"Today (A Friday in 2006) marks the end of an era when the lights go out for the last time at Manuel Brickworks in Whitecross.
The facility has employed thousands of villagers and many more from the Linlithgow, Bo’ ness, Bridgend and Maddiston areas for decades.
Its workforce has dwindled dangerously after changing ownership several times in recent years after a long period of stability under the GR Stein banner Now the works officially close today and electrician, Robert McMeechan has the unenviable task of shutting down the works where he has been employed since he was 16 year old
There has only been a skeleton staff working in recent weeks with hundreds departing over the past few months most of them knowing no other work than what they did at the brickworks plant.
Said local amateur historian Murdoch Kennedy this week: "I was reminded of the words of the late George Charleston in a poem about the closure of another local employer Lochmill when he wrote:
'The latest local victim of, the economic knife
Was to. them, not just a workplace
But, far more, a way of life'"
... I found this place on the internet late Friday night whilst browsing on Flickr. The last photos I could find were taken 1 year ago so it was a gamble to drive the distance when it could all be a pile of rubble, but as soon as I drove through the little village, I spied two chimneys and I knew it was not the case
My boyfriend looking at the b00bie calendar ::
The facility has employed thousands of villagers and many more from the Linlithgow, Bo’ ness, Bridgend and Maddiston areas for decades.
Its workforce has dwindled dangerously after changing ownership several times in recent years after a long period of stability under the GR Stein banner Now the works officially close today and electrician, Robert McMeechan has the unenviable task of shutting down the works where he has been employed since he was 16 year old
There has only been a skeleton staff working in recent weeks with hundreds departing over the past few months most of them knowing no other work than what they did at the brickworks plant.
Said local amateur historian Murdoch Kennedy this week: "I was reminded of the words of the late George Charleston in a poem about the closure of another local employer Lochmill when he wrote:
'The latest local victim of, the economic knife
Was to. them, not just a workplace
But, far more, a way of life'"
... I found this place on the internet late Friday night whilst browsing on Flickr. The last photos I could find were taken 1 year ago so it was a gamble to drive the distance when it could all be a pile of rubble, but as soon as I drove through the little village, I spied two chimneys and I knew it was not the case
My boyfriend looking at the b00bie calendar ::
