Edenderry Works

(By Ernie Gordon)

The History of Edenderry Works and Thomas Ferguson & Co. Ltd. begins with Thomas Ferguson himself. Born in 1820 in Clare, Waringstown, his mother died in 1836 and his father in 1831, so that with the exception of one sister who died in 1833 he and his brother John were left orphans. It is believed their guardian was the Rev. Dr. Johnston of Tullylish Presbyterian Church, as it is known he went later on to the Belfast Academy under Dr. Bryce with both William and Harry Johnston, his sons. The former became minister of Townsend Street Church, Belfast, and was the principal in inaugurating the Presbyterian Orphan Society; the other brother became a doctor with a large working class practice in Belfast. When Thomas Ferguson left school he was appointed to Bruce Smyth of Broomfield, Banbridge, who was a blind man but also an outstanding hand-loom linen manufacturer, and amongst those serving their time about this period was Henry Matier and also the man who later became Sir John Preston.

It is not known when James Ferguson left Broomfield to start up for himself in business but he spoke at times of journeying both to Belfast and Dublin with Bruce Smyth where in the latter city there was also a linen market and a linen hall. The old linen hall in the former was until 1920 still situated in Donegan Street, Belfast. It is believed he started business in a house in Church Square, Banbridge, and probably the warp winding, chain warping and also boiling yarn was earned out about this spot, being beside the river. Assuming he started business when 25 that takes us to 1845 and we find from various deeds that in 1855 he acquired by a lease from May 1st 1854, for 999 years from John Temple Really, Scarva - probably acting on behalf of the Really Estate whose owner would have been a minor - of l0a or 3p statute acres situated on the left hand side of the Banbridge Lurgan road bounded by the old meeting house green, the Bann, properly belonging to the Hayes family of Millmount and the road in question.

There are no means today of ascertaining if on acquiring this property it had had on it previously any buildings connected with the hand-loom trade but it is fairly certain that prior to 1866-67 when the power-loom weaving factory was built that the present warehouse and the old stores and drying lofts with the wet works attached were all the buildings comprised in Thomas Fergusons then business, and so we cannot say if they had already been in existence or were put up by him when he moved from Church Square premises to Edenderry. Space and time does not permit details of the machinery and processing of yarn took place in those early years, suffice to say that after the yarn was prepared and taken out through the country to hand-loom weavers at out offices when the cloth passer called at internals, examined the webs and paid the wages. A good deal of this cloth was sheetings, mostly woven about Banbridge, and in later years when this trade had been given up there were looms for this wide cloth in various collages in which cloth for Crawford & Lindsays was woven - they had Thomas Fergusons name on them. It is interesting to note that in the part of the works which was always designated as the "low yard" there is a building with a brick paved floor which evidently had been a stable for the horsed outfit which went to the out offices with the beams of yarn and weft and returned with cloth.

By 1866 Thomas Ferguson had decided to go in for power-loom weaving, probably probably occasioned by the formation in that year of the firm of Dickson Ferguson and Co, who had previously been in partnership with, amongst others, Hugh Dunbar of Huntly in the firm of Dunbar Dickson & Co. When exactly this factory was put in operation we do not know. The keystone of the entrance archway to the old engine room, part of the mechanic shop, has the date 1866 upon it. The first half of the weaving shed must have been erected between 1867 and 1876.

Space does not permit details of the building of the factory and the equipping with the machinery necessary for power-loom weaving. The planning and effort to achieve this can only be imagined. In those days when labour was of the "pick and shovel" variety, the task of erecting buildings on a not very suitable site must have presented many problems. In later years when alterations became necessary because of expansion of the business walls had to be cut into to make new doorways. Stones akin to very large boulders were encountered which gave great trouble in moving even with modern equipment. There are in existence records in detail of all the operations undertaken with dates and costings, and one can only marvel at the progress made and the amount of planning that went into getting the power-loom into operation.

Little is known about the earlier years of Thomas Ferguson. It is safe to believe however, that he must have been an exceptional person when one considers how he was orphaned at an early age and to commence from scratch to build a business, widely respected at home and abroad for its quality, integrity and fair dealing. In 1883 the Dicksons retired from business and the present company of Thomas Ferguson & Co. Ltd. was incorporated in 1884, with Thomas and his sons Howard and Norman being the first directors, with another son, Thomas, as secretary. In later years three grandsons of the founder entered the company and later still two great-grandsons.

In 1945 the board of the company decided that automatic machinery should be installed to replace the old non-automatic then in use (many of the looms had been manufactured by the company on its own premises). Accordingly, from 1948 to 1956 a complete re-equipment programme was undertaken, since when the factory has operated on a shift system.

