandmother was such a courageous and well-loved person within her community. She will always hold a special place in my heart"

We now have the newspaper cuttings from the City Press Saturday February 25 1922--these have
been sized to be able to read as cuttings--the whole of the left hand column is shown plus a the
photograph FROM THE PATTERNMAKERS COMPANY for Princess Mary

Below is the photo of the four ladies mentioned Miss Lena Brown, Miss Harriet Carran,
Mrs Margaret Donaldson and Miss Nellie Pendleton who had been selected by their fellow
employees in the various factories to represent them, and who had personally assisted in
making the galoches and other rubber footwear comprised in the presentation

I found another photograph of my Great-Grandmother and the North British Rubber Company –
that you might want to put onto your website. This was again in my Great-Grandmother’s
collection and I doubt very much if there is any copyright attached to it. Certainly there is
nothing on the front or back of the photograph. She is standing on top of the vehicle second
from the left.

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October 25 2009
We are grateful to our friend Pablo in Barcelona for unearthing these stories

Laurie Norris-Coccio, an American descendent of Henry Lee Norris, the founder
of the North British Rubber Company in 1856 has traced her family tree back
to Edward Norris, b. 1550 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. She has very kindly
sent these three photos which are shown below

W. Firth, T.G. Douglas, L.L. Hyatt, J.B. Harris, Henry Collett, W. Hewison,
I.W. Morison, J. Seston, Andrew Ogg

Thanks to Martin Hale we learn that Laurie and her husband Chris really enjoyed
their visit to Scotland and below are two photos of their visit. The first showing off the "Hunter" boots purchased in Grantown on Spey, plus a photo of Laurie and Chris
half way up Ben Nevis--Thank you Laurie for taking the time and trouble to send the
pictures of Howard Lee Norris and the photos of you and your husband--Editor

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February 22 2009
The North British Rubber Company Fire brigade of 1949

The photo was kindly loaned by Ron and Margaret Scott
Margaret's late father A. Crosbie, the Blacksmith,
is shown in second row of photo

(Ron was the G&M W U Chairman at both Castle Mills and Newbridge)

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February 4 2009
Thanks again to Pablo of Barcelona we have two old pictures--
Castle Mills and Workers with long service

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The picture below is of workers who had long service,
in some cases in excess of 50 years--read on

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Sandy Kay visited the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street Edinburgh and took this fine photograph of the NBR War memorial--thank you Sandy and Margaret

We are grateful to our friend Pablo in Barcelona for unearthing this story written in the India Rubber Works magazine of April 1909--close to a hundred years ago. It brings out several stories of the very competitive nature of the business and the payment by Dunlop of £973,300 to the North British Rubber company for the Bartlett patent , leaving them the right to make and sell tyres under the same patent. (In todays terms I am told that this would be in excess of a £100million)

July 24 2008

The War Memorial
Stewart once again keeps us up to date and I quote

"As promised I can confirm that the war memorial plates are now featured
prominently near the entrance to the new permanent exhibition entitled
"Scotland :A changing Nation "
on level 6 of the National Museum of Scotland in
Chambers Street Edinburgh.
They have cleaned them up nicely and I believe that this will be their resting
place for at least the next year thereafter I don't yet know but the exhibition
curator has promised to keep me informed.

Thank you Stewart Segrott

We have to thank Stewart Segrott for updating us with
regard to the War Memorial

The original memorial plates were moved to Newbridge from Castle Mills around the early 1970's
where they were placed on a Granite plinth just inside the factory gates .In 2000 when Continental
handed over the Newbridge site to the developers we arranged for the plates to be removed from
the plinth and they were stored in a retained warehouse in Broxburn for another two years.

Stewart then arranged for them to be delivered to the The Scottish War Museum .Stuart Allan at
the Museum has advised Stewart that the plates are still in storage at the Museum depot in Leith
but they have been catalogued and photographed.

It is still proposed that they will now feature in a 20th Century Industrial heritage room which is to
be opened at the National Museum for Scotland in Chambers Street Edinburgh at the end of 2008.

