Product Code Database
Camperdown Works was a jute manufacturing complex in Dundee, Scotland, which covered around 30 acres and employing at its peak almost 6,000 workers. Developed from 1849 as a purpose-built and highly integrated industrial complex, it brought together spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing processes on a single site served by its own railway branch. For a period in the later nineteenth century it was the world's largest jute works in the world and was owned by Cox Brothers.
The works formed part of Dundee’s emergence as the principal centre of mechanised jute manufacture within the British Empire, processing raw fibre imported largely from Bengal and exporting finished goods to international markets Bruce Lenman, Charlotte Lythe & Enid Gauldie, Dundee and its Textile Industry 1850–1914 (Dundee: Abertay Historical Society, 1969).
In 1827 James Cock (subsequently known as Cox), the son of James Cock of Foggyley and Helen Scott, assumed control of the family business and in 1841 formed a co-partnering with his brothers, William Cox, Thomas Hunter Cox and George Addison Cox. The firm was quick to adopt the most recent improvements and moved over from the linen trade to jute trade.
Warden noted that the Camperdown Works of Cox Brothers appeared unusual in the district in carrying out the entire manufacturing process - from raw material to finished cloth - within a single works complex, with materials passing systematically between departments. Alexander Johnston Warden, The Linen Trade (London: Longmans, 1967), pp. 571–573. Available online.
The development of Camperdown Works formed part of the wider Industrial Revolution in Scotland, during which Dundee emerged as a major centre of mechanised textile manufacture.Lenman, Bruce; Lythe, Charlotte; Gauldie, Enid. Dundee and its Textile Industry 1850–1914. Abertay Historical Society.
In 1849, construction began of Camperdown Works, in Lochee and within a few years all of their operations relating to the manufacture of jute were carried out on the site.
The first building to be erected on the site by the Cox Brothers was the power loom factory which was the largest then built in Dundee. A hand loom factory was built to its north in 1853, holding 225 looms. One of the most significant developments on the site was the High Mill, which author Mark Watson argues to have been one of the finest textile mills in Victorian era Scotland. It was built in three stages from 1857 and included a 100-foot clock tower.
By the late 1860s the Works had developed into a large and highly integrated industrial complex. R. R. Atkinson, Jute: Fibre to Yarn (1965) Mazharul Islam Kiron, “Flow Chart of Jute Manufacturing Process”, Textile Learner. In 1869 David Bremner described it as occupying eighteen acres of level ground, constructed on a “regular and well-considered plan” designed to allow extension without disrupting internal arrangements, indicating that the works had been deliberately planned to accommodate the future expansion of production. A branch line connected the Works to the nearby Dundee and Newtyle Railway, enabling raw materials to be delivered directly to the site and finished goods dispatched by rail to Dundee's harbour and wider transport networks.
The Jute fibre processed at Camperdown Works was imported primarily form Bengal, then the principal region of global jute cultivation, linking agricultural production in South Asia with mechanised textile manufacture in Dundee.
Raw jute was stored in large detached warehouses before passing through successive stages of manufacture arranged across purpose-built buildings. Bremner described the initial “batching” process, in which the fibre was treated with oil and water to soften it prior to spinning, followed by mechanical preparation and spinning processes similar to those used in flax manufacture. The machinery used at Camperdown was reported in 1869 to be of recent construction and largely made on the premises. The presence of engineering workshops and a foundry reflected a wider pattern in Dundee’s jute industry, where the development and adaptation of specialised machinery for processing jute formed an important part of local industrial activity.
Several machines used at the Works were of George Addison Cox's own design, and patents were granted in the 1850s and 1860s for machinery used in the preparation of jute and other fibrous materials. Practical Mechanic's Journal and Patent Office, Volume Viii.-Second Series. April 1863 - March,1864. Page 262: HACKLING MACHINES. George Addison Cox Esq., Dundee. – Patent dated April 2, 1863. "Newton's London journal of arts and sciences; Internet Archive.London Journal of Arts and Sciences 1854 - Page 300 No. 1725. George Addison Cox, of Lochee, Dundee, for improvements in machinery or apparatus for winding yarns or thread. Practical Mechanic's Journal - Publication date 1849 v. 8 Apr. 1855-Mar. 1856. Page 51. Self-Acting Winding Machine by G. A. Cox. The Engineer July 3 - December 25, 1863: Vol 16. Page 276. No. 852. G. A. Cox, Lochee, Dundee, “Preparation and manufacture of jute, hemp, flax, dc." - Dated 2nd April, 1863.
Steam power was central to the operation of the Works. In 1869 the machinery was driven by engines with an aggregate nominal capacity of 580 horsepower (1,850 indicated horsepower), supplied by 22 boilers arranged in a single line. The smoke from the furnaces was carried off by a large chimney, later known as “Cox’s Stack”, completed in 1866. (2026). 9781780271064, Birlinn Ltd. ISBN 9781780271064 Bremner recorded the chimney as 300 feet in height, while later architectural sources describe it as 282 feet high. Coal consumption in the late 1860s was approximately 15,000 tons per year. "Cox's Stack" remains one of the most prominent industrial landmarks in Dundee.
In addition to weaving sheds containing hundreds of power looms and hand looms, the site included a foundry for the repair and manufacture of machinery, warehouses for raw materials and finished goods, a three-bay engine shed serving the branch railway, and stables capable of housing up to thirty horses. By 1878 the Works employed approximately 4,500 workers, rising to 5,000 by 1900. Bremner recorded 4,300 persons employed within the Works in 1869, in addition to 400 sack-sewers working from their own homes.
Contemporary descriptions also noted the scale and internal conditions of the buildings. Bremner stated that the storeys ranged from fourteen to seventeen feet in height and that the rooms were thoroughly ventilated, exceeding the requirements of contemporary legislation. A half-time school for workers’ children was later established on the site, built in 1884 and closed in 1896. Together these elements formed a largely self-contained industrial system integrating production, power generation, engineering workshops and transport infrastructure within a single coordinated site.
As the industry matured, however, production increasingly shifted closer to the source of raw jute in Bengal, where labour costs were lower and the supply of fibre was readily available. This gradual shift contributed to the long-term decline of large-scale jute manufacturing in Dundee during the twentieth century.
The rapid expansion of mechanised mills in Bengal later formed the basis of what is now described as the Jute industry in Bangladesh, which eventually became one of the world’s largest centres of jute production.
In addition to Camperdown Works, Cox Brothers had several offices. In 1888 these included premises in Meadow Place Dundee, as well as Glasgow, Manchester and London.
By the late 2000s, many of the original tenants either left or were forced to shut down, leaving Gala Bingo as the sole business on site. Many of the buildings at the park were boarded up and left abandoned.
In 2023, Greggs opened a restaurant and drive through at the entrance of the park and Home Bargains moved to the former Odeon site, which opened in December of that year.
|
|
