Own railway line

Kenneth Baxter has provided the photograph on the right and says: “Archive Services at the University of Dundee hold the largest collection of records relating to Dundee’s jute and flax industries, including those of Cox Brothers, who were Dundee’s largest jute manufacturer. Their Camperdown Works in Lochee were, at one point, the largest jute works in the world – an incredible industrial complex. Begun in 1849, the building eventually had its own railway branch line and employed thousands of workers.

“Our collections include various plans relating to Camperdown Works, but this beautiful 1887 drawing of it is always a popular item with visitors to the archives. It really goes some way towards conveying the massive scale of the site in its heyday.

“The works featured some spectacular architecture, but the standout was Cox’s Stack. This great chimney could be seen for miles around and served as a striking visual metaphor for the premier place Cox Brothers occupied in Dundee.

“In 1920, Cox Brothers was one of several Dundee firms which came together to form Jute Industries (which later became Sidlaw Industries), under the chairmanship of James Ernest Cox, with Camperdown remaining one of its key works.

“However, the decline of the jute industry eventually torpedoed even this flagship and in 1981 the works closed. While parts of the site were demolished, several buildings survived and were ultimately converted for other uses and Cox’s Stack remains a much-loved feature of Dundee’s skyline.

“An interesting postscript to Camperdown Works’ story came in 1988. With much of the complex in poor condition and rubble everywhere, the BBC used the site to double for a bombed-out wartime Berlin in its miniseries Christabel.”

Picture: University of Dundee Archive Services. Camperdown Works, Lochee, Dundee, as it looked in 1887. Read more about it on the left.