Leith locals and history buffs have been saddened by the relocation of engineers George Brown & Sons. Their distinctive workshops at the Shore, complete with ‘GB’ ironwork on the door, have been a local landmark for decades. But what links this important Leith business to World War 2 bomb fragments found at Leith Library/ Town Hall and recently donated to our People’s Story collection? History Curator Vicky Garrington tells more...
A local business icon
The original business that became George Brown & Sons was established on Ferry Road as a blacksmiths in the 1820s. The business soon expanded, eventually incorporating drawing offices, a pattern shop, foundry and more. Work carried out included bicycle manufacture, boat building and overhauling, and boiler production. The iconic site at the Shore enabled boats to be moored right out front, in the days when the swing bridge still swung. This enabled some life-saving technical work during World War 2 – degaussing ships.
Protecting ships in World War 2
The German military used magnetic naval mines against British shipping during the War. The mines were able to detect changes in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by the steel in large ships, pinpointing explosions to cause maximum damage. To counteract this deadly technology, Britain developed the process of ‘degaussing’, installing electric cables around the ship that could counteract the changes in magnetic readings caused by the ships. A ‘gauss’ is a unit of magnetism, hence the term ‘degaussing’. George Brown & Sons installed cables on dozens of British military ships, helping them to go undetected in their important work transporting supplies and troops.
Links between stories
So what’s the link with bomb fragments at Leith Library/ Town Hall? A recent addition to our People’s Story collection is a group of pieces of parachute, burnt rope and metal salvaged from the site of an air raid on Leith in April 1941. As the War progressed, naval mines began to be used against land targets, particularly port areas. They were dropped by parachute to enable them to land without sinking into the earth – maximum damage could be caused by a surface-level bomb – and the burnt and twisted fragments that have been donated to us are from the aftermath of a ‘parachute mine’ attack. Magnetic triggers were often replaced with timers or other detonation devices for these land-targeting bombs, but the bombs themselves were the same on land or at sea.
You can read more about the April 1941 raid on Leith and the fragments in our blog here. It’s fascinating to think that one of the most deadly devices in the German arsenal exploded at Leith Library/ Town Hall on Ferry Road, a ten minute walk from George Brown & Sons workshops where so much was being done to prevent similar destruction at sea.
We wait to see what will happen with the George Brown & Sons premises, but the Leith community will forever have ties to the company, through relatives who apprenticed there, worked there, or benefitted from the engineering work they carried out.