Groups

Newton Victor were specialists in the production of X-ray equipment for medical and industrial use, and this image shows their factory in Motherwell in 1948, the year that the factory opened. The funding of the National Health Service in 1946 (England) and 1947 (Scotland) created an expanding market for increasingly sophisticated medical equipment to diagnose and treat illnesses, and this company was one of many that provided products to meet this need.

This image is an excellent illustration of all of the development infrastructure needed to support industrial activity - notice the storage sheds, the loading areas, the railway connection for bringing materials in and out and the sheltered water areas for ships to manoeuvre and dock safely.

Shipbuilding became one of Scotland's major industries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Kingston yard was established in 1874, and eventually became part of the Scott-Lithgow group, who ran it until 1997 when it was cleared and sold off to Clydeport plc for redevelopment. It is now occupied by housing.

Huge factories like this, dating from 1861, were built all over Britain in the Victorian period. The history of this building has followed a pattern similar to many others. It became the biggest factory in London employing more than 2,000 women and girls in 1911. The London matchgirls strike of 1888 started there. The factory closed in 1979. The site was derelict until 1988 when it became one of east London's first urban renewal projects; the factory was converted into flats.

View of Llanelli colliery

View of Port Talbot Steelworks

The Orb Steelworks in Newport

Coal mining was still a major industry in England in the 1920s. This image shows a very large colliery with not only the chimneys, shafts and buildings but also the means to transport the coal to where it was needed, in this case both a railway and the River Wear.

Gasometers like these were a common feature of the landscape. They originally held manufactured town gas and later natural gas. Gas was used to light and then power industrial buildings and homes from the 1820s.

Scotland's sole oil refinery, Grangemouth was opened just three years before this photograph was taken (1927). The advantageous location in close proximity to the docks is evident.

In operation c. 1897-December 2011, undergoing demolition 2012

Southhook Potteries, Kilmarnock.