Blog | architectural ironwork

"Found photos" - time travel ?

A 'found' photo to me at least is a print or a negative picked up somewhere that has no connection to you (yet). I started to pick these...

Lingzhao Xuan - China's "crystal palace" in the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City - or the Palace Museum as it is now known there is a curious and rather remarkable building. It is unusual for many...

Charles D Young & Co - A significant Scottish ironworker, engineer and salesman.....

Charles D Young and Family “talent, ingenuity and enterprise” Charles Denoon Young (1822-1887) was born in Legerwood near Lauder, son of...

The mysterious Scottish Engineer - photographer

Not regular ironwork fare today but iron related...... Some months back I saw a portfolio of photographs for sale at an auction - the...

Logos - brands and scale of Scottish architectural ironfounders

Scots architectural ironworkers in the US - creating first generation ironworks

Like many other nations, the Scots travelled to the United States for many reasons. It is not surprising that some of the Scots...

The ubiquitous ironwork of Messrs Frederick Braby and Co

Frederick Braby Co, Eclipse Iron & Galvanising Works (1839 - onwards) Originally established in London, Braby and Co established...

3d model of the Glasgow Necropolis Macfarlane Monument

Three generations of Walter Macfarlane are buried here. The founder, his nephew and his son, Col Walter Macfarlane. Also buried here are...

A mystery solved ?

The Stirling Black Boy fountain is an odd piece of work - it is the only known ornamental work by Glasgow firm Neilson and Co. Neilson...

Logos and branding

The use of trade catalogues was an important sales tool for Victorian architectural ironworkers. We are used to being bombarded by brands...

Sheep wool grease and iron - a natural combination ?

Lanolin has been used for thousands of years to protect metal - from the armour of knights to bronze statues, this naturally produced...

Perth Waterworks - one of the world's earliest cast iron facades ?

James Bogardus is widely recognised as being the 'father of cast iron facades' except I believe he isn't. A schoolmaster in Perth with...

Scotland's architectural ironwork industry

Some 25 years ago I started to collate information and research Scotland's architectural iron founding industry. Few people were...

Dangerous railings...... ?

Glasgow and many other cities had a period of removing the spikes from railings following incidents where people had accidentally impaled...

the iron bloke.