New build on old history

I blipped ‘The Wireworks’ housing development that is currently being built on the old Brunton Wireworks site.

John Brunton, who owned the Brunton Wire Factory (originally built in 1876 to produce piano wire), was the creator of lenticular line, used for aircraft production. Originally called Bruntonised wire, however, due to inadequate patenting the creation was taken over by the Royal Aircraft Factory in 1912 and this streamlined (non-circular) wire was thereafter called RAF Wire.

This RAF wire (Bruntonised wire) was used in many aircraft inc. the Vickers Mayflower airship (1910), R34 airship (1918), R100 airship (1922), R101 airship (1929), Alcock and Brown’s Vickers Vimy (first plane to cross the Atlantic in 1919), as well as the Tiger Moth (1931).

Over and above aircraft wires, Brunton's wartime work included 100,000 rifle rods, field telephone wires, anti-submarine nets and bomb-proof nets for buildings. After the war the decline in need for wire brought diversification, with the company branching into spark plugs and cinema projectors.

Here’s a link to a film on the Brunton Wireworks, that is in the National Library of Scotland collection , which you may (or may not … it’s 50 minutes long, lol) find interesting: https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/0438

The factory was closed in the 1990s, being demolished thereafter, with the ground laying empty till recently, when planning permission was given for 140 new apartments. This where are are today.

John Brunton, died in 1937, and is buried in nearby St. Michael’s Kirk, Inveresk. 

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of history. It’s amazing what you find when you decide to delve into things.

I hope you have had a good day.