Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry

25/05/1847 – Inverness Journal  – Culloden Brick and Tile Works – Four miles from Inverness on the Aberdeen Road and one mile from a commercial shipping place on the Moray Firth. The public are respectively informed that they can now be supplied with bricks at these works at 33s 0d per 1000 or F.O.B in Culloden Bay at 35s 6d per 1000 – Or they will be delivered at any port or beach within fifty miles of Inverness at an extra allowance for freight according to the distance. Terms 3 months credit or 2 1/2d % for cash. As soon as the works are completed which will be, it is expected, by the middle of July, common and pipe tiles, soles, pan or roofing tiles, chimney cans and large pipes for the conveyance of water etc, of all varieties, will be manufactured at prices afterwards announced. Ballmore, by Inverness 24th May 1847.

18/06/1847 – Elgin Courier – Culloden Tile Works – We have much pleasure in noticing this newly-started species of manufacture, long desiderated in this part of the country, and which promises to be of the greatest utility, especially to the build and northern agriculturist. The want of tiles for the purpose of draining formed a material drawback on the improvement of the soil. They could not be had but at a very great price-had in many cases to be brought from the south of Scotland, and even from England, adding to their first cost an enormous freight, and frequently were of inferior material and manufacture. The enterprise of Mr Forbes of Culloden has supplied this defect in our native resources by erecting a factory, not yet completed, though bricks have been already burnt, which have been of a most excellent quality. The works are on his Culloden estate, about four miles from Inverness, immediate adjoining the Fort-George road, very conveniently situated for land carriage by that and the several lateral lines, and promises to be of still greater public utility on the completion of the Great Northern Railway, to which they will prove an important and unexpected source of traffic; they are also very conveniently located with regard to shipping, as vessels can with safety take in cargoes at the adjoining beach. The clay is of the very finest quality, well adapted for all kinds of brown work, and even for pottery, which, however, is not intended to be carried on at present. The stratum of the ample extent having a superfice equal to three Scotch acres, and a depth of fifteen feet.  Allowing three cubic yards to make one thousand bricks the stratum will produce sixty million; and, indulging the most sanguine anticipation of demand, will not be exhausted in thirty years. It is intended to procure the best articles of machinery used in the manufacture of brick and tiles; the latter will be begun in July. A material advantage of these bricks will be being manufactured on the “dry stock” principle; whereas most of those made in the South are from clay merely tempered in the hole with the spade. In this latter case the clay is not “pug-milled,” nor are the bricks of the superior kind called “dry stock made”. The prices, we understand, are considered to be very low, taking into account the dearness of fuel, and the cost of removal either by sea or land, is equally moderate. The groove brick specimens of which lie at the shops of Mr Campbell and Messrs Howden, seedsmen, is well adapted for the construction of garden walls-the groove receiving the mortar, permitting the brick to approach nearer to each other, and holds nails with greater firmness than is common with flat bricks to do. As expense was made no question, the best men, material, and machinery were sought out.  The manager, Mr Campbell, was bred to brick and tile making, at the Duke of Portland’s works in Ayrshire, and has now been twenty-two years at the business, a part of which period he was engaged in management.  Extensive orders are already given for brick and tiles, one of which is from the contractor for erecting the Caledonian Bank buildings. The works will prove a great advantage to many-to builders, to farmers, and to the labouring class on the building estate. Mr Forbes’s extensive improvements, consisting of building, road making embracing the fine new approach to Culloden House, trenching, draining, fencing, and planting, with the opening of the valuable quarry at Leanach, on the water of Nairn, have indeed afforded ample employment to his tenantry, and his schemes promise them sufficient provision for a considerable time to come.

 06/12/1849 – Inverness Courier – Culloden Brick and Tile Work – Reduction of prices. The subscribers have just closed a contract for the manufacture at their works during the demanding season, of 2,500,000 or 592 miles of drain pipes and tiles of all sizes; and, calculating on the sale of this large quantity, they have fixed their selling prices as low as they can possibly be to remunerate. They have also visited all the principal works in Scotland and in the best tile making districts of England and are now engaged in extending their works and introducing all the recent improvements.  By the 15th of February, these erections and improvements will be completed and Culloden Brick and Tile Works will then be, without exception, the most extensive and complete in Scotland. The subscribers take the opportunity of returning their best thanks to those gentlemen who have during the past season favoured them with their orders and trust that during the ensuing season they will kindly continue their patronage.  They beg to assure those, who may honour them with their orders, that no article will be sent them that will not bear the strictest scrutiny, or in any way inferior to what can be had from the best factories in the south. In comparing the prices quoted below with those of other works, it is necessary to keep in view that the length of all drain tiles and pipes manufactured by the subscribers is 15″; that they guarantee the number ordered from breakage; and that no docked vessel will carry dead weight of any size of pipe tiles above 1 1/2 ” in diameter. By the 1st of March (and earlier if the weather permits) their works will be in full operation and any quantity of any size may be had on the shortest notice. They always have on hand a large quantity on common and circle bricks.

