Pitwood Imports

In the early days of coalmining, not all of the coal in a seam was removed.  Pillars of coal were left in order to support the roof of the workings – a system known as stoup and room.  This method continued in Scotland until the long-wall method was introduced from England in the late 18^th century and was promoted by the Carron Company.  Now all of the coal from a seam was removed and the roof was temporarily supported by pit props of timber.  Upon the working out of a section of the seam the props were removed and the roof was allowed to collapse – resulting in subsidence above at ground level.  The necessary wood was obtained from local sources and had to be cut to size by the colliers at the pit head.  The wood needed to be strong enough to bear the weight of the roof, but not so expensive that it was too costly.  Spruce woods were therefore preferred as they were cheap and, being relatively free of knots, were strong under compression.

Local supplies from the large estates such as Dunmore, Callendar and Kinneil were soon so diminished that prices rose and it became necessary to import the timber from further north.  This trade was given a huge fillip in the 1850s when railways connected the ports at Grangemouth, Bo’ness and South Alloa to the collieries.  This allowed the Maid of Perth, owned by the wood merchant McIntosh of Methil, to take 70,000 feet of larch and fir from Inverness to South Alloa in the 18 month period following January 1857.

For almost a century home-grown timber sufficed but, as the coal industry increased in scale and import facilities improved, there was a move to obtaining the plentiful supplies afforded on the Baltic shores and in Scandinavia.  The way was led by Grangemouth, a few other ports in the Firth of Forth taking in an odd cargo periodically.  The wood came in long lengths, and was supplied in this fashion direct to the consumer, thus entailing no trouble for the importer but a mere transference of the material from the ship to the rail.   By one of those quirks of economics, the cost of railway carriage from the north Highlands was higher than the shipping freight price from Norway – there being no real commercial competition by rail but plenty by sea.  Initially, prejudice against the foreign product had to be contended with, but over time the greatly reduced price gradually overcame this.  It was also found that the foreign timber was not only cleaner, lighter and straighter, but that its strength and durability served the purpose better than the home-grown wood. 

Being based close to the coal works it was able more closely to follow the demands of the individual pits.  Bo’ness had gradually developed a share of the pitwood business, and from that time there was a marked transference of the imports from Grangemouth to it.  The volume of imports to Bo’ness expanded by leaps and bounds, and in a few years it occupied the position of premier port in this branch of the trade.  Granton held an important place, but it did not grow to anything like the same extent.

Bo’ness possessed many advantages peculiarly adapted to the pitwood trade.  There was considerable storage space, the railway facilities were good, and the communication was direct to most of the great mineral fields in the country.  The storage space was created by reclaiming land from the Forth using pit waste.  This flat land could not be used for agriculture or heavy industry, but was ideal for woodyards.  One drawback was noted in 1876 when part of the land occupied by John Denholm & Co was swept away in a violent storm.  No timber was lost from the yard on that occasion because it was moved inland in anticipation, though timber left on the quay was washed away.

The increasing pitwood imports encouraged those in authority to construct a new dock at Bo’ness and with its completion in 1881 an immense impetus was given towards the concentration of the imports there.  The coal shipping facilities afforded gave Bo’ness a strong popularity in the eyes of shipowners, as it provided a reliable return cargo and chartering was thereby effected on the most favourable terms.  The traffic to this port was, however, exclusively in the possession of the North British Railway.  The Caledonian Railway, which had hitherto enjoyed its share in the pitwood trade from Grangemouth, viewed with envy this success of its rival, and consequently set about the adoption of means for encouraging at least a part of this important traffic to its under-utilised port at South Alloa.  It set apart storage ground for the purpose, and gave many facilities to importers who might be induced to make use of this port.  The rivalry was of considerable advantage to the trade, and had the effect of equalising to some extent the railway rates to the several coalfields, so that collieries situated on either company’s railway systems had equal advantages in securing supplies of pitwood at the lowest price.  The transference of a portion of the imports to South Alloa was little felt at Bo’ness, the increase in the annual figures being maintained there until the capacity of the port became taxed to its utmost, and there seemed to be a decided inclination on the part of the NBR to cultivate no growth requiring further investment.  The consequence of this was the rapid expansion of business at South Alloa, which by 1890 had attained a place almost equal to that of Bo’ness (the difference being only about 10 per cent), though it subsequently fell back.  In 1891 the following foreign pitwood companies were represented at South Alloa: Love & Stewart, Glasgow; James Kennedy & Co, Glasgow; J L Johanson & Co, Glasgow;  John S. Dymock, Smith & Co, Glasgow; Kirkwood & Co, Glasgow; Madsen & Borch, Leith; John Denholm & Co, Bo’ness; and A B Dryman & Co, Bo’ness.  The pitwood imports at South Alloa for 1890 amounted to 17,085 standards.

