Photograph of the remains of the seaweed factory at Middleton.
Courtesy of Mr Donald MacKinnon
The kelp forests around Tiree are the fourth largest in Scottish waters. This abundance fuelled the seaweed industry on the island which, for a hundred years, produced alkali for soap and glass manufacture, and for bleaching linen.
Undercut by cheap foreign imports, the industry slumped from the 1830s until the 1860s when the North British Chemical Company appointed as manager a brilliant young chemist, Edward Curtis-Stanford. He arrived in Tiree in 1864 to supervise the building of the factory at Middleton, known locally as the Glassary.
Until 1901 the factory extracted iodine and alginates from the tangles, selling the residual charcoal as fertilizer and deodorants for earth closets, and using the gas produced by the process to light the buildings. Most of the factory was demolished in 1941 to provide the foundations of the runways built at the Reef for the RAF station.
Black and white photograph of the old seaweed factory at Middleton.
The old seaweed factory at Middleton in the early 20th century.
Photocopied extract from `The Clyde District of Dumbarton` by MacLeod in 1886.
Account of the North British Chemical Company`s works in Dumbarton which extracted the chemicals from the kelp charcoal produced in Tiree; photograph Curtis-Stanford with other Commissioners of the Burgh of Clydebank in 1886.
Photocopied letter by Edward Curtis Stanford written on 3/1/1864.
Account by Edward Curtis Stanford written on 3/1/1864 about the previous year on Tiree and the difficulties he experienced building the seaweed factory at Middleton.
Front page of Stanford`s paper `On the Manufacture of Kelp` and various other handwritten pages about the uses of seaweed, costings, proposed plans for the factory and drying sheds and highland medicines using seaweed..
Family tree for Donald MacArthur and his wife Flora MacLean and three photographs of gravestones in Tiverton cemetery, Ontario.
Family tree for Donald MacArthur, tenant at Middleton and his wife Flora MacLean and three photographs of gravestones of five of their children in Tiverton cemetery, Ontario.
Family tree for Donald MacLean and his wife Ann MacLean and two photographs of gravestones in Tiverton cemetery, Ontario.
Family tree for Donald MacLean and his wife Ann MacLean and for their son-in-law Malcom MacDougall of Ruaig and two photographs of gravestones in Tiverton cemetery, Ontario.
