SCOTTISH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Volume 16 1993 ISSN 0266-7428 SCOTTISH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Volume 16 1993 Scottish Industrial History is published annually by the Business Archives Council of Scotland. The Editor is Lesley Richmond, University of Glasgow. The camera­ ready copy was prepared by Mrs R Hemphill. Articles for publication should be submitted in typescript to the Editor, Scottish Industrial History, The Archives, University of Glasgow, Glasgow Gl2 8QQ, from whom further details may be obtained. Back copies of Scottish Industrial History can also be purchased from the Editor. The front and back cover illustrations show the Banavie Locks on the Caledonian Canal. Canal 200 1793-1993. British Waterways Board, Inverness. SCOTTISH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY VOLUMES 16 1993 CONTENTS Page The Transference of British European Airways Renfrew Maintenance Workshops- Catalyst for Engineering Oosure? Neil Eamshaw The Glasgow Pottery of John and Matthew Perston Bell 9 HenryEKelly Sir James Lumsden of Arden and the American Civil War 21 Kevin P Wilbraham The Rise and Fall of Dunfermline Linen 31 Hugh Walker Archive Report Number 9, The Royal Bank of Scodand 39 Vicki Wilkinson Canals, Insurance and the Scottish Council: 43 Report of the Business Archives Council Surveying Officer, 1992-93 Kevin P Wilbraham Business Archive News 53 Summary Lists of Archive Surveys and Deposits, 1991-91 57 Reviews 67 The Transference of British European Airways Renfrew Maintenance Workshops- Catalyst for Engineering Closure? Neil Eamshaw Johnstone In 1956 British European Airways (BEA) transferred its maintenance workshops at Renfrew Airport to the London Airport engineering base. At the time this action was considered by many people in the district as the greatest betrayal of the era and the signal for a complete loss of confidence in the west of Scotland engineering workforce. For had not the newly formed authority promised a permanent move to Renfrew when the base was transferred there from Speke near Liverpool in 1948? The progress made since then seemed suddenly to count for nothing. How then had all this come about? Several factors have to be considered: first, most importantly the formation and composition of the new civil aviation corporation, BEA, its passenger flights management and its maintenance service; second, the prevailing economic climate in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and the early postwar period including the effect on west of Scotland industry; third, responses and strategies of many officials and personnel adversely affected by industrial 'downturn' and the transference of the BEA maintenance base; and fourth, if it is possible, to ascertain to what extent, if at all, engineering smt:ered as a result of BEA's decision. BEA was established on the I August 19461 operating, at that time, to seventeen European airports and acquiring eight British internal airway companies for 'domestic' flights. These included Highland Airways Ltd, Scottish Airways Ltd and Western Isles Airways Ltd. All committee members were appointed by the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation. The fust chairman, Sir Harold Hartley, was replaced after eight months by Gerard d'Erlanger, CBE, whose original appointment had been that of managing director. Sir Patrick Dollan, who was chairman of the Scottish Advisory Council was appointed a committee member on 28 November 1946, four months after the inauguration date. Control from the beginning was centralised at two bases, Speke (Liverpool) and Renfrew (Glasgow) which were known as the English Division and the Scottish Division, respectively, but soon to become the British Division located at the Renfrew headquarters. Associated companies still existed. These 2 included Channel Island Airways Ltd. Alitalia and other overseas airway companies.2 The early aerodromes were tenanted by British European Airways and proved WlSuitable. For instance, it was not possible to carry out any form of maintenance or servicing at Northolt, in southern England, as a hangar with heating and lighting was just not available.J Conversely, Renfrew Airport had an established maintenance unit which had played a vital role during the war years servicing and repairing thousands of war aeroplanes.4 When BEA was established it began its flights with several aeroplanes which had been carried forward from the war. These were mainly Dakotas and Junkers U-52. These latter aeroplanes were of German manufacture and their handing over to the allies was part of the terms of surrender. Replacement parts for these aeroplanes were problematic; the Dakotas because of a shortage of spares and the Junkers due to the spares received being sub-standard. This resulted in these aeroplanes being withdrawn from service by 1948 along with Avro XIX aeroplanes.' From 1948 onwards the major models of aeroplane progressively used were 27-seater Vikings, 38-seater