John Paterson & Son
Masons
John Paterson, brickmakers and building contractors, was founded around 1865, by John Paterson, the son of a stonemason. The business became John Paterson & Son in the mid-1880s when John Paterson Junior (c. 1873–1931) joined the firm. 1 Over the next three decades, they became increasingly active in brickmaking, acquiring Nursery, Sheepmount, Caledonian and Temple Brickworks, all on the south side of Glasgow. 2 The Patersons based themselves at several addresses around Polmadie and Pollokshaws Roads for most of their existence.
By 1881 the firm had a sizeable workforce of 65, and won valuable contracts such as those for the sewers around Glasgow Central Railway, worth £45,000, in 1889; the construction of tunnels for Glasgow's new underground railway from Shields Road Station (1892–4); and of a tidal weir across the Clyde at Glasgow Green (1895–6). 3 In 1895 they were sub-contractors on Cessnock Dock for the Clyde Navigation Trust, and constructed the gasholder tank at Tradeston Gasworks. 4 Their expertise in public utilities saw them involved in the construction of waterworks at Arbroath and Belfast (1898–9), and of a reservoir at Milngavie (1905). 5
The firm became a limited company in 1891 with a share capital of £40,000. Having decided to concentrate on brickmaking, the company sold off their electric winches, steam cranes, lathes, theodolites, and other builders' plant in 1913. Their brick kilns in Polmadie Road were still active in 1939. 6 The firm ceased operations in 1963. 7
Notes:
1: Birth, death and census information, www.ancestry.co.uk and www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk [accessed 19 August 2012]; Glasgow Post Office directories, 1860–1923.
2: Glasgow Post Office directories, 1860–1923.
3: 1881 census information, www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 19 August 2012]; Glasgow Herald, 1 October 1889, p. 6; Scotsman, 20 January 1892, p. 7; Glasgow Herald, 8 February 1894, p. 12; 14 September 1896, p. 9; Glasgow Herald, 8 February 1895, p. 11; 2 September 1896, p. 11.
4: Glasgow Herald, 28 June 1895, p. 4; 24 July 1895, p. 10.
5: Scotsman, 20 July 1899, p. 9; Glasgow Herald, 23 October 1899, p. 13. Scotsman, 14 July 1906, p. 13.
6: Scotsman, 21 November 1891, p. 4, 11 January 1913, p. 15; Charles A. Oakley, Industrial Map of Scotland, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1939, p. 102.
7: Edinburgh Gazette, 3 September 1963, p. 620; 8 October 1963, p. 683.
