Factory goes up in smoke

THICK, pungent smoke belches skywards from the tonnes of flaming tyres set ablaze by a huge explosion in the heart of Edinburgh’s largest factory.

It’s January 1969, and the frosty air is soon to be fractured by three more explosions, further calami-ties caused by the dropped oxy-acetylene torch that had sparked the first.

This was the scene that met scores of firefighters as they rushed to save the North British Rubber Mills at the Uniroyal fac-tories 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 15ft from a window to escape the blaze

The factory had a long history which began more than 150 years ago when the American indus-trialist Henry Lee Norris sailed a merchant ship loaded with skilled workers across the icy Atlantic to Edinburgh.

It was 1856, and these hundreds of men and women were not the only precious cargo onboard – the ship also carried machines. The industrial revolution was at its height and the skills and steel of American mass production as well as the vision of Henry Lee Norris, gave birth to Scotland’s first vul-canised rubber plant– the North British Rubber Company.

By 1857, the company had pro-gressed from making boots and shoes, to producing rubber belting and hose. And by 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 anoth-er product that was key to the factory’s trade, whilst the advertising airship rises eerily as a por-tent of things to come the year after.

When war broke out in 1914 the firm cemented its reputation.

As wartime memories abated the company looked towards expanding in different ways. And in 1951 Edinburgh’s largest factory was built at Castle Mill, Foun-tainbridge, to hold the 3664 work-ers that were employed by the firm.

The 1960s were 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 a name change – Uniroyal Ltd.

Over the next seven years the reputation for quality and excel-lence, 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 those doors. “ I thought of the dozens of peo-ple who had each given more than 40 years of service in the place. You just don’t get that these days.”

• Mike Barry is a contact for the website, www.nbrinklies.com, which provides information and history on the company. If you think you can help expand the site, please email him at: [e-mail]