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Clydebank, Singer's Sewing Machine Factory

Sewing Machine Factory (19th Century)

Site Name Clydebank, Singer's Sewing Machine Factory

Classification Sewing Machine Factory (19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Kilbowie; Singer Works

Canmore ID 128291

Site Number NS47SE 90

NGR NS 494 706

NGR Description Centred NS 494 706

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/128291

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council West Dunbartonshire
  • Parish Old Kilpatrick (Clydebank)
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Clydebank
  • Former County Dunbartonshire

Archaeology Notes

NS47SE 90.00 centred 494 706

NS47SE 90.01 NS 49802 70649 Railway Station

For swing bridge (NS 4931 7051) carrying a railway spur over the Forth and Clyde Canal into the Singer Works, see NS47SE 73.

Architecture Notes

NMRS REFERENCE:

Architect: R. Ewan

NS47SE 90 centred 494 706

Singer's Sewing Machine Factory: large complex up to four storeys high between Forth and Clyde Canal and the NBR [North British Railway] (Glasgow - Helensburgh via Westerton). Until recently the factory had a famous clock tower, with the largest [clock] faces in Scotland.

Visited and photographed by J R Hume, University of Strathclyde, 30 April 1966; 1974. Information from MS/749 (Dunbartonshire, Old Kilpatrick/Clydebank parishes, Singer's Sewing Machine Factory), photographic prints attached (1966) and H74/99/1, 2 contact prints of Worthington Duplex Fire Pump.

(Location cited as NS 494 707). Sewing-machine factory, built from 1882 for the Singer Manufacturing Company Limited. Though much altered in recent years, this very large complex still contains much of interest, including two late 19th century, multi-storey brick blocks, one four storey, the other six storey, both flat roofed and with concrete floors. The original single storey oil store, with brick chimney-like ventilators, still survives. There is some older machinery still in use.

J R Hume 1976.

This complex of buildings has been demolished.

Information from RCAHMS (MMD), 23 March 1998.

Factory block (1904-5) 800ft long, 80feet wide, six floors, 90ft high constituting 'a record in building construction, so far as concerns the dimensions of the structure, the rapidity of erection, and the extent to which ferrolithic has been used'. Erected by Messrs. Robert McAlpine and Sons to designs by Robert Whyte, architect.

Information from J Clarke (English Heritage), 3 March 2003.

References

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