Sites & Monuments Record
| Bridgeness Foundry | SMR 687 | NT 013 815 |
Timeline
1863/4: Two blast furnaces erected by Henry M Cadell.
1865, July: Iron making began in July 1865, but stopped after only six months. Only one of the two furnaces was ever in blast. They cost £5,300 to erect. The complex included a 4-storey engine house with a large, second-hand, Cornish blast engine. The furnaces stood at the foot of the escarpment north of Bridgeness Tower which allowed them to be loaded from the hilltop.
Illus: Bridgeness Tower with the four-storey converted furnace building to the right.
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1871: A rise in pig iron prices after the Franco-German war prompted modern improvements to the moth-balled works and one furnace was re-kindled on 22 January, but only saw intermittent use. In February a lifting wheel on a moving platform broke, throwing a filler to the ground and breaking his arm.
1873, May: Depression in the iron industry finally saw the permanent closure of the foundry.
1890: Plant demolished and building converted to flats. An iron trough on this building held 600 tons of water.
Falkirk Local History Society 