The example of Love and Stewart at Bo’ness in catering for the customer was quickly followed and in 1890 there were four fully equipped sawmills there exclusively devoted to the manufacture of pitwood wants.  At South Alloa a public sawmill was available for the cutting of pit props for the various merchants who imported there.  Bo’ness and South Alloa monopolised about two-thirds of the country’s whole imports.  The other ports receiving the remainder included Granton, Methil and Charlestown on the Firth of Forth, and Ayr and Ardrossan on the west coast.

Sailing ships laden with wood had extra buoyancy because the cargo could float.  This characteristic was utilised during the First World War when “Q Ships” were created to lure German submarines into close proximity.  Having been torpedoed the vessel would take longer to sink and so the submarine would surface to finish it off – dangerous exploits!  There were, however, also peacetime dangers.  Too many of the vessels loaded their deck space as much as possible in order to increase the quantity of timber carried, and hence the profit.  This made them top heavy and in heavy seas they could capsize.  Normally they lost part or all of the deck cargo and limped on to a port for shelter.  In one particular storm in the middle of the North Sea in 1904 two of John Denholm & Co’s ships were caught up, the Cumbrian from Finland, and the Glencairn from Riga.  Both carried large cargoes of pitwood heaped upon the deck.  The Cumbrian had her bulwarks swept away, and the Glencairn lost one of her masts and her deck cargo.  The damage was fully insured (Edinburgh Evening News 10 October 1904, 4).  Even in port there was the danger of the logs shifting and the resulting uneven loading causing the vessel to overturn.  There were several examples in the 1880s and 1890s of schooners at South Alloa settling on the mud as the tide went out and the subsequent lean of the vessel causing the pit props to roll, resulting in the vessel heeling over.

Over the years it became customary at South Alloa for local men to take to rowing boats whenever a cargo of pitwood was being discharged.  They recovered any props that fell out of the slings into the water and which were beyond the reach of the crew on the ship using 22ft long boathooks.  The logs would otherwise have floated out with the current and interfered with shipping.  They were then sold to wood merchants in Alloa with the full knowledge of the local customs officials.

The wood came mostly from the lower Baltic and Sweden, later extending to Finland and Russia.   One of the first enterprises to which Love and Stewart turned its attention was that of establishing itself in Sweden as a pit-prop exporting business, thereby not only securing a continuous supply for the Scottish markets, but also enabling it to supply the English east coast coal ports.  Big increases in the costs of freight in 1889 led it, and many companies, to develop a widespread connection with the Scottish home-grown timber trade.  This proved fortuitous because during the Great War it furnished vast quantities of Scottish timber to local collieries, as well as to English collieries and merchants.  When the pitwood trade had grown to such dimensions that Sweden could not provide the quantities required, the firm opened a branch office at Wiborg in Finland.  Russia too was tapped to meet the growing needs, and shipments of large quantities of wood from the Lake Ladoga district were supervised from Petrograd.

A fleet of steamers was built, specially adapted to the requirements of the pitwood and coal-exporting trades, and these vessels were employed in the Baltic business until the war closed up all activities there.  These included the SS Lovart (1897, sold 1917), the Carriden (1903, sold 1912), and the Kinneil (bought second-hand in 1911, sunk October 1913).  Most of the overall pitwood traffic was still carried on sailing ships but they too were slowly replaced by steamers, a process speeded up by the First World War.

NAME OF SHIP	DATES OWNED	COMPANY	COMMENTS
Pearl	1890	Love, Stewart & Co	Steam tug
Black Prince	1890-1892	Love, Stewart & Co	Steam tug of 104 tons
Lovart	1897-1917	Love, Stewart & Co	Steamer of 1,015 tons
Hunterfield	1903-1916	Love, Stewart & Co	Steamer of 1,454 tons
Carriden	1903-1912	Love, Stewart & Co	Screw steamer of 666 tons
Kinneil	1911-1913	Love, Stewart & Co	Steamer of 1,400 tons
Samson	1891-1896	John Denholm & Co	Steam lighter of 90 tons running between Bo’ness & Leith with coal
Cumbrian (1)	1882-1905	John Denholm & Co	Steamer of 691 tons
Cumbrian (2)	1907-1920	John Denholm & Co	Steamer of 1221 tons
Glencairn		John Denholm & Co	Steamer
?	1906	John Denholm & Co	New steamer 1,700 tons
Merlin	1893-1893	JS Dymock, Smith & Co	Steamer of 1,550 tons

	HEWN & PITWOOD	SAWN	TOTAL LOADS	VALUE
1905	141,925	23,523	165,448
1906	147,918	21,743	169,661
1907	181,211	9,350	190,561
1908	160,027	14,089	174,116
1909	115,773	8,902	124,675
1910			196,976	£235,032
1911			203,577	250,280
1912			207,231	295,387

Strikes by dockers (lumpers), railway men, and colliers could halt work.  The big coal strike of 1912 temporarily closed the majority of pitwood yards.  In Grangemouth two pitwood yards were closed and three sawmills were placed on short time.  Only the firm of Gibb & Austine was able to keep its workers busy for much of this period because of the advantageous location of its yard in the heart of the dock complex and its extensive storage area.  Cargoes of pitwood arrived during the strike and were able to be taken the short distance to the sawmill, which had enough coal stocks to power the machines.  It could not, however, dispatch the material to the coal mines because the railway companies were short of coal and trains stopped running.

