Exhibition captures the dying days of industrial Scotland

It was the late 1970s, and the dozens of foundries which had helped build the nation since the dawn of the industrial revolution, were in their death throes.

Soon all but a couple would be gone, tiny remnants of what was once a world-leading industry producing everything from Napoleonic War carronades to bathtubs, cooking ranges which brought hygienic and easy cooking to homes across the land, to railings and manhole covers, bricks to public telephone boxes.

In its heyday, the dozens of foundries, brickworks and fireclay mines dotted around the Falkirk area were powerhouses of production.

But by the time photographer Tom Astbury arrived to capture them on film, their number had been whittled down to just a few, and even they were on their last legs.

Now retired, he has gathered some of the hundreds of images he took during those final few years – captured during a race against time as the gates of one foundry after another slammed shut – for a new exhibition.

Last Underground Shift, Roughcastle Fireclay Mine. 22 Dec 1980 (Image: free)

His photographs offer a fascinating insight into the grim, dirty and often dangerous conditions that workers endured, and jobs which, but for a handful that remain in Scotland’s very few existing foundries, are now mostly long gone.

By the time Tom started to document the area’s rapidly disappearing industrial heart, countless foundries and brickworks had already closed. In the few that remained, he encountered workers who were acutely aware that their futures were bleak and their livelihoods on the line.

Yet, he says, he was welcomed inside by men and women anxious to ensure their slice of social history was recorded for future generations.

“Wherever I went, there were people about to lose their jobs but they always met me with interest and courtesy: they wanted to talk about the work they were doing,” he recalls.

“There was real camaraderie among the workers even though it was all coming to an end.”

Falkirk and its surrounding communities were at the centre of Scotland’s iron, steel and brickmaking industries for generations, with Carron Iron-works, founded in 1759, at the helm.

The foundry was famous for its short-range, short-barrelled naval cannons which were so effective that the Duke of Wellington insisted in 1812 that he only wanted Carron-made ‘carronades’ in his army.

However, the foundry also made a huge array of iron products including engines for steamboats, parts of James Watt’s revolutionary steam engine, iron tiles for the roof of the Houses of Parliament, stoves, cast iron bathtubs and, as time moved on, post boxes and telephone kiosks.

Casting, New Grange Foundry, Boness August 1979 (Image: free)

A hub of expertise for ironmaking and innovative design, it grew to become the largest iron works in Europe with more than 2,000 workers.

Alongside were dozens of other foundries, while a rich seam of fireclay that spanned the district helped to feed numerous brickworks which, as well as feeding demand at home, exported thousands of tons of bricks around the world every year.

Although the foundries, brickworks and mines were in their death throes by the time he arrived, Tom he says he found working conditions that appeared barely changed from how they would have been at the start of their lives.

“In the foundries like Falkirk Iron Works, you were struck the moment you walked in to the moulding shops that it was like stepping back in time to a Victorian age,” he says.

“There were rows upon rows of sand moulding boxes. The guys would go up to the furnace, pour out hot iron into a huge ladle on wheels that then trundled up and down the rows.

“For small mouldings, they used hand ladles to scoop the melted metal out and poor straight into these boxes. It was incredible to see them at work.”

Falkirk Iron Works was founded in 1810 and soon had two furnaces capable of melting 120 tons of iron each week. Among its most impressive products were 12ft high gates and railings for the palace of the chief of the Peruvian Government in Lima, highly detailed and featuring foliage, fruit and coats of arms.

The foundry also produced thousands of stoves for the British and French governments, and everything from ornamental inkwells to components for bridges before its closure in 1981.

Foundry Worker, Comely Bank Foundry, Denny. July 1979 (Image: free)

When Tom arrived at Cannerton Brickworks, in Banknock, he found a surprising number of women working in the harsh, stifling environment.

“A lot of the kiln workers were women, which I didn’t expect.

“After firing, the bricks would be too hot and hand to be left to cool, while the unfired ‘green’ brick waiting to be fired would have to be moved.

“There were various different chambers, and the women would be working between them, stacking the bricks.

“It was very heavy work, and it was incredibly hot.

“There was one woman I photographed, very proudly holding up one of the bricks, but the picture can’t really show the horrendous heat and how hard the work was.”

Tom, who lives in Dunblane, was working for Falkirk District Council's museum service at the time he took many of his photographs, with some now stored in Falkirk Council's archives.

As well as documenting buildings and places, he captured images of the people he came across at work, to ensure their role in the area's industrial past would not be overlooked.

“They were in tough jobs working in hard conditions," he adds. "That often builds a camaraderie which is also lost as these places closed.”

In one case, he recorded the final moments of the last shift at Roughcastle fireclay mine, on 22nd December, 1980. The men’s smiles belie the fact that they faced uncertain futures, as the heavy industry they were used to shut down around them and unemployment rates soared.

“The mine buildings and incline entrance sat where the Falkirk Wheel is today,” adds Tom, who went on to work in television and film as a cameraman. “Roughcastle was opened as a coal mine in 1889, but with the coal seam sitting within fireclay deposits, the extraction of clay became more important.

“In the 1970s the men were producing around 20 tons of coal and 95 tons of clay per day.”

The photographs will form an exhibition and talk to be held on August 4 at The Barracks Conference Centre in Stirling, part of Stirling Photography Festival, Reflect 2023.

For programme details go to www.stirlingphotographyfestival.co.uk/2023

Further images by Tom Astbury are held by Falkirk Council's archive at https://collections.falkirk.gov.uk/persons/7/tom-astbury