21/03/1850 -Inverness Courier – Easter Ross. To the proprietors, farmers and others. In order to accommodate those carrying on works of drainage in Easter Ross, the subscribers have rented a yard at Balintraid, where after the middle of the ensuing week, a large stock of all kinds of bricks, drain tiles, pipes, chimney cans etc will always be kept. No additional charge beyond the advertised prices, except the cost of discharging out of the yard, will be made. The key of the yard lies with Mr William MacKenzie, Shoremaster, Balintraid and McNab and Campbell Culloden Brick and Tile Works.

Dear Sir, I have great pleasure in testifying to the quality of the Bricks manufactured by you, of which we have used a large quantity.  They are of a very superior quality, and quite sufficient to stand exposure to frost and weather.  The best proof of this, as you are well aware, is that the bricks are made of the same clay about 70 years ago, for Culloden Garden Walls, & which have been exposed during the whole of that period, are still perfectly sound and good. I am, Dear Sir, yours faithfully, (Signed) Duncan Forbes.

K.Macnab, Esq., Inverness                                                                                                    Dalmore Distillery, by Alness, 11th March 1850

Dear Sir, I have much pleasure in stating that I consider the quality of the bricks, received by me during the last six months from the Culloden Brick and Tile Works, to be equal, if not superior, in quality to any I have ever had from the south. I am, dear sir, yours truly, (Signed) Don Sutherland.

K.Macnab, Esq.,                                                                                                                     7 Castle Street, Inverness, March 21, 1850

Dear Sir, Having visited several of the Brick and Tile establishments in the south, among which the far-famed one at Leith, -I must confess those manufactured at your establishment are equal, if not superior, to any I have yet seen made in Scotland. I am sir, your obedient servant. (Signed) William Munro, architect.

Kennedy Macnab, Esq.                                                                                                          Thornbush Brewery, Inverness, March 12, 1850.

Dear Sir, I have used a considerable quantity of the bricks manufactured by you last season, in building my furnaces, &c., and I have much pleasure in certifying that they are of a most excellent and superior quality; they’re hard, and well suited either for maintaining weight or exposure to weather. I am your most obedient servant. (Signed) F.W.Loban.

Mr Kennedy Macnab                                                                                                              Inverness, 13th March 1850.

Dear Sir, I hereby certify that I have used a considerable amount of the bricks manufactured by you in the course of the last season, and I have no hesitation in saying they are quite sufficient for outside work and exposure to the weather, and not inferior to anything of the kind brought from the south to this quarter. I am dear sir, yours truly. (Signed) Murdoch Macloed, mason.

Mr Kennedy Macnab.                                                                                                             Inverness, 18th March 1850.

Dear Sir, I have much pleasure in certifying that the quality of the Bricks manufactured by you in the course of last season is very superior, quite sufficient to stand exposure to wind and weather, and not inferior to anything of the kind got from the south. I am, dear sir, yours very truly. (Signed) Alex Cumming, builder.

K Macnab, Esq., Ivy Cottage, Inverness.                                                                            Mains, Ardersier, March 14, 1850.

Dear Sir, In answer to your inquiry regarding the quality of circle bricks furnished by your firm in the month of August last, for the building of a stalk on the farm, I have great pleasure in saying that they were of most excellent quality, well and equally burned, and out of the whole number used, 4700, not half a dozen were rejected by the bricklayer and I am convinced the weather will have no effect upon them, on the contrary, render them harder and better. I am, dear sir, yours truly. (Signed) Charles Monro.

Macnab and Campbell, Culloden Brick and Tile Works, 18th March 1850.

Below – 05/04/1850 – John O’ Groat Journal – Certificates in favour of flower pots.