January 30 2008
From the June 1957 Annual Report

throughout the year
|Below is the remainder of column one

The Edinburgh Evening News published an article on the subject of the tyre plant fire at Castle Mills in January 1966. It is not practical to show it as it was in the newspaper as it would have been unreadable size wise. We have included all pictures and text
Our thanks are due to Mike and Val Barrie for all their hard work in making it happen. It is also encouraging to note that many more 'hits' to the site have been recorded since September 29 2007 when the article was shown.
Thank you to the Edinburgh Evening News

Landmark city tyre plant set ablaze after blast started by oxy-acetylene torch

Blazing Drama--The North British rubber mills Uniroyal factories in Viewforth after explosion rocked the building
starting a massive fire back in January 1969

                           Factory goes up in Smoke
                                   by Andrew Davies-Cole
       Thick pungent smoke belches skyward from the tonnes of flaming tyres set ablaze by a huge explosion in the heart
of Edinburgh's largest factory. In January 1969, and the frosty air is soon to be fractured by three more explosions

further calamities caused by the dropped acetylene torchthat had sparked the first.
This was the scene that met scores of firefighters as they rushed to save the north british Rubber Mills at Uniroyal
factories in Viewforth. They would have had fair warning of the extent of the damage. The surrounding area had

been blanketed with smoke and the incident could be seen from as far away as the West End.
       Incredibly there was only one injury to a worker who leapt 15 ft from a window to escape the blaze.
       The factory had a long history which began more than 150 years ago when the American Industrialist Henry Lee
Norris sailed a merchant ship loaded with skilled workers across the icy Atlantic to Edinburgh.
       It was 1856and these hundreds of menand women were not the only precious cargo on board---the ship also
carried machines . The industrial revolution was at it's heightand the skills and steel,of American mass production

as well as the vision of Henry Lee Norris, gave birth to Scotland's first vulcanised rubber plant--The North British
`Rubber Company.
By 1857, the company had progressed from making rubber boots and shoes, to rubber belting and hose. And in
1869, it was employing 600 operatives and turning out a vast variety of articles.

In 1870 the development of the road steamer or traction engine, started the tyre trade. From then on the story of
the North British Rubber Company is one of steady expansion. One picture from 1913 shows how the Braid Hills
Golf course played host to an advertising stunt on behalf of the factory. The huge golf balls drew attention to another productthat was key to the factory's trade, while the advertising airship rises eerily as a portent of things to come the

When war broke out in 1914 the firm cemented it's reputation. As wartime memories abated the company looked
towards expanding in different ways. And in 1951 Edinburgh's largest factory was built at castle mills, Fountainbridge,
to hold the 3664 workers that were employed by the firm.

The 1960'swere a key time for the company whose factory was once a significant Edinburgh landmark Whilst 1965

saw the company win a belting order numbering 600,000 for cast mining in Russia, 1966 brought the name change to
Uniroyal Ltd.

Over the next seven years the reputation for quality and excellence, which castle mills had long held , was absorbed
into the new organisation , but the factory itself was closed in 1973

Former Personnel Manager, Mike Barrie was the man who locked the doors of the factory for the last time. He said;
"I felt nostalgic when i closed the doors. I thought of the dozens of people who had given more than 40 years of service

This is a fascinating story of the past and we have to thank Jim Sinclair for taking the time and trouble to do the leg work to get this information from the Library in Edinburgh. His efforts enable the rest of us to learn from the text

Jim tells me that the copy of the lecture booklet is 24 pages but one is only able to copy six pages However the six are full of good and informative stories—thank you Jim

From a lecture in 1924 by W.W.Williams whom I presume to have been an employee of North British Rubber during the First World War

The NBR Company had been dealing with German companies
and in particular Continental prior to 1914 The story we have leads in :

In the countering of another form of German culture, the Edinburgh factories were heavily called upon , and under when speed of production and reliability were essential to meet the call of the unexpected. We were totally unprepared and with no appliances or equipment , as has been recorded elsewhere , to meet the German gas attacks, and the demand was made for immediate supplies of anti-gas equipment in the form of respirator tubes , breathing valves and anti-gas mask fabrics. These were all forthcoming and with the latter the Victoria Rubber company were actively engaged . I am informed by them that they produced for the fighting services just on half a million square yards of this special fabric for the manufacture of gas masks as a protection to our men against this hideous form of warfare.

From these references to our participation in the special forms of warfare in the sea and on the land, let me pass to the air where the technical knowledge available here was of such material assistance in both the offensive and defensive aspects of the campaign, and was on more than one occasion able to assist in difficulties, where apparently help from other quarters was unavailable. Such a statement sounds incredible, but history has shown that as a nation we were unprepared in many ways , and as far as our lighter-than-air craft equipment went , the question of supplies to the services was certainly in a dangerous position. For some years prior to the war we had made repeated efforts to obtain orders for gas-bag material for the construction of airships and balloons, and although we were actually supplying material to the French Government from the Edinburgh factory for airship construction, we could not get our people to encourage us with a single order.

