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DUNOON OBSERVER AND ARGYLLSHIRE STANDARD, SATURDAY, 20th OCTOBER, 2001
A family affair GEORGE H. Currie, Blacksmith, celebrates its 150th anniversary this week. Here Archie Currie, the fourth generation of Currie’s, tells, in his own words, the events of the last century and a half —
{{ In 1851 John Currie, my great grandfather, came to Sandbank and built a small smiddy on land feued from Hafton Estate. He was the younger son of the Curries of Knockamillie, Innellan, and had gone to Glasgow, where he served his apprenticeship as a blacksmith in the Vulcan Ironworks. So he called his smiddy
Vulcan Place. A good name for a smiddy, as Vulcan is the God of Fire. His reason for coming to Sandbank was the gunpowder mills in Glen Lean at the village of Clachaig. The raw material to make the powder was shipped into Sandbank and transported to Glen Lean by horse and cart. The shore behind
Grandfather, Archie Currie
Wilsons petrol was causeyed and the sailing barges, or gubberts, beached at high tide and horses and carts unloaded at low tide. There was a stable at the foot of the steep hill at the rumbling bridge and the carts would be traced, a second horse hitched on to pull the carts up the hill to the Powdermill. Over a hundred horses were employed in this transport, so originally it was to shoe these horses and maintain the carts that John Currie established his smiddy. It was a small tworoomed cottage with the smiddy at the end. There was a shoeing shed alongside. Where the cars were stored behind Wilson’s petrol station in Sandbank was the cooperage where the barrels were made for the gunpowder. The iron hoops for these barrels were made in the smiddy and we still have the cone that was used for this job, but we don’t use it much now, only occasionally to true up a ring that has to be dead round. Another job would have been shoeing the cart wheels. As the mills closed, yachtbuilding yards were starting up in Sandbank. By this time my grandfather, Archie Currie had taken over the smiddy and he became a master at forging the many fittings used in yacht building. He also became an expert in tempering the chisels for the masons involved
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in building the many fine country houses. The company were involved in making ploughs,
B est wishes and L ots of congratulations A ll the best to the C urrie Family K eep up the good work S till M any more anniversaries I n the future T o come H ere s to the next 150
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From one old timer to another Congratulations on reaching your 150th Anniversary
John Currie – great grandfather and founder of the business.
From one Established business to another:E. & R. Inglis Dunoon Observer and Argyllshire Standard FOUNDED 1871
George – father of the present Archie Currie
GEORGE H. CURRIE BLACKSMITH
ESTABLISHED 1851 VULCAN PLACE : SANDBANK : ARGYLL : PA23 8PJ
All types of welding, steel fabrication, gates, railings and fencing
Archie, Iain and Finlay would like to thank all their customers and suppliers for their good wishes on reaching their 150th anniversary