Dakotas, Dominies, Marathons, 40-seater Ambassadors, de Havilland Rapides, Viscounts and Elizabethans. & The eeGnomi= of managing a successful airline rested on two major factors, a viable flight operation and an efficient aeroplane maintenance. To begin with landing fees alone were costing BEA £200,000 per annum7 but this reduced where the airline owned the aerodrome. Passenger figures are worth noting.8 1946/7 1947/8 passengers carried (continental) 58,618 99,514 +69.8% freight carried (continental) 661 tons 1,481 tons +124.1% &assengers carried (internal UK) 224,334 361,311 +61.1% eight carried (internal UK) 809 tons 988 tons +22% Furthermore, whilst mail carried on continental routes fell by 6% over the period 1946 to 1948, it rose by 50% on internal United Kingdom routes. Moreover, after the opening of a new air traffic terminal building at Renfrew Airport in 1954 - the first in the United Kingdom since war ended in 1945 - passenger traffic passing through Renfrew doubled, from 106,746 in 1951 to 211,053 in 1954.9 By 1956, British European Airways was carrying an overall total of 100,000 passengers every month of the year throughout all its airports.•o Such additional increase in business at varying stages in the decade from 1946 put continued strain on the aeroplanes in use creating full work commitment for the maintenance workshops. 3 In 1948 the overhaul of Vikings was concentrated at Northolt and that of Dakotas and Dominies at Speke. Maintenance bases were established at Renfrew and Jersey for the maintenance of aircraft based at these stations.tt As well as appreciating the need to have an economically viable airline based on passenger and freight revenues BEA concluded that it required to centralise its maintenance service by reducing its three depots to two. Speke was the victim but only after protest and inquiry carried out by government inspectors. Speke personnel were transferred to Renfrew after the requisite ground facilities such as maintenance hangars and terminal buildings had been converted to a standard acceptable to the civil aviation authorities. 12 The local authority together with BEA had to provide eighty new houses for transferring personnel.tl But within six years BEA was considering transferring its engineering base at Renfrew to London Airport where for the first time ever all BEA's engineering maintenance would be on one site under one roof. 14 This was a bitter blow for Renfrew especially as a quarter of the company's engineering workforce were employed there and one third of all its maintenance work was carried out there. IS At 31 March 1954 BEA engineering staff numbered 3,143. Of this total, 1,913 were employed at London Airport, 744 at Renfrew, 227 elsewhere within the United Kingdom and 259 overseas. London did 65% of the total repair work and Renfrew 35%. The decision to close the Renfrew workshops and transfer the work to London was officially declared as one to effect a reduction in costs, by saving on losses from waiting time and the increased utilisation of equipment. Ironically part of this equipment - the new Viscount dock - was manufactured by BEA at Renfrew Airport and installed at London in March 1954,16 ample testimony to the skill of the Renfrew workforce but an ominous foreboding of future closure. When closure plans were announced they were greeted with unprecedented opposition. In a similar way in which there had been local protest in Liverpool when BEA transferred the Speke workforce to Renfrew in 1948 there was concerted reaction at the proposals to transfer from Renfrew to London six years later. The protest at Speke resulted in a Government Inquiry finding in Renfrew's favourP The response to Renfrew's proposed closure brought widespread disapproval. 18 Businessmen, local authorities, trade unions at both local and national level, held meetings and rallies and made representations to government but all to no avail. A rally was held in George Square, Glasgow, 4 attended by over 1,000 workers, their leaders bearing a coffin containing an airplane symbolic of the demise of the aircraft industry.l9 At a meeting in the town of J ohnstone, renowned for its heavy machine industry - an ancillary to world-wide shipbuilding - the Scottish National Party voiced concern for the future of engineering in the west of Scotland. 20 The crux of argument seemed to pose the question that if BEA was not satisfied with its engineering unit at Renfrew after being based there less than a decade what confidence would the United Kingdom as a whole place on the rest of engineering in the district even though many firms had been established half a centwy and longer. The fears seemed to focus on the question of skill, ignoring the fact that BEA was moving to centralise its workshops in a locale central to both its British and European flight routes. On economic grounds it appeared to be the only thing to do. But men, whose livelihood and future jobs were at risk, thought not of the viability of business but of their own hard-won living standards.