As affairs turned out, it was fortunate that we had continued our efforts in spite of these rebuffs, which were most discouraging, as the only source of supply our own people would use was German, the bulk of their requirements being obtained from Continental Company of Hanover.

With the outbreak of war in August 1914, supplies naturally ceased, and the navy, who at this period were solely responsible for lighter-than-air craft, were left without the means of continuing their construction. At this stage someone remembered that in the north possibly lay the solution of the difficulty, and the speaker spent the best part of night in the constructional sheds at Walney island, getting the particulars of the gas-bag material that was needed to complete two ships of the Parseval type, numbers 6L and 7L,which were urgently required for service. The requisite fabric was supplied within a few weeks,

As, fortunately, from our experience of the French ships, we had technical knowledge to enable us to proceed at once with the work. Although I have no actual knowledge of their performance, both ships went into commission and, no doubt, rendered a good account of themselves, being used for coast patrol work on the East Coast and carrying out a great number of night cruises. As far as our participation in their completion was concerned, I am afraid we received little recognition. It was all in the day’s work so to speak, and the only acknowledgement of the situation I should like to quote appeared in a book, “The British Aircraft industry” published immediately after the war. Speaking of these early days it states, “the first obstacle was the supply of suitable fabric. The only British firm with a knowledge of balloon fabrics at that time was the North British Rubber company of Edinburgh”

You may be interested in the general particulars of design of these Parseval ships. Their length was 312 feet, width 57 feet, height 70feet, gross capacity 36,000cubic feet, 360h.p.maximum speed 40 miles per hour, with an endurance of1,000 miles at full power.

     The necessity in the land campaign of close observation of troop movements, and particularly the spotting and controlling of artillery fire, produced an ever-increasing demand for captive or kite balloons. The demand was first made in 1915, again quoting the publication just referred to, it stated that the first British kite balloon manufactured was from cloth supplied by the Victoria Rubber Company, Edinburgh. The advantages of this method of observation were quickly realized, and brought a heavy demand upon the Edinburgh factories. Up to this period, spotting had been done entirely by aeroplane, and many a good aeroplane pilot had wasted hours in flying in a single circle watching a certain spot, waiting for the German guns to disclose their positions. Occasionally, I am told, our battery with which they were working became bored and moved their position whilst their observer was still in the air , and when he did signal it was to a friend who was not there. It was found better policy to send up kite balloons and so free an aeroplane pilot for work more suitable. An artillery officer, more experienced in fire control, did much better in the balloon, being in direct   telephone communication with his battery and not fluttering round sending signals to a deserted hole in the ground.

     With the increasing size of our Army the call for balloon material became greater than the factory capacity at Castle Mills, and was incidentally the cause of much indignation from residents in Edinburgh as to why, when such stringent regulations were imposed as to the showing of lights at night, the North British rubber Company were allowed to have a glare at Fountainbridge that could be seen for many miles around. The explanation is a simple one and was a case of necessity. It was decided that a new block of buildings had to be erected and time was an important factor. A four-storey building, 190 feet by 55 feet, built of reinforced concrete and brick, as steel was unavailable, was erected.

     The instructions were received in September 1916, and the building and machinery had to be ready by the following Spring; that was the order! Building had to be proceeded with, therefore, during the winter months and with reinforced concrete was no easy undertaking. Night and day work was resorted to, and you will realize brick laying cannot be successfully done in the dark. The whole operation was accordingly illuminated at night by large electric lamps out in the open, and, in addition, fires were kept going around the concrete work to keep off the frost, which we were unfortunately troubled with. Hence the complaints and letters in the papers, etc., suggesting pro-German tendencies, illustrated by the beacon to attract the enemy air raiders. But fears were groundless. The lights were controlled by one service switch which could plunge the place into darkness instantly and the fires doused in a few minutes.

     The speaker was in telephone communication with the Scottish Defense, who used to ring up at all odd hours, sometimes, I thought, for their amusement. The call was “Field Marshal’s call only”; that meant “all right, do nothing,” and to be pulled out of your bed at any uncomfortable hour to receive this call produced anything but a good opinion of the Field Marshal, whoever he may have been. I did omit to answer the call on one or two occasions, but then my front door bell was furiously rung shortly afterwards by a policeman who came to enquire what I was doing. Apparently the explanation sufficed, and I suppose they realized I was human and must sleep sometimes, as no dire penalties befell me.