1887 – Wm Ross – Brickworks, Milend, Inverness – Yearly Rent = £34.10.00

               William Ross – Tileworks, Culloden. Yearly rent = £47.00

                                                           Do       = £23.00

30/03/1894 – The Inverness Courier – We regret that by a clerical error in our issue of Tuesday, it was stated that Sheriff Blair’s decision in the above case was in favour of the defenders, the Culloden trustees, whereas it was in favour of Mr Ross, Seafield of Raigmore, whose contention that the machinery should be valued as a going concern, the Sheriff sustains. As the case has excited considerable interest in the district, we give below the main points in the Sheriff’s interlocutor and note. The Sheriff finds in point of fact that the pursuer entered into possession of the Culloden Tileworks, of which the defenders are owners, in February 1879, on a seven years lease, and by arrangement with them took over certain machinery and plant therein at a price fixed by arbitration, and upon conditions that upon his outgoing the machinery, &., should be taken over by the defenders at a price to be fixed by arbitration, in default of the agreement. The pursuer continued by tacit relocation to occupy and possess the said subjects until Whitsunday 1891, when he quitted the premises, leaving his machinery and other effects therein. The parties having failed to agree on the price, the pursuer now seeks to have the value of the machinery and effects ascertained by arbitration. Finds in law that the pursuer is entitled to have the price fixed by arbitration and that the machinery and effects should be valued as plant in situ, capable of earning a profit, as the name should be settled by valuators mutually chosen (or by an oversman chosen by the said valuators to decide in the event of their differing in opinions), and ordains the defenders to concur with the pursuer in entering into a reference to valuators to be mutually chosen, and to name valuators accordingly. Continues the cause until the first Court day in May next, that the minute of references may be settled and approved by the Court. In the meantime reserves all questions and expenses, and grants leave to appeal. The Sheriff observes in his note that the connection between the parties began in 1879. The letter written by the pursuer to Mr Duncan Forbes, of date 19th February 1879, is the offer made for the Tileworks by the pursuer. The offer was accepted, and the pursuer was referred to Mr James Anderson, as Culloden’s agent, and to Mr Alex. Fraser, banker, Inverness, as his factor, for completion of the transaction. Thereupon the pursuer int reviews Mr Anderson, who tells him that he must take the machinery, &., at a valuation. The pursuer ultimately agrees to do this upon condition that he is relieved of it at his outgoing on the same terms.  Accordingly, a minute of the agreement is entered into between Messrs Hendrie (the former tenants) and the pursuer, and the machinery and other articles are taken over and paid for by the pursuer to the agent for the landlord. The receipt, which bears the date 18th April 1879, is, the Sheriff thanks, complete evidence of the landlord being a party to this arrangement between Messrs Hendrie and the pursuer, independent altogether of the parole evidence adduced. It is to be observed, moreover, that the pursuer’s testimony is throughout clear and distinct; while, on the other hand, the other witnesses have no distinct recollection of what took place at these communings, and even the letters adduced in evidence failed to remind them of the particular matters of which they are treated. A draft lease was prepared by the landlord’s agents during Mr Arthur Forbes’s life and afterwards revised when the trustees came into possession. The original draft contains a clause to the effect that on the termination of this task the landlord shall take over, or, in his option, shall take the incoming tenant bound to take over, on the valuation of parties to be manually chosen the whole engines, machinery, tools, and others now to be taken over at valuation by the tenant as aforesaid. The alterations on the draft lease as revised were set submitted to or approved of by Mr Ross, who refused to sign the extended lease on that ground. In fact, Mr Ross did not see the extended lease, or know of the alterations on the original draft, until long after he had entered into possession of the tileworks. The cover or envelope in which the extended lease was handed to Mr Ross by Mr Forbes bears the postmark of 3rd July 1879 and approximately fixes the date where Mr Ross first became aware of the alterations on the original draft lease.  On 26th May 1886 Mr Ross writes to Mr Forbes as to a new lease, and there the condition as to the relief of the machinery and plant is plain and instinct.  But no response is made to this offer until 11th April 1890, when Mr Fraser, factor, writes to Mr Ross and holds him to his offer of 26th May 1886. The pursuer went out at Whitsunday 1891, and made a claim on the defenders for the value of the machinery, &c., belonging to him on the premises. On 30th June following, Mr Fraser wrote enquiring of the pursuer what it is he is entitled to, and in answer to this enquiry, the pursuer sends him the old valuations with the Hendries, for the purpose of showing what should be valued.  On the 20th July, Mr Fraser sends to the pursuers a draft of a submission which is approved of by the pursuer (the only alteration being an addition of the words “and others” after the words machinery), who also gives the name of the arbiter chosen by him. The correspondence between Mr Fraser and Colonel Warrand, which took place at this time, shows that no alteration was made or contemplated in the draft submission. However, on a correspondence taking place between the pursuer and Messrs Skene & Co., the defenders’ Edinburgh agents, a different arose, the agents contending that the machinery and plant should be valued not as a going concern but as for breaking up. After this two draft submissions were prepared by Messrs Skene and Co., who have declined to produce the original draft submission. The new draft submissions were not approved of by (Mr Ross’ agent), and that has been revised by the defenders’ Edinburgh agents, who’s revision was not approved of by Mr Scott. The result of all this is the present action. The question at issue between the parties is-how is the machinery and other effects in the brickworks at Culloden to be valued by the arbiters to be appointed. It is maintained by the pursuer that these should be valued as a going concern, and by the defenders that they should be valued as for breaking up, each article valued separately as articles that are of no use to the landlord, or in other words, as old metal. In the Sheriff’s opinion, the machinery and effects should be valued as plant in situ, capable of earning a profit-a value which merely enables the pursuer to obtain the price of the things which belong to him within the premises. The proper price can only be ascertained by considering what would be a reasonable sum for a willing purchaser to pay for the machinery as machinery capable of earning a profit by working this brickwork. As the defenders do not acquiesce in these views, the Sheriff has granted leave to appeal. Agent for the pursuer Mr Roderick Scott. Agent for the defenders Mr Wm. Anderson.

1899 – M Macaskill, Widow – Tileworks, Culloden – Yearly rent = £6.00

1901 – M Macaskill, Widow – Tileworks, Culloden – Yearly rent = £14.00

1902 – Mrs M Macaskill – Tileworks Culloden – Yearly rent = £14.00