Basic Biographical Details Name: | Robertson & Orchar | Designation: | | Born: | Before 1861 | Died: | | Bio Notes: | Robertson & Orchar was a Dundee-based mill-engineer and textile machinery manufacturing partnership with an architectural department. It was founded in 1856 when William Robertson, born 1825 and a leading draughtsman in the engineering department at Baxter Brothers, and James Guthrie Orchar, also born 1825 and then draughtsman to Steele's Lilybank Foundry, took over the Wallace Foundry of the dissolved partnership of Kinmond Hutton & Steele. It was immediately successful, being commissioned to design and build J & A D Grimond's Bowbridge Works and John Smieton's Panmure Works at Carmoustie in the following year.
Mark WAtson writes: 'I have the impression that the majority of the new power loom factories put up in Angus and Fife in 1856- 1867 were by Robertson and Orchar. They have a distinctive appearance, often Italianate, and their ironwork also has give-away details: Polonceau trussed wrought iron and arched but not gothic cast iron roofs, garlic bulb capitals, power transmission from below floors, often from a basement if sited on a hill. After 1867 they were rivalled by Urquhart Lindsay and Co, but the factories made by the latter were more utilitarian'.
Robertson was active in municipal affairs. He became interim town councillor for Dundee's First Ward on the death of Baillie Foggie in 1869, and was elected to the seat in November. He quickly made his name by promoting the augmentation of the Monikie water supply from the Fithie Burn and the Crombie reservoir and strongly advocated the acquisition of the Loch of Lintrathen as a lasting solution to Dundee's water supply. He was however defeated on the route of the pipeline by Provost Yeaman, the latter's direct route proving to have too steep a fall as Robertson had predicted. In 1874 Robertson was elected a magistrate and from 1875 to 1878 he was provost. Thereafter he severed his connection with the Council but continued to play an active role in the affairs of the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Dundee Infirmary, the Mars Training Ship and Dundee High School to which he gifted the gymnasium and the technical workshops. Like his partner Orchar he was a significant art collector and a supporter of the building of the Victoria Art Galleries.
James Guthrie Orchar retired in 1896 and died on 14 May 1898. Robertson's health failed in the latter year. Although he resumed attending business in the spring of 1899, his health became too precarious for him to travel thereafter. He died at Balmore on 11 July 1899, survived by his wife Elizabeth Petrie, and was buried at the Western Cemetery in Dundee. The business was continued by the families (in Orchar's case his wife's, his son James Steel Orchar having predeceased him) and merged with Urquhart Lindsay & Co, founded 1867, as Urquhart Lindsay Robertson Orchar after the First World War. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Wallace Foundry, Brown Constable Street, Dundee, Scotland | Business | 1856 | c. 1917 | Thereafter Urquhart Lindsay Robertson Orchar, Blackness and Wallace Foundries, Dundee |
Employment and TrainingEmployees or Pupils
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Dundee Yearbook | 1898 | | | | Orchar | | Dundee Yearbook | 1899 | | | | Robertson | | Watson, Mark | 1990 | Jute and Flax mills in Dundee | | Tayport: Hutton Press Ltd | |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | The Piper of Dundee | 26 July 1899 | | | |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | West Yorkshire Archives, Leeds | Fairbarin, Lawson Combe Barbour Archive | | |
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