SMITH and WELLSTOOD

(Painting by Paul Grime, James Mooney and David Wilkinson - 1981)

Probably the most famous iron works in Bonnybridge was Smith and Wellstood. (1858)

The photograph above shows the side of the factory which stood right beside the canal bridge (where the new flats are now.) This amazing picture was painted on the side of the factory wall to show people the processes used to make the iron products sold by Smith and Wellstood - even the proud gentleman in the long coat standing at the office door is a painting!

To see a much larger copy of the painting click HERE.

If you look at the large picture in detail you will see that, while the 'proud gentleman' in front of the office door is dressed in a very old-fashioned way, the workers in the factory are quite modern  - wearing jeans, safety helmets, goggles and ear protectors (the picture was painted in 1981). This is to show the link between the past and the present.

The story of Smith and Wellstood is a very exciting one starting off with a very young man of 16 (James Smith) setting off to America to make his fortune and coming back to Scotland to set up a business selling iron fireplaces and ovens. This same man was later involved in a shipwreck in 1854 from which he was rescued after floating for several days at sea in a basket on a raft!

The industry here first started making iron parts for the famous Singer Sewing Machine Company in Clydebank . The canal which passed alongside the Bonnybridge factory also passed through the Singer factory - so transporting the parts was cheap and easy.

However Singers started making their own parts and so the Bonnybridge factory quickly had to find new customers or close down.

This is where our 16 year old adventurer comes in!

Having arrived in America he worked very hard and eventually set up a successful business selling cooking stoves and got married.

However in the 1850s his wife fell ill and they came back to Scotland where James carried on his business by bringing in American stoves and selling them to Scottish homes. However James realised he could make more money by actually making the stoves in Scotland instead of bringing them all the way from America. He joined up with a partner - his old friend Stephen Wellstood - and they entered into a partnership with Mr George Ure (who owned the ironworks which made the parts for Singer's). Since he needed new business George was very happy to work with the new firm 'Smith and Wellstood'.

Between them they opened the 'Columbian Stove Works' beside the canal and started making their own stoves including the 'Esse' brand of stove. S&W also made headstones for graves - found in places like Australia!

(Young 18-yr old second from left at back is Tam Burt of Denny. Thanks to son Wilson for letting us know. Any more names?)

As you can see from the many blackened faces foundry working was a messy business - and it was very hard!

Here are some examples of Smith and Wellstood's products.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE DANGEROUS IRON FOUNDRY WORKS IN BONNYBRIDGE CLICK HERE and more about Smith and Wellstood here.

Some more information about Smith and Wellstood can be found in 'Fireplace.co.uk'

"Throughout the first sixty years of the twentieth century stoves sold primarily to the commercial sector - to the growing numbers of offices, shops, railway waiting rooms and public buildings - together with a buoyant export trade to the Empire. Smith & Wellstood's 1912 catalogue boasted over 200 designs (cooking 'Kitcheners' as well as heating stoves) with names like the Indess, The Moariess and the Sultana. Prices ranged from around 10s (50p!) and demand kept Smith & Wellstood in business right through to the 1980s. Possibly the Company's greatest claim to fame was their cooking stoves. Captain Scott famously took some on his ill-fated trip to reach the South Pole. One was found by an American expedition in 1953. They cleaned out the ash relit it and found that it worked perfectly.

One opening for stoves came with the discovery of large deposits of anthracite in South Wales and Scotland. Immediately after World War I mine owners approached Smith & Wellstood to make a stove, which could burn anthracite. The aftermath of the war, with over one million men dead, meant that better-off households had difficulty in finding servants, and anthracite with its all-night burning and clean products of combustion required far less work than traditional designs. Smith & Wellstood produced a whole range of designs like the Jeunesse, Artesse and Francesse, which were the forerunners of modern solid fuel room heaters. In recognition the mine owners called their fuel 'Stovesse' - the suffix ...esse being the origin of Ouzledale foundry's well-known brand name.

Clean air legislation in 1955/56 followed the month-long smoke-induced smogs of the early 50s and curtailed any market that had existed for the solid fuel stove. For fifteen years or so there was little UK market until the quadrupling of oil prices following the six-day Arab Israeli War of 1973. Owners of large houses had installed oil boilers during the 1960s and now could not afford to heat their properties. Primarily country dwellers, they desperately looked around for another source of heating and realised that many of them had supplies of wood available on their land. Stoves became popular and have remained so to the present day."