Originally the entire production of the company was linen, but over a period of many years, cotton, rayon and man-made fibres were incorporated in the products. Nevertheless, linen remained the chief product and a range of linen damask table coverings was made for the United States market. The companys history of trade with the United States goes back over 100 years and there are records concerning an exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Formerly the entire connection was with the wholesale companies of the East and Mid-West, and the linen damasks then sold were in the piece for cutting up and hemming by the consumer. As time progressed and changes took place in selling methods, business was developed with the large department stores and by degrees the products changed so that today the company’s damasks are sent out from the works individually packaged and ready for use.

To detail and analyse all that took place in the development of Edenderry would fill a book, not only from the building of the factory and warehouse, the machinery and looms necessary to change from a cottage based industry to a completely new concept o power-loom weaving but also from the very important recruitment and training of staff necessary to weave damask. The weaving of damask is a complicated, highly skilled process requiring Jacquard machinery, which are motivated by punched cards (the earliest form of computers). This required the provision of two extra, specialised department  mounters who erected and corded the Jacquard machines and a card-room where the cards were cut from a design painted by an artist on design or point paper.  The training of such highly skilled and technically proficient personnel must have presented a serious problem.

It could be said that the reputation of a company is built not so much on bricks and mortar, important as these are, but on the quality of the people who work within that company. I use the word "work" deliberately as Thomas Ferguson & Co. were blessed with having management who set an example of diligence and hard work right down from the Managing Director to the most junior manager. It was a tradition carried down through the generations. In this respect all had to go through a training period in each department before being "let loose" in management. This resulted in a knowledge of all sections of the business and was most useful when problems arose in the factory.

To build up a company from scratch might be thought of as Thomas Ferguson's greatest achievement. I consider that the family he produced to succeed him was of equal merit. He had five sons and two daughters. The eldest boy born in 1856 died in infancy. The second son Howard born 26 January 1861 died 26 March 1941. The third son Stanley born 12 January 1863 died 4 May 1943. The fourth son Norman born 24 November 1866 died 21 July 1960. The fifth son Thomas born 1869 died 10 July 1952. Except for Stanley, who qualified as a solicitor and was connected to the Ulster Bank for many years, indeed it is my understanding that he was Chairman of this bank in 1906, all the sons entered the business at Edenderry. In personality and outlook they were very different except for one very important factor and that was their complete dedication to the success of the business started by their father. They were all outstanding businessmen.

Howard and Thomas in the warehouse and Norman in the factory. It would be invidious of me to choose from the above one who had made the greatest contribution in the development of the company. If I were forced to do so I would nominate the latter. Norman Dickson Ferguson was an outstanding individual. In appearance tall and slim. Autocratic, he was respected in the linen community and much further a field by his great ability and determination. Not only did he know his own business, but his qualities as a leader lead him into various activities. A first class engineer he was at the time Chairman of the old Down County Council, Chairman of the old Belfast Ropeworks, a director of the Banbridge Reservoir Company and other business activities too numerous to mention One would be excused from wondering how he got the time to run the factory and become so involved in local affairs. Very little escaped his scrutiny and if he disapproved you were certain to know about it. To state he was highly critical would be to put it mildly but he was very fair. I first met him in his declining years, having served in the army during the war under many fine leaders I should have been prepared for my introduction that was respected at all levels but I soon found out that before you were accepted by him to be worthy of a position of trust in Edenderry you had to prove your character and ability.

His son Col. J.A. Ferguson and his nephew, Stanley C. Ferguson, had brought me into the company Christmas 1945 when I was demobbed from the army. I had served with both of them in the early years of the war but with promotion and changes in regiments I had lost touch the last two years of the War. It was while stationed in Osnabruck in Germany that I received the letter from Mr. Jim (Col. J.W.) inviting me to call to see him when I left the army. This I did in December 1945 and my initial reaction when he offered to bring me into the company to train as a manager was of great pride that I was considered worthy to be a part of a company with the reputation of Thomas Fergusons In those early days of my training I formed a verwarp and weft winding, warping, yarn dressing, weaving and the tenting of looms, the mounters and card room workers and fitters. All these operations required a knowledge and skill that earned my greatest respect and admiration. I soon learnt that linen is a fabric that is difficult to produce and that each operation has to be earned out to a high degree if cloth quality is to be maintained. At Edenderry these skills had been handed down from generation to generation resulting in a reputation of good workmanship that was widely recognised in the linen trade. To describe and explain how this was achieved would require more space than I am allowed.

 

Today the factory is deserted. The company has been taken over by a local concern and manufacturing has been moved to a more modern building. However, the name of Thomas Ferguson & Co. Ltd. still exists. This in itself is a tribute to the reputation built up over a century and is a memorial to all those who made it so. From what I have seen of the new company I am more than hopeful that the future of linen manufacture in Banbridge will be maintained.

© Bann Valley CIC