For a period, practically the whole of the requirements of the kite balloon service were supplied by the Edinburgh factories, but as the importance of this arm of the fighting services increased, and also the demand, it was necessary for security of supplies not to be dependent on one factory from which the bulk of the material was obtained, with the danger of this manufacture being cut off by fire or air raid. Consequently, when these further additions were completed, the ever-increasing demand over this output was spread to other works around the country.

One interesting matter I might mention in connection with unexpected and sudden demands was that occasioned by the entry of America into the war. We were informed they were not in a position to equip themselves with balloons and we should need to help out the United States Army. No doubt some of this was done, but we in Edinburgh were able to give such assistance that, whilst not manufacturing the balloon fabric, we could give America just that information to enable them to manufacture quickly for their own requirements. We took into The North British Rubber Company representatives of the American Air Force, who were also technical rubber men, and showed and told them all we knew. Further, when their instruction, which was of the intensive kind, was complete, we sent back with them to America a practical man to see their plant operating properly. It was fortunate also that we had supplied to America, from our works here in 1911, machinery of the type suitable for this class of work, so that no delay was met with in the shipping or building of machinery. By this means we did out bit in giving the United States Army their eyes to see with.

One other achievement in this sphere was the manufacture of a special type of fabric which successfully withstood the severe climatic conditions of the Palestine and Mesopotamian campaigns. The balloons that were used in the European fields of operation were found to be quite unsuitable for the East, and gave a very limited service. This difficulty was overcome by a special protective manufacturing process, a product of the factory research staff.

The facts of a little game of bluff we practiced on the Germans by means of decoy or miniature balloons may be of interest. The real kite balloon had a capacity of 37,000 cubic feet, and was flown at a height of something like 4,000 feet and upwards well behind the trenches, generally several miles. To make the enemy think he was under observation, and to induce him to fire his batteries and disclose gun positions, exact miniatures of these full sized balloons were flown. They were of a capacity of 600 cubic feet and reached an altitude of 1,000 feet, a doll being put in the basket to represent the observer. To make the illusion perfect they were let up from the forward trenches in the halt light of early moaning. The stunt was, I believe, quite effective for a time, until the enemy got wise and shy of early morning I>B> efforts.

Altogether during the war the Edinburgh factories manufactured over 2 ¼ million yards of balloon cloth, and at the time of the Armistice were turning out something like 50,000 yards per week, part of which was being concerted into the finished balloon, and balance being sent elsewhere to balloon constructors. The control wok in the hands of the aeronautical laboratory, which was installed at Castle Mills to supervise and test the manufacture, was no mean achievement. Time is not available to refer to this in any detail, except to say that at the height of productive capacity eighty diffusion tests for checking hydrogen leakage and some hundreds of tensile tests were carried out every twenty-four hours. The rapid development of kite balloon manufacture was one of the marvels of the war, only possible through the research work of a private enterprise which also promptly responded to the requirements of airship construction and made possible the wishes of the Air Department under conditions of emergency and great difficulty.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, I must bring my discourse to a close. Time has not been available to give you many details which have been necessarily omitted, and with others touched on my remarks have been simply in outline and can convey to you nothing but a sketchy description of the subject. I trust, however, it has been sufficient to give you an intelligent history of the growth of the rubber industry in our city, and to indicate that our efforts have not been without their effect for the good of the industry as a whole. In times of emergence we were able to take our full share in the Empire’s call for assistance, and in the help we gave to America we were able to repay any debt of sentiment to that country, occasioned by the enterprise of a few of their citizens establishing the rubber industry in “Edinburgh”.

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February 2007 North British Rubber Book

March 12 2007
This is a NBR advertisement --probably from a time between 1920 and 1939 but the Editor is only guessing if anyone knows better please let me know It is also interesting to note the mention of the 5 line telephone exchange--how times have changed ! !
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In order to be able to read the information it has been sectionalised and
the parts are shown below

In order to assist you in reading this advert below is shown the parts in larger type

Top Left shown Below Top Right shown below

An interesting record from the Scotsman from 75 years ago of a royal visit to Castle Mills

We have to thank Stewart Segrott for updating us with regard to the War Memorial

This is a fascinating story of the past and we have to thank Jim Sinclair for taking the time and trouble to do the leg work to get this information from the Library in Edinburgh. His efforts enable the rest of us to learn from the text

From a lecture in 1924 by W.W.Williams whom I presume to have been an employee of North British Rubber during the First World War

We have to thank Stewart Segrott for updating us with
regard to the War Memorial