The provision of pit props became particularly associated with Bo’ness which earned it the nickname of “Pitpropolis.”  In 1923 Mr Rennie of Rennie & Co described it as the “mother port of the pitwood trade,” which is why after 31 years at South Alloa he established a yard at Carriden.  Even as late as 1935 a tour of the shore at Bo’ness makes passing reference to the sight of stacks of wood:

“Beginning at Carriden Manse, we soon forsake the rural surroundings of Carriden Church, the old ruined church with its graveyard, and the new edifice, both set in verdant and leafy splendour.  Before us at the water edge are piles and piles of pit props, a pitwood yard with its square towers of reddish wood.  Stocks seem to be large, but with the approach of the pitwood season in the next month and the continuous procession of ships with cargoes of Scandinavian timber for the port, they will mount higher…” 

After passing two shipbreaking yards, the Carriden Pit, and two yachting clubs, the traveller continues:

“Then we passed on to another woodyard where the dull, seasoned props contrasted with the tall stacks of  railway sleepers at the railway company’s creosoting yard immediately alongside.  Acres of land are given over to timber, props for the mining industry, and sleepers for the renewal of railroads.  In the heart of this “Propolis” cutting operations were proceeding.  Pit props were being handed down from a waggon to a circular saw operated by a petrol engine.  As each bearer unloaded his prop, deftly ducking his head to do so, on a trestle, the prop was gripped by the saw men.  It was poised for a moment before the whining, sharp-edged saw.  Z-zzzzzzz!  A high, tearing note as the steel severed the prop – just the kind of sound that would make a nervous or highly imaginative person retreat with relief.  So the work went on, the halved props being loaded on to other wagons…” 

Then there was the dock and harbour and then

“Further along the foreshore are situated yet another timber yard and the chemical works of Messrs Ovens, where chemical manures are manufactured.”

(Linlithgow Gazette 3 May 1935, 5).

Here, the railway wagons were moved by steam through the medium of capstans winding the ropes, attachable at any desired point. The railway lines also surrounded the new sawmill so that wagons could be placed at the doors immediately opposite the cutting machines.  The building was substantial, being built of brick with a slate roof bearing numerous skylights and sporting cast iron decoration along the ridge.  It measured 80ft by 33ft in plan and was divided internally into two sections.  The larger section was for pit props and here the wood could easily be transferred between the three heavy circular saw benches, adapted for cross-cutting and splitting the props.  The second section was devoted to the sleeper trade and contained the usual self-acting appliances placing the sawn wood automatically into the railway wagons.  The shafting which supplied the power to the machines was all placed in a tunnel underneath the mill, giving a clear space above for the workmen without incurring those risks from belts which were normal up until then.  The motive power was provided by an efficient 50hp horizontal steam engine.  This was kept spotless, as was the room in which it was housed.  The steam was supplied from a boiler, 30 x 5½ ft, placed in a separate building adjoining.  A spare boiler was also provided and placed alongside. 

Love, Stewart, & Co was the first pitwood company to install an electric capstan in one of its yards.  It was fitted at Grangepans by Marshall and Duguid, contractors, in May 1908.  The “Liddle Patent Concentric” had a head with two diameters, the smaller being capable of shunting 60 to 70 tons of railway stock at 80ft per minute, and the larger 40 to 50 tons at 120ft per minute.  If required for use with cranes, winches, etc, a winding drum could replace the capstan head (Linlithgow Gazette 5 June 1908, 8).

The use of three circular saw benches had become an industry standard, as will be seen in this account of a visit to Love & Stewart’s sawmill in 1887:

“In looking over the yards of Messrs Love & Stewart we saw most numerous assortments of lengths and sizes, there being no less than several hundreds of distinct dimension.  In former times foreign props were imported and supplied to collieries in whole tree lengths, and there cross-cut to the lengths required.  This entailed not only great expense, but a considerable amount of waste.  Recent mining legislation, however, compelled colliery masters to supply to the men the exact material required, and prop merchants, to cope with the newly created situation, were compelled to assist the coal masters, so the trade gradually developed into importations of short cut lengths, and hence the great variety of lengths and sizes to suit the innumerable kinds of coal workings.  The different sizes vary from as small as 18in lengths by 2in, up to 9ft by 5 in; the chief sizes, however, are from 3ft to 8ft.  Some idea may be formed of the importance of the prop trade when we mention that in Messrs Love & Stewart’s yard we reckon that the stocks amount to not less than seven or eight millions of feet.

We were much interested in our inspection of the sawmill, which is especially adapted for this branch of the timber trade.  The cross-cut circular bench occupies a position at the entrance to the mill where longer lengths are cross-cut on a table, whence they are passed to another circular bench which splits the props, and a third circular bench again received and splits them a second time, thus converting one prop into four.  The railway wagon is placed alongside, and from a platform they are emptied in with great despatch, for in the course of a few minutes five tons of these quartered props are cross-cut, quartered, and loaded ready for delivery.  A very interesting machine is used for converting the waste ends into firewood.  This business, like every other, must be conducted on strict economical principles if success is to be attained, and here, notwithstanding its great extent, not an atom is allowed to go to waste.  The firewood splits are bundled by the machine, and supplied to the Glasgow market.”

