A Spanish village is proud patterned for 123 years
of Borgonya. At its peak, there were 1000 workers using 80,000 spinning wheels to produce more than 60,000kg of yarns every week.
Three types of thread were produced: sewing, darning and twisted, the latter used for fishing nets and tarpaulin.
“It was seen as being one of the best threads in the world and the quality brought the colony a fantastic reputation,” said Jordi. A whole community flourished during the factory’s heyday, with the provision of a church, school, pub, theatre, post office, railway station, hairdressers and more.
Workers were looked after by a company doctor and from the earliest days they were given sick leave, something which was unheard of in most Catalan factories.
The mill conditions at Coats were held up as a benchmark for other employers and a 40- hour working week was introduced in 1919.
The factory also brought with it Scotland’s sporting heritage. Coats established a football team to give workers something to do and Club Deportivo Borganya still has a saltire as part of its strip.
The oil crisis of the early 1970s that sparked industrial unrest in Spain led to a long, slow decline, resulting in the eventual closure of the factory in 2000. However, the community continued to exist with the houses sold off to former workers who then remained in the area.
The City Council of Sant Vicenc has been collaborating with the museum since 2006 on a project to conserve and revitalise the mill complex. And Borgonya was declared a Place of National Cultural Interest in 2013.
The museum keeps the story alive by staging exhibits of Borgonya’s place in history. But it’s in the city of Manlleu, well away from the village.
Now, however, plans are well advanced to bring Borgonya’s past home.
“The City Council is working to rehabilitate the house of the doctor and turn it into a museum,” confirmed Mayor Sibina.
“We aim to show off the original objects that came from the factory away back in the 19th Century.
“Then we can look to develop a further tourism project.
“We are a small town with limited resources. But it is very important for us to maintain the colony in perfect conditions.”
At the moment most visitors to Museu Del Ter and Borgonya come from Catalonia and more widely from Spain.
But tours in English will be introduced to cater for the hoped- for influx of visitors from the UK.
“We have a very special feeling for Scotland,” said Mayor Sibina.
“It is part of our history. We see the Scottish people as a brother. The Scottish flag flew above the factory for a long time and one our roads is called Paisley Street, so there is so much shared history.”