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...Can Anyone Tell Me About The Caledonia Works in this Photo?...

lathefan

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Nov 7, 2003
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Colorado
...caption reads: "Home Guards patrol a section of canal in Edinburgh in a motor boat armed with rifles and a mounted Lewis gun, 19 October 1940"

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Caledonia Works, Horne Terrace, Edinburgh.

In 1908 it was the dental instrument works of John Law.

By 2012 it had been converted to apartments, and a company name ending ...ER LTD was visible:-

Former Caledonia Works (C) Thomas Nugent :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

I visited the area in 2016 to look at an interesting old lifting bridge over the Union Canal. There had once been many factories there, but it looked as though a boat with heavier calibre guns than those in WW2 photo had been in action. Most of the industrial buildings had been cleared, and bland new apartments were rising.

To be fair, it was quite a pleasant place to visit on a sunny morning, and the local authorities had placed some old maps and photos showing what had once been there. It was probably more pleasant than when the North British Rubber Co's works was in action.
 
...thanks Asquith...

...I was hoping you or one of my other friends from the UK could help me out with this...I couldn't find anything on it...

...you covered my questions quite nicely...my curiosity was strictly from finding that photo...and being interested in any and all kinds of "works"...

...thanks to your info...I was able to find this view of the other side from 2015...

1acaldonia.png
 
Yes, old factories demand to be found and investigated. In the heart of Seville last year I spotted a factory chimney, and found it belonged to an old building. I stuck my camera through a hole in a window and saw that the building was very old indeed. It turns out to have been the Real Maestranza de Artillería, where guns and their carriages were produced, although it wasn't the main arsenal in Seville. A datestone on the building has the dates 1587-1786. Manufacturing ceased there in 1970!

JD 2018 Maestranza1.jpg JD 2018 Maestranza2.jpg
 
...those were some real old world masons that built those arches...the sheer mass is certainly impressive...
 
Caledonia Works, Horne Terrace, Edinburgh.

In 1908 it was the dental instrument works of John Law.

By 2012 it had been converted to apartments, and a company name ending ...ER LTD was visible:-

Former Caledonia Works (C) Thomas Nugent :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

I visited the area in 2016 to look at an interesting old lifting bridge over the Union Canal. There had once been many factories there, but it looked as though a boat with heavier calibre guns than those in WW2 photo had been in action. Most of the industrial buildings had been cleared, and bland new apartments were rising.

To be fair, it was quite a pleasant place to visit on a sunny morning, and the local authorities had placed some old maps and photos showing what had once been there. It was probably more pleasant than when the North British Rubber Co's works was in action.

From a little farther left down the tow path, the old painted sign only shows ...AER LTD.

The works has a trapezoidal plan. The narrow end adjoined a stone building in the old photo, but that building is gone, replaced by a car park. Here is the current state of the narrow end of the works.
DSC01980.jpg

There is still a stone residential building adjoining the wide end of the works. A few years ago, that building adjoined a surviving blacksmith shop and a body shop that backed up to the canal.
DSC01981.jpg DSC01982.jpg DSC01983.jpg

Within the last couple of years, the blacksmith and body shop buildings have been replaced with tall modern apartment buildings. There is an old stone bridge over the canal adjacent to the apartments. Then the canal widens and has moorings for narrowboats and the Leamington lift bridge is at the far end of the basin.
DSC01984.jpg

Thanks to Google Maps. Makes world travel possible without needing to ride a flying cattle car.

Larry
 
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Typical views of Edinburgh stone terraced houses in the background. If anyone from the USA is planning a visit to the UK Edinburgh is a must see city.

We were staying there one time and at our table for breakfast was a charming gentleman from Texas and his wife. He was an architect who had been involved in building the Dallas Cowboys ? Football stadium. His manners were impeccable and quite put mine to shame.

They were there to visit " The John Knox " house. As far as I know he was the founder of a religious movement.

Regards Tyrone.
 
The Caledonia Mill is not the Caledonia Works. Many Americans probably don't know that Caledonia is the Latin name the Romans gave the north end of Britain, approximately corresponding to modern Scotland. It is a popular name for businesses in Scotland.

I suppose an American equivalent might be Columbia.

Larry
 








 
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