(Bo’ness Journal 23 December 1887, 3).

The ports on the Forth operated a system whereby freight was paid upon measurement of the cargo at the port of discharge.  This measurement was supposed to be done by independent measurers and the freighter was entitled to be present.  In Finland in 1905 the pit props were taken down to the beach and the various sizes stacked together.  Each stack was then measured, and its cubic capacity ascertained, and then the props were loaded onto the ship.  The individual pieces were not measured, but along with the ship’s known capacity, this provided a ready estimate.  Ships rarely travelled with anything less than a full load.  This estimate was inserted in the bills of lading.  At the port of discharge the timber was put into railway trucks, and taken direct from the ship’s side into the consignee’s yard.  As they come out of these trucks the pieces of timber were counted and measured, the measurement taken being the length of the piece and its diameter at its thinnest end – or, as it was technically termed, its “top diameter.”  Two or three props at a time were taken out of the truck by the labourer.  Before he carried them off to the stack, the measurer put his rule upon them and called out the measurement to a girl, who sat near the truck with a sheet before her in which there were spaces for the different sizes of props.  She put a mark upon the sheet in the appropriate space.  This done, the labourer walked off with his props, and added them to a stack of similar sized props.  Cargoes were thus intermingled at this point.  There would be several persons employed measuring, and a number of girls sheeting the results and, of course, a large number of labourers emptying the trucks.  There was usually a small difference between the estimate at loading and that calculated by the independent measurers; the longer the prop the greater the taper and so the smaller the cubic calculation.  However, shipping contracts stipulated that this was the basis for payments.

When a ship arrived at the dock it was common to work into the night.  Most of the local yards installed electric lighting in the first decade of the 20^th century.  Sometime around 1905 John Denholm also fitted up portable electric saw-benches, allowing the props to be cut anywhere in the yard and then put straight into the wagons.  Transmission lines carried the electric current within the extensive yards with switch-boxes at convenient locations.  This saved much carriage.  The use of motor lorries instead of railway wagons to take the props away made this innovation even more important.  The idea was quickly imitated and in 1908 Love, Stewart & Co introduced two travelling saw benches at Grangepans – before long petrol and diesel driven benches were dominant.

Pitwood yards were dangerous places.  At the sawmill it was not uncommon for fingers to be lost.  There were no wire cages or guards on the circular saws which revolved at high speeds.  One incident in particular will be used to illustrate this point.  In February 1908 Annie Queen was a vivacious nineteen year old outdoor worker at the Abergrange Sawmill in Grangemouth belonging to Abercrombie, Brisbane and Brown.  She was engaged at one of the circular saws along with two young men cutting pit props, and her duty was to hand the cut pieces to a girl attending at a second saw.  One of the pieces passing through her hands was covered with snow, which she formed into a snowball, with the intention of throwing it at the man attending the bench.  The man, noticing this, concealed himself behind the bench to escape being struck.  In order to get at him, the girl unfortunately placed her hand near the saw, and her hand came in contact with the blade, with the result that her hand was completely severed.  It was found necessary to amputate the arm about three inches below the elbow (Falkirk Herald 29 February 1908, 5).

Women were also operating the saws directly, as we know from an incident in February 1880 when one was holding a piece of wood against one of the moving blades in Denholm’s yard in Bo’ness.  The wood became unsteady and so she let it go and it flew off and struck the foreman, Daniel Barrowman, on an arm, breaking it (Falkirk Herald 7 February 1880, 4).

The early sawmills were housed in insubstantial buildings and provided only rudimentary shelter.  On one occasion, in January 1877, this was very fortunate.  That day a carter named David Gray was using a shovel to fill bags with sawdust at the mill near the East Quay at Bo’ness.  The shovel got too close to the revolving circular saw which snatched the implement out of his hand and slammed it down onto the bench with such force that it lifted two of the bolted iron plates.  The saw blade broke in two and one half was thrown through the canvas roof over into the adjoining woodyard of Robert Brechen, a distance of 40-50 yards.  It landed at the feet of one of several workmen there, amazingly without injuring any of them (Falkirk Herald 25 January 1877, 5).  Had the roof been solid the blade fragment would have bounced around the interior of the building.

However, in high winds fire could spread rapidly, and that is just what happened at the same yard on Saturday 10 June 1950.  The workmen left for the weekend at noon and shortly afterwards the watchman saw flames coming from the joinery shop door.  The Bo’ness Fire Brigade were on the spot in about three minutes but, whipped up by a strong west wind, the flames spread among the sheds and stored timber.  Further firefighting vehicles arrived from Edinburgh, Queensferry, Bathgate, Linlithgow, Broxburn, Uphall and Falkirk, till nearly a dozen units were in action.  Miles of hose were run out (the Bo’ness brigade alone used more than two miles of it), and water was drawn from as far away as the foot of Harbour Road.  But there still was not enough for the task, and it was not found possible to pump water from the Forth.  Volunteers from the area saved a mobile crane as well as some power benches, and with hand extinguishers and buckets of water, helped to prevent the fire moving northwards through the stacks of pit props and logs.

