RSS Press releases
We publish all of our recent press releases online so you can keep up to date.
You can use special RSS software (or newer web browsers) to subscribe to an RSS feed of our recent press releases . Email pressenquiry@dumgal.gov.uk if you'd like further details on any of our press releases.
If you want to speak to a communications officer, you can find their working-hours telephone numbers and what areas of the council they cover at www.dumgal.gov.uk/pressenquiry.
Read our press releases as HTML >>
Recent releases
Last Updated: 22/11/2024 10:34:41
Vintage cars return to Arrol-Johnston factory to celebrate the centenary
Friday, 19 July 2013 14:15
The Arrol-Johnston factory on the Edinburgh Road in Heathhall is 100 years old this month. At 1.00pm on Sunday July 28th proud owners of cars made in the factory will be celebrating the centenary when several vehicles return for a photo shoot.
The group will then visit Dumfries Museum where there will be a chance to view a small exhibition on the history of the works, as well as examine archival material from the reserve collections. The cars will be at Dumfries Museum between 2pm and 4pm and anyone interested in discovering more about this significant period, when Dumfries was known as ‘the Dagenham of the north’, is very welcome to come along.
The factory, commonly referred to as ‘The Rubber Works’ and most recently owned by Interfloor, was opened by the Marquis of Graham on July 29th 1913. At the time Arrol-Johnston Motor Company was the largest manufacturer of motor cars in Scotland, and also one of the most significant in Britain.
Eighteen years previously, in 1895, George Johnston, a Glasgow locomotive engineer, had built his first car. A couple of years later he formed a company with William Arrol, architect of the Forth Bridge, to build the petrol engined Arrol-Johnston car. With support from William Beardmore, a giant of the Scottish engineering industry, the Paisley based business was a pioneer of the motorcar industry within a decade, although not greatly successful commercially. Successes included the development of the world’s first “off-road” vehicle for the Egyptian government, and another designed to travel on ice and snow for Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the South Pole.
In 1913 Arrol-Johnston bought land at Heathhall, just outside Dumfries, and commissioned an American firm to build a factory. The result was the first such building in Britain to use concrete reinforced with metal in its construction, and was reputed to be a copy of the Ford Factory at Highland Park, Michigan, USA, where the Model T was produced. At its height the Heathhall site employed about 1,800 people, who turned out between 15 and 20 cars a week.
ENDS
The group will then visit Dumfries Museum where there will be a chance to view a small exhibition on the history of the works, as well as examine archival material from the reserve collections. The cars will be at Dumfries Museum between 2pm and 4pm and anyone interested in discovering more about this significant period, when Dumfries was known as ‘the Dagenham of the north’, is very welcome to come along.
The factory, commonly referred to as ‘The Rubber Works’ and most recently owned by Interfloor, was opened by the Marquis of Graham on July 29th 1913. At the time Arrol-Johnston Motor Company was the largest manufacturer of motor cars in Scotland, and also one of the most significant in Britain.
Eighteen years previously, in 1895, George Johnston, a Glasgow locomotive engineer, had built his first car. A couple of years later he formed a company with William Arrol, architect of the Forth Bridge, to build the petrol engined Arrol-Johnston car. With support from William Beardmore, a giant of the Scottish engineering industry, the Paisley based business was a pioneer of the motorcar industry within a decade, although not greatly successful commercially. Successes included the development of the world’s first “off-road” vehicle for the Egyptian government, and another designed to travel on ice and snow for Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the South Pole.
In 1913 Arrol-Johnston bought land at Heathhall, just outside Dumfries, and commissioned an American firm to build a factory. The result was the first such building in Britain to use concrete reinforced with metal in its construction, and was reputed to be a copy of the Ford Factory at Highland Park, Michigan, USA, where the Model T was produced. At its height the Heathhall site employed about 1,800 people, who turned out between 15 and 20 cars a week.
ENDS
Page last updated: 20/05/2022
