Forever Buddies: Why to have been Paisley
Thread tycoons mean a little bit of Catalonia is forever Scottish
Alittle corner of Spain that is forever Scottish is to celebrate the links between the two countries.
Borgonya, a tiny village of 300 people an hour’s drive from Barcelona, was one of the key outposts of Paisley-based textile giant Coats.
From the end of the 19th Century, a mill churned out thread on a massive scale and expat workers had houses built for them just as they had back in Scotland. The connections were such that streets in the remote village even had Scots names.
Market changes saw the factory finally close its doors in 2000.
But the houses re m a i n e d occupied, the village vibrant and the Scots links continue with the local football team playing in St Mirren’s black and white.
Now plans for a new museum to tell the fascinating stor y are under way.
It is hoped tourists will swap Costas for culture and explore the rich industrial history.
“We are proud to have a colony with both heritage and historical value for Catalonia,” said Eric Sibina, Mayor of Sant Vicenc de Torello, which takes in Borgonya.
“I invite Scots to come and visit as they will find a small part of Scotland in the heart of Catalonia.”
The River Ter proved a magnet for
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The Scots led the way in setting up the mill
– Jordi Grane
industrialists from the mid-19th Century, with the water used to power turbines and a railway line established in 1879.
Coats, as part of a worldwide expansion that included building mills from Russia to America, bought a waterfall in Borgonya in 1893 and opened their factory two years later.
“The Coats family came with a philosophy of looking after the workers of the colony,” said Jordi Grane, historian at the regional Museu Del Ter. “And because the industrial revolution began in Britain, the Scots came with much greater knowledge of how to start a mill and set everything up. They really led the way.”
As well as using local workers, around 200 Scots were enticed across to Spain to live and work at the new mill.
A mix of traditional terraced and detached houses, complete with gardens, were built to make them feel at home.
A merger with major Spanish factories in 1903 further expanded the importance