The speed with which the fire took a hold was breath-taking.  A workman who was coming along the Shore Road at the start saw some smoke and a lick of flame.  Then there was a roar and the sheds exploded like fireworks, throwing flames and sparks right and left.  The flames shot about 100 feet in the air, and the heat was so intense that he had to turn back and go round by the field. 

“With cloths soaked in water tied round their faces, and helmets pulled low over their eyes, firemen from nearly a dozen brigade units fought for two and a half hours”

(Linlithgow Gazette 16 June 1950, 2). 

Approximately an acre of towering stacks of logs and pit props, bone dry, burned furiously, and buildings and a few loaded wagons became heaps of charred wood and stone and twisted metal.  The joinery shop, a sawmill, store sheds, and other buildings were lost in the blaze along with a huge stock of home and imported timber.  An initial estimate put the damage at several thousand pounds.

Ironically, when two of the pitwood firms moved away from the crowded conditions near the dock at Bo’ness, to larger more open areas at Kinneil, they ended up on land which had been reclaimed from the Forth using pit waste.  The result was that there was an occasional underground fire at the yards!

The First World War seemed to creep up unnoticed on the traders at Bo’ness with startling speed.  In August 1914 the movement of pitwood was severely curtailed as ships found it harder and harder to get insurance.  A German schooner at Bridgeness was caught by surprise by the outbreak of war and was seized and towed to Bo’ness dock to sail under a British flag.  Then, on 25 November, disaster for the traders – the Forth was closed by the Government.  The pilots assisted in taking away the twenty steamers lying in the roads and disembarked at May Island, where they were to be stationed for the duration.  No more ships were to use the dock at Bo’ness for four years, except the odd one requiring bunker coal – and then only in exceptional circumstances, such as the secrecy surrounding Q-ships.  All goods – in or out – had to go to Leith or Granton by rail.  Dockers, hoist drivers, crane operators, stevedores and all the other associated tradesmen were either transported daily to the ports further east, or left for good.  Shops suffered.  The dock and harbour at Bo’ness filled with mud and it was 1921 before it was fully re-opened.  Some Bo’ness businesses, such as John Denholm & Co, set up branches in Grangemouth after the war in order to resume trade with the Baltic.

The inter-war years saw tough trading conditions and with fierce competition, profit margins were squeezed.  It was also at this time that steel props were introduced.  By 1931 the pitwood trade had fallen on evil days.  Businesses contracted and some yards, such as that belonging to James Kennedy & Co Ltd at Slaghill, were closed.

Once again normal trade was interrupted by war in 1939.  Although some firms had been able to build up stocks in anticipation, many had delayed doing so due to the fluctuating prices of the timber.  By mid–summer 1940 stocks were greatly denuded and private forestry companies had been unable to keep pace with the demand for home-grown timber.  Several firms went to considerable expense installing machinery to deal with the heavier type of home wood, but the government placed a price-cap on the products.  It came as somewhat of a relief when an agreement was made between the Scottish Pitwood Importers, the Control Board, and the Forestry Commissioners for the sale of unlimited quantities of felled timber for delivery by rail and road to Scottish yards.  The timber was to be converted into sizes suitable for distribution to the collieries as pit props.    The pitwood firms represented included John Denholm & Co Ltd, Bo’ness; Harrower, Welsh & Co, Bo’ness; Jas. Kennedy & Co Ltd; Stevenson, Lovart Co Ltd; Rennie & Sons Ltd; Lumsden & Co Ltd; Gibb & Austin Ltd, Grangemouth; and Abercrombie, Brisbane & Brown, Grangemouth (Linlithgow Gazette 19 July 1940, 5).

Following the war there was a collapse of coal exports and a sharp decline in the tonnages of imported pit props, and by 1954 trade had reached a very low level.  Of six firms who had imported these cargoes to Bo’ness, only two still handled stock locally.  Methodologies had to change and the numerous labourers who had manually loaded and unloaded wagons were replaced in the early 1950s by mobile cranes. The coal industry also changed, and the National Coal Board, which had replaced the rich array of independent coalmasters, arranged for its own pitwood, sometimes through the remaining traders.  Demand was even further suppressed by the wholesale adoption of steel props.  By the mid 1960s practically all of the pitwood importers had ceased trading.  Wood was still imported but it was destined for the sawmills associated with the building trade.

