William Baird & Co
Introduction
This company operated the Garthsherrie Iron Works, several private railway systems and numerous mines.
It extended beyond the UK to have iron ore mines in north and south Spain and Sierra Leone.
The Gartsherrie Iron Works closed in 1967.
The William Baird & Co Ltd company, which had survived nationalisation of iron and steel making, diversified into manufacturing of clothing. It was wound up in 2018.
Dates
| / /1830 | William Baird & Co Company founded by Alexander Baird for five of his eight sons |
| 04/05/1830 | William Baird & Co Production starts of first hot blast furnace at Gartsherrie Iron Works. |
| /11/1830 | William Baird & Co Cold blast used due to technical problems at Gartsherrie Iron Works (unable to warm the blast using the heat above the open topped furnace). |
| /10/1831 | William Baird & Co Hot blast re-introduced at Gartsherrie Iron Works (blast warmed at ground level). |
| 11/09/1832 | William Baird & Co Second blast furnace in operation at Gartsherrie Iron Works. |
| /08/1839 | William Baird & Co Stop paying dues for James Beaumont Neilson^s hot blast patent. |
| / /1843 | William Baird & Co 16 blast furnaces now in operation at Gartsherrie Iron Works with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons, 8 new blast furnaces opened on the west bank of the Monkland Canal^s Gartsherrie branch. |
| / /1843 | William Baird & Co William Baird & Co taken to court for not paying dues for James Beaumont Neilson^s hot blast method of iron making. (The Bairds lose.) |
| / /1845 | William Baird & Co New works opened at Eglinton Iron Works, Ayrshire. |
| / /1846 | Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway Formation of line at Howes re-modeled further east at Sunnyside Junction to allow expansion of William Baird & Co^s Gartsherrie Iron Works. William Baird & Co was the contractor for the work. |
| / /1860 | William Baird & Co
Forth and Clyde Canal
Bairds of Gartshore's Railway Open mines at Twechar, Twechar Swing Bridge laid across the Forth and Clyde Canal for the private line which ran from Kilsyth to Gartshore Loops on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. |
| / /1860 | William Baird & Co Quarter Colliery Pit No 1 [Denny] opened in Dunipace by William Baird & Co for ironstone and later coal. |
| / /1860 | Gartshore Colliery Pits 9 and 11 Sunk by William Baird & Co to the south of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. |
| / /1865 | Twechar Colliery Pit No 1 Opened to the north of the Forth and Clyde Canal by William Baird & Co for ironstone and later coal. |
| / /1866 | Straiton Oil Works Opened by William Taylor and Company. About this date William Baird & Co mines for limestone at Burdiehouse (Burdiehouse Lime Works). |
| / /1870 | Kames Colliery Opened by William Baird & Co. |
| / /1870 | William Baird & Co Starts to build Twechar village. |
| / /1870 | William Baird & Co Build miners rows at Auchinstarry. |
| / /1872 | Whitelaw Fountain In memory of Alexander Whitelaw, partner in William Baird & Co, who organised the raising of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway onto a bridge in 1847, rather than crossing the road over the Monkland Canal in Coatbridge with a level crossing. |
| / /1875 | Gartshore Colliery Opened by William Baird & Co beside the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. |
| / /1878 | William Baird & Co Blast furnaces at Gartsherrie Iron Works start being re-built. |
| / /1880 | William Baird & Co
Raasay Iron Railway Opens iron mines on Raasay. |
| / /1880 | William Baird & Co Opens mines in Sierra Leone. |
| / /1885 | Dumbreck Colliery Sinking started by William Baird & Co. |
| / /1889 | Bothwell Castle Colliery Pits Nos 3 and 4 Opened by William Baird & Co. |
| / /1893 | William Baird & Co Purchase mines at Santander, North Spain and the Monte de Hierro mineral field in South Spain. This traffic was initially received at General Terminus (Glasgow Harbour), but the harbour commissioners soon had plans for a new facility at Rothesay Dock served by the Rothesay Dock Branch (North British Railway and Caledonian Railway). |
| /05/1895 | William Baird & Co Railway opened to the Monte de Hierro mineral field in South Spain. This was a 9.5 mile railway which ran from Cerro del Hierro Siding (north west of Cazalla-Constantina station) in a north east direction, progressively turning to east and then south. The line climbed around 500ft steadilly from its starting point, passing San Nicolas del Puerto and Cerro del Hierro before reaching its terminus. |
| / /1896 | William Baird & Co Blast furnaces at Gartsherrie Iron Works all re-built and by-product plant installed. |
| / /1896 | John G Stein Opens new brickworks in Denny using William Baird & Co's Anchor ironstone pits bing. |
| /11/1900 | St Flanan Mine Starts to be sunk by William Baird & Co. |
| / /1905 | William Baird & Co Bedlay Colliery sunk with three shafts and a railway connection, Bedlay Colliery (William Baird & Co). |
| / /1913 | Raasay Iron Railway Opened by William Baird & Co to connect Inverarish Ore Mine 1 to a plant and pier at Suisnish Pier. |
| /04/1914 | Auchenreoch Colliery Lightning strikes and destroys a chimney at the William Baird & Co pit. |
| / /1922 | Riddochill Mine (Bathgate) To William Baird & Co. |
| / /1922 | Mosside Mine (Bathgate) To William Baird & Co from Gavin Paul & Sons. |
| / /1922 | Boghead Mine (Bathgate) To William Baird & Co from Gavin Paul & Sons. |
| / /1930 | Carriden Mine (Bo^ness) Taken over by William Baird & Co. |
| / /1930 | Sierra Leone Development Co Ltd Following discovery of iron ore in Sierra Leone DELCO is formed by William Baird & Co Ltd, Northern Mercantile & Investment Co and a minority share owned by United Africa Co Ltd. DELCO is formed to develop the iron ore field at Marampa and a railway of just over 50 miles which ran west to a port on Pepel Island, Tagrin Bay. |
| /08/1931 | Dalmellington Ironworks Company goes into liquidation but is bought by William Baird & Co who also bought Sanquhar and Kirkconnel Collieries to form Bairds and Dalmellington Ltd. |
| /09/1933 | Sierra Leone Development Co Ltd
William Baird & Co Ltd MV Hindpool leaves the port at Pepel Island, Sierra Leone, for Rothesay Dock, Glasgow, carrying 8,000 tonnes of iron ore. |
| / /1934 | William Baird & Co Auchinstarry miners rows demolished and the population moved to Croy. |
| /12/1936 | Haugh Colliery No 1 This pit (to the south of the Kelvin Valley Railway's Kilsyth [1st] station and opened by Merry and Cunninghame) closed by William Baird & Co. |
| / /1939 | William Baird & Co Absorb the Scottish Iron and Steel Company to create Bairds and Scottish Steel. This linked the Gartsherrie Iron Works with the Northburn Steel Works. There was no hot metal road between the works. |
| / /1963 | William Baird & Co Decline to buy back the Gartsherrie Iron Works post nationalisation. |
| /04/1965 | William Baird & Co Twechar Shed and Works closed. |
| / /1967 | William Baird & Co Former possession Gartsherrie Iron Works closed, although its associated concrete works remained open (concrete can be made from slag). |
| 11/12/1981 | Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway Bedlay Colliery closed, along with railway to the colliery - the Bedlay Colliery (William Baird & Co) line and the M&K from by Bedlay south to Garnqueen South Junction closed. |
