The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Graeme Strachan
Trail
trademark and so chose a camel as the centrepiece of its gateway.
A further extension in 1891 was powered by what was then the largest engine in Dundee, a marine type triple-expansion engine of 12,000 horse power which was made in Dundee by Messrs W D Thomson & Co.
They also manufactured rope and twine.
Messrs Grimond had branches at Manchester, where they manufactured oilcloth, and at Calcutta there was an establishment for the purchase and selection and shipment of raw material required for their extensive factories.
The firm also had offices in London and New York for the sale of their goods.
The Calcutta jute industry had captured much of the world trade and there were harder times ahead for the jute industry in Dundee which by now employed almost half of all workers in the city.
By 1903 nearly 3,000 workers were employed at Bowbridge Works and the establishment covered 11 acres of ground.
Conditions generally in the mills in Dundee were dreadful and the workers lived in appalling squalor.
Things were different at Bowbridge Works where the welfare of employees was looked after with a dining hall where hot meals were served at very cheap rates.
There was also a concert room and gymnasium and attached to the works was a fire engine.
The concert room was utilised by Bowbridge Works Musical Association and by Boys’ Brigade and a pipe band.
Jute Industries Ltd was formed as a result of the amalgamation of many of the Dundee jute companies including Cox Brothers, Gilroy and Sons and J and A D Grimond.
It was registered as a limited company in 1920.
Bowbridge was extended and modernised after the Second World War.
Production work climbed rapidly with improved handling methods introduced to deal with it.
The door to Bowbridge Works was designed originally for horses and carts.
The weighbridge was just inside the door and when big articulated vehicles came on the scene it was difficult to get them in and out.
The single traffic lane through the ornamental gateway on which the camel sat was considered inadequate and the stonework had to go to make room for a wider road.
Alternative sites for the camel were sought throughout the large area covered by the works but none were found to be suitable.
Jute Industries Ltd wanted to keep the camel but was advised that it was very doubtful whether it would be possible to dismantle it sufficiently for re-erection.
When the gates were removed by Messrs J B Hay they dismantled the camel on June 20 in 1955.
They put the camel on a four-wheel bogey and it lay in Bowbridge Works for a while where staff took pictures on top of it.
A female employee was then given the bell from the camel’s neck as a keepsake by one of the managers.
The camel was apparently transported to the home of Barclay Walker of Jute Industries.
A reminder of it was embodied in the design of the new iron gates when a camel motif was worked into the metal.
But different stories over the years started to emerge about what really did happen to the camel.
There was a suggestion the camel had actually been buried in the pool behind the joinery shop adjacent to Isla Street.
The camel was variously reported to have been taken to Balgersho, near Coupar Angus, or to an estate in
Inverness-shire, or even shipped to a jute mill in India.
Local historian Kenneth Baxter from Dundee University said: “The fact that even 65 years since its removal many people still talk about the camel is an incredible testimony to its popularity and iconic status.
“Presumably the Grimonds intended it to make an impact, but I doubt anyone connected with the business would have predicted how big an impression it would leave in Dundonian culture.”
A letter headed “Dundee Landmark” in The Courier in August 1951 included a photograph of Thomas Doig and George Mitchell whom the letter writer stated were “sculptors and close friends who built the camel and rider on top of the gate”.
The author went on to state that Mr Doig’s business was in Victoria Road, where George Carnegie & Son, sculptors, now were.
However, an alternative account appeared some weeks later from Mrs M R Marnie, Methil, who claimed her father, John McNaughton of 60 Watson Street, “built” the camel.
She stated that he was an employee of John McFarlane, a sculptor from Dock Street, and “went out to Fallaws