The timber merchants and sawmillers based in Grangemouth in 1950 were:

COMPANY NAME	NO. EMPLOYEES
Muirhead & Sons, Ltd	275
MacPherson & McLaren, Ltd	70
John Sinclair (Timber) Ltd	15
Watt Torrence, Ltd	35
Abercrombie, Brisbane, Brown	90
Gibb & Austine (shipbrokers, stevedores)	100
Christie & Vesey, Ltd (creosoters)	80
Brownlee & Co, Ltd	110
Denny Mott & Dickson	15

Appendix II – Pit Prop Companies

NAME	LOCATION	DATE	COMMENTS
Love & Stewart	Bo’ness	1870-1930s	Depots in most pitwood ports in the Firth of Forth and also the west coast.
James Kennedy & Co	South Alloa & Bo’ness	1871	Imports to other ports.
John Denholm & Co	Bo’ness	1851	Imports to South Alloa & other ports.
Harrower, Welsh & Co	Bo’ness
A B Dryman & Co	Bo’ness	1887	Import to other Forth ports.
J L Johanson	South Alloa	1867-1897
Madsen & Borch	South Alloa & Granton	1871-1909
J S Dymock, Smith & Co	Bo’ness	1884-1893	Also imported to South Alloa & Fife ports.
Rennie & Co	South Alloa Bo’ness	1892 1923
Kirkwood & Co	Grangemouth	1876-1910
Bryson & Co	Bo’ness & Grangemouth	1890s
Abercrombie,  Brisbane & Brown	Abergrange Sawmill, Wood St, Grangemouth	1902- c1965
Gibb & Austine	Grange Dock	1907-1963

Abercrombie, Brisbane and Brown

Abergrange Sawmill, Wood Street, Grangemouth

Abercrombie, Brisbane and Brown established a presence in Grangemouth in 1902 importing pit props as well as sawn wood and sleepers.  Its main business was always in pitwood.  The company was registered in Glasgow at 41 St Vincent Place, but one of the partners was James Brown of Newlands.  By 1906 the yard was known as the Upper Grange Sawmills, and two years later as Abergrange Sawmill.  A fire in November 1913 destroyed the building with the machinery in it causing around £600 worth of damage.  A new sawmill was immediately built.  Ten years later, in May 1923, another fire consumed the workers’ dining room and damaged some of the stacks of wood – this time the cost was put at £300.  The Almond Pow ran adjacent to the yard and water from it was used to fight the fires.  The company continued into the early 1960s.

Bryson & Co

Bo’ness, then Grangemouth

Bryson & Co of Glasgow imported pitwood to Bo’ness in the 1890s.  However, due to difficulties at the dock there it moved its business to Grangemouth at the start of the new century and established a woodyard in Wood Street.  This closed between the world wars.

John Denholm & Co

Bo’ness

The firm originated in 1851 when W D Bankier & Co, shipping agents, established a branch at Bo’ness and John Denholm went to head it.  The time was ripe as the railway had just reached the port.  John Denholm had been sent to Liverpool to work with his uncle in a draper’s business, but when it was discovered that he was colour blind he had to find another career.  The Bo’ness office was located above a tavern near the harbour (presumably the West Pier Tavern, now Bo’ness Library).  The two founding partners, W. D. Bankier and J. O Lietke, left the business in 1860 and so John Denholm renamed it after himself.  He was joined by two of his brothers, William and then George.  At this stage it had only a minor interest in pitwood.  George Denholm became a senior partner in 1869 and this aspect of the trade was developed.   On his brother’s death in 1872 George Denholm carried on the business at Bo’ness with a yard and sawmill just to the east of the dock.  He was assisted by D H Harrower, who became a junior partner.  Premises were also leased at South Alloa and other pitwood ports. 

A sign of the firm’s increasing prosperity was that George Denholm stayed at Hamilton Place in Corbiehall when he first arrived and within a few years moved to a small house called Eldridge Cottage on the hill above the town.  He was subsequently able to build a large villa called Eastmont.

Two tramp steamers were owned by the company.  In 1890 John Denholm & Co took over the stevedore contract for Bo’ness Dock and Harbour issued by the North British Railway Company which had previously been held by Malcolm.  A five acre site was acquired for a new mill at Kinneil in 1890.  In 1892 John Denholm jnr entered the office and was responsible for the machinery at the sawmill.  This gave him an opportunity to update the machinery.  He became a partner in 1900.  In 1892 the company built a block of dwellinghouses near to the yard for its workers.  The leases were short-term, and when a worker left the firm he, and his family, had to leave the house.

The start of a new century saw change in the old guard.  George Denholm retired in 1902.  In 1904 Harrower left to establish his own pitwood business, as did Welsh.  The following year Robert Lumsden did likewise.  Peter Hill, who had been the chief outdoor representative for John Denholm & Co, set up his pitwood concern in Edinburgh.

The firm held, through its various partners, the Vice-Consulates for Norway and Denmark, and the Consular Agency for Germany.  In 1905 the King of Sweden conferred on George Denholm the Order of Wasa of the first class.  George Denholm was a busy man and had served on the local school board and as Provost of Bo’ness.  As well as the central office at Bo’ness the firm had sawmills and yards at Portobello to supply the Midlothian coalfields; the ports of Methil and Burntisland received its imports for the Fife area; while Grangemouth, South Alloa and Bo’ness provided for the Lanarkshire districts;  Ayr and Ardrossan doing service for Ayrshire.  W.A. Denholm was responsible for the shipping, shipbroking, and stevedoring department, which always formed a large feature of the business.  A list of vessels that the company owned will be found above.

During the First World War trade was highly regulated by the government, but by switching to home grown timber and supplying the collieries in the north of England the company actually did a greater business.  The Cumbrian was caught in a Swedish port for the first year of the war and eventually made a successful run for home.

In 1920 it became a limited company with an issued capital of £50,000 held by William A Denholm, John Denholm and David McIntosh – the latter having one fifth of the shares.  John Denholm died in 1921and his brother two years later.  McIntosh was the managing director between the wars.   David McIntosh, who had joined the firm in 1883 as a boy of 14 and continued his business activities for 60 years until his death in 1943.  The King of Norway had conferred upon him the honour of Chevalier of the Order of St Olav in recognition of services rendered to Norwegian interests as the Consular representative of Norway at Bo’ness.  His place as representative was taken by George L Denholm. 

David McIntosh’s place as manager was taken by his half-brother, John, and, after a few years, Group Captain George L. Denholm.

After the Second World War the dock at Bo’ness was nationalised and direct control was taken of the stevedore functions.  Once the National Coal Board was fully established John Denholm & Co pulled out of pitwood in the late 1950s, remaining as shipbrokers.  The portfolio was diversified, with ventures into such things as wood wool.

A B Dryman & Co

Bo’ness

A B Dryman & Co developed the pitwood branch of their business during the late 1880s, importing extensively to Bo’ness, as well as the other Firth of Forth ports.  At Bo’ness the firm erected sawmills, which were exclusively employed in pitwood manufacture. 

J S Dymock, Smith & Co

Bo’ness

John S Dymock has been reared in the pitwood trade, and from 1884, in conjunction with Mr Smith, he carried on an extensive business under the style of J S Dymock, Smith & Co.  Their registered office was at 11 Bothwell Street, Glasgow and their chief depot was Bo’ness, where sawmills were erected c1888.  South Alloa, the Fife ports, as also those of Ayrshire, received large consignments of their shipments.  The company also dealt in railway sleepers and used Scottish timber.  On the expiration of its lease near the dock, the company moved to Slag Hill in 1891.

In February 1893 J S Dymock, Smith & Co purchased the 1,550 ton SS Merlin to be run on the Baltic trade carrying coal.  The trade evidently did not go well for in October 1893 the company was declared bankrupt and its assets were sold off.  The Merlin went to a French company for £4,200.

Gibb & Austine Ltd

Grange Dock, Grangemouth

Gibb & Austine erected a sawmill at the West Cut of Grangemouth Docks in 1907.  William Gibb had learned the shipping and pitwood business in JT Salvesen’s and then Love & Stewart’s.  The business thrived and in 1909 an auxiliary mill was added.  The company did shipbroking and in 1929 added a brick office with an asbestos roof to its complex.  By 1912 the mill was employing approximately 60 men.

Thomas Wallace was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1946 for his services to the firm.  The firm closed around 1963.

J L Johanson & Co

South Alloa

J L Johanson of Calder, Johanson & Co, timber merchants, Glasgow, was closely identified with the pitwood trade at South Alloa since at least 1867.  J L Johanson was injured in the Cardonald Station railway disaster in September 1880 and had to have his right leg amputated.  Trade in pit props continued at South Alloa, but by 1891 the focus of the company was changing and its pitwood involvement was run down.  By 1897 the company concentrated on the buying and selling of ships.

James Kennedy & Co

South Alloa & Bo’ness

Established by James Kennedy and John Bennet in 1871 with a registered office in Glasgow.  For many years the principal depot was in South Alloa.  In 1893 it took the opportunity to open up a large yard at Slaghill to the west of Bo’ness.  A new yard was constructed at Kinningars Park, Carriden, to the east of Bo’ness in 1914 and was known as the Grange Yard.  The office was then in the Customs building on Union Street.

In 1959 James Kennedy & Co Ltd sold off much of its plant and buildings at its various country sawmills and a few years later the yard at Carriden also closed.

Kirkwood & Co

Grangemouth

The company was established in 1886 by Archibald Kirkwood, the sole partner, using £2,000 of capital loaned by friends.  The registered office was at 68 Bath Street, Glasgow.  Pitwood was initially imported through South Alloa, and subsequently expanded to Grangemouth.  Kirkwood was declared bankrupt in 1927 and the firm ceased trading.

Love & Stewart

Bo’ness

In 1873 George Stewart, a clerk in the Grange Colliery, joined Robert Love to form a pitwood business based in Bo’ness.  They soon established an extensive yard and sawmill at Falkenberg, Sweden, where special attention was given to the cutting of pit prop specifications.  By 1887 the firm was also importing into South Alloa, Granton, Ayr, and Ardrossan, as well as to the Tyne and the Wear.

The company had numerous pieces of ground in the Bo’ness area for storing timber.  The Grangepans Yard was known as “No. 10.”  In 1897 the Bridgeness Yard was extended eastwards and the sidings lengthened.  Part of the yard at Grangepans was given off in 1899 to widen the main road, but at the same time land was being reclaimed from the coast by dumping coal waste from the neighbouring colliery and domestic waste from the nearby housing.  The old timber buildings in the yard at Grangepans were replaced by more substantial brick ones in 1895.  The yards at Bo’ness were plagued with fire.  The Station Yard was devastated by a fire on May 1895 and Grangepans in July 1905.

In 1898 Love & Stewart became a private limited company with a registered office at 140 Hope Street, Glasgow.  Robert Love, Robert Murray, and John Tweedie acted as its first directors, with Andrew Climie as secretary.  The early decades of the 20^th century saw a number of subsidiary companies set up, followed by mergers.  James Hogg had gone to look after the Falkenburg side of the business and upon his return he set up his own shipbroking business.  In 1897 he became a partner in Love, Stewart & Co, looking after the shipping branch which now included ship owning.  In 1906 the mill and stock of the Northern Trading Company at Bridgeness were transferred to Love, Stewart & Co.  In 1920 the various branches were re-absorbed into Love & Stewart (Ltd).  Love, Stewart (Coal Export) was created in 1926 to concentrate on the coal trade.  In 1928 Love & Stewart became absorbed into DM Stevens Ltd, the premier coal exporting firm in the United Kingdom, and in 1930 the old woodyard beside the dock was taken over by the LNER for its creosoting works.

Lumsden

Bo’ness

Robert Lumsden was trained in the pitwood business in the office of John Denholm & Co.  In 1905 he left to establish his own business, using his trade contacts.  His main yard and mills were situated on the foreshore to the east of Bo’ness.  Robert Lumsden died at his Edinburgh home in 1937.

Madsen & Borch

South Alloa

William Madsen of the firm Madsen & Borch, had been connected with the pitwood trade since 1871, Its chief depots were at Granton and South Alloa and it traded with ports in Scandinavia and the Baltic.  James Livingstone Jamieson, the sole partner of the firm of Madsen & Borch, pitwood importers, coal exporters, and commission agents, 54 Bernard Street, Leith, was declared bankrupt in 1909.

Rennie & Co

Rennie & Co was a Glasgow company with a registered office at Gordon Chambers, Marshall Street.  In 1892 it saw a business opportunity and established a branch with a sawmill at South Alloa.  The anchorage was a free port with a Caledonian Railway Company line to it and this substantially reduced costs for firms wanting to get established in the pitwood trade.  There was, however, a tendency for these new starts to drive cost down even further and in 1913 Rennie & Co asked the lumpers to work for 6d per hour instead of the usual rate of 8d.  This resulted in a stoppage of work and eventually the firm backed down.  It accidentally added to its own costs when the ship hired to bring pit props from Archangel proved to be too large to proceed up the Forth Estuary and had to unload at Grangemouth, sending the wood to South Alloa sawmill by rail.  A further yard was set up on the north side of the Forth at Methil

The company had long wanted to get a foot in the door at Bo’ness and in March 1915 it rented part of the yard of Calder, Dickson, and Co, timber merchants, at Dykeneuk.  John Hill, son of ex-Bailie Hill of Bo’ness, was by then a junior partner of Rennie & Co.  After the First World War it took a while for trade to pick up and so, despite an increasing rate of inflation, it was slow to award its workforce a pay increase.  An Industrial Court decided that the men concerned should receive an advance of 1d per hour or 4s per week, and the women an advance of ¾d per hour or 3s a week (Dundee Evening Telegraph 10 November 1920, 3).

Dykeneuk was a little west of the main industrial areas of Bo’ness and so in 1922 four acres of reclaimed land was acquired from Cadell of Grange opposite the glebe at Carriden, with an option to extend as more land was recovered.  The Carriden Yard officially opened in January 1923 with 90 employees, though the sawmill had been in operation since September.  The sawmill building was of brick and measured 70 by 30ft, containing three steam-driven circular saws.  A fireproof screen surrounded the steam engine and suction fans drew away the sawdust through an overhead pipe.  In the yard there were four railway lines along which the trucks could be hauled by means of a steam capstan.  Before long, electric lighting was introduced.

Another dispute arose in 1935 when Rennie & Co decided to introduce a piece work system.  The men thought that one consequence of that would be that they would have to work longer hours simply in order to meet the basic requirement.  The joiners and machine-men walked out and soon found employment elsewhere.  The remaining men were represented by the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers and again the dispute dragged on (Linlithgow Gazette 27 September 1935, 4).

In October 1948 the sawmill and plant at South Alloa were sold off.  The company was now known as M.S. Rennie & Sons Ltd.  Fires occurred at the Carriden Yard in 1948 and 1950 and are described above.

Bibliography

Denholm	1952	John Denholm & Company Limited 1851-1951.
Hendrie, W.F.	1980	Forth to Sea
Veitch, J. (ed)	1948	Stirlingshire Industrial Guide.

G.B. Bailey, 2024