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Hillington
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Location within Glasgow | |
OS grid reference | NS523647 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area |
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Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | GLASGOW |
Postcode district | G52 |
Dialling code | 0141 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Hillington (Scots : Hullintoun, Scottish Gaelic : Hileantan) [1] is an area on the southwestern edge of the Scottish city of Glasgow comprising a residential neighbourhood and a large industrial suburb. While the residential area (close to Penilee to the west and directly adjoining North Cardonald to the east, primarily consisting of cottage flats) is wholly within Glasgow, the greater part of the industrial estate on the other side of the Inverclyde Line railway tracks falls under the jurisdiction of neighbouring Renfrew, although uses a Glasgow postcode.
With the developing political situation in Europe in the mid-1930s, the British government set up a plan to treble the output of the British aircraft industry. Under a plan managed by the Air Ministry, the Shadow factory plan was managed by industrialist Herbert Austin, with the aim to create nine new factories, and invest in enabling existing motor vehicle manufacturing plants to expand capacity and make the switch to aircraft production more easy.
Rolls-Royce were key to the plan, and specifically production of their Merlin engine. Having developed a new facility themselves in Crewe, production director Ernest Hives was looking for a northern-based greenfield site with easy transport access, an available skilled workforce, and a local authority willing to build the required associated housing: Rolls had been let down in Crewe, and didn't want to repeat the experience. With its ready-built housing areas, easy access to the Glasgow to Paisley railway line, and in need of commercial activity, Hillington proved an opportunity not to be missed.
The Air Ministry funded the factory construction, with the facility opening in 1937. The industrial estate was opened in 1938 by Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), and was the first of its kind in Scotland. The first Merlin engines were produced two weeks before the start of World War II. By 1943, output had reached 400 engines each week, with production peaking at 100 engines in one day, and 1,650 a month. By the end of the war, the plant had manufactured 23,500 new engines during the war, 14% of the total Merlin production worldwide. [2]
Taken over by Rolls-Royce themselves directly on 1 April 1947, the factory initially repaired and overhauled both Merlin and Griffon engines as well as producing spare parts. Increased requirement for the Avon turbojet for the Korean War meant that it switched totally to fanjet production, and in 1965 became a specialist compressor component manufacturing facility.
The factory closed in December 2005, [3] with all production moved to either the new facility at Inchinnan next to Glasgow Airport, or the redeveloped East Kilbride plant [4] (which itself closed little over a decade later).
In 2015, Glasgow distillery commenced production in Hillington. [5] [6]
The area is served by two railway stations, Hillington East and Hillington West (at Penilee). Junction 26 of the M8 motorway is located to the north of the industrial estate.
Alexandria is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The town is on the River Leven, three miles north of Dumbarton and 15 mi (24 km) north-west of Glasgow.
Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London, and became widely known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. Bentley has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998 and consolidated under VW's premium brand arm Audi since 2022.
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litre capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later called Merlin following the company convention of naming its four-stroke piston aero engines after birds of prey. The engine benefitted from the racing experiences of precursor engines in the 1930s.
A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. They are a critical part of modern economic production, with the majority of the world's goods being created or processed within factories.
Ralston is a small, middle-class, suburban settlement in Renfrewshire, Scotland, being part of the greater town of Paisley. The district straddles the A761, the main dual-carriageway between Renfrewshire and the City of Glasgow.
The Rolls-Royce Meteor later renamed the Rover Meteor is a British tank engine that was developed during the Second World War. It was used in British tanks up to 1964. It was a result of co-operation between Leyland Motors and Rolls-Royce who between them in 1941 had suggested that a specialised de-rated version of the Merlin aero-engine would be highly suitable for use in armoured fighting vehicles.
Crookston is a residential suburb on the southwestern edge of the city of Glasgow, Scotland.
Penilee is a small housing scheme and suburb on the southwestern edge of Glasgow, Scotland. The area is bounded to its east by the Glasgow suburbs of Cardonald and Hillington, and to the west by the Renfrewshire border and the farms of North and South Arkleston. The district's southern boundary forms Glasgow's border with the Renfrewshire settlement of Ralston. The area is currently undergoing considerable residential redevelopment.
Cowlairs Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Works, at Cowlairs in Springburn, an area in the north-east of Glasgow, Scotland, was built in 1841 for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and was taken over by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1865. It was named after the nearby mansion of Cowlairs, with both locomotive and carriage & wagon works. It was also the first works in Britain to build locomotives, carriages and wagons in the same place. It was located on the western side of the Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline at Carlisle Street.
Hillington West railway station is located in the Hillington district of Glasgow, Scotland, also serving the western portion of the large Hillington industrial estate to the north, and the Penilee neighbourhood to the south. The station, is managed by ScotRail and is on the Inverclyde Line.
Hillington East railway station is located in the Hillington district of Glasgow, Scotland, also serving the eastern portion of the large Hillington industrial estate to the north. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Inverclyde Line.
Ernest Walter Hives, 1st Baron Hives, was the one-time head of the Rolls-Royce Aero Engine division and chairman of Rolls-Royce Ltd.
Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his cranes, they quickly developed a reputation for superior engineering by manufacturing the "best car in the world". The business was incorporated as "Rolls-Royce Limited" in 1906, and a new factory in Derby was opened in 1908. The First World War brought the company into manufacturing aero-engines. Joint development of jet engines began in 1940, and they entered production in 1944. Rolls-Royce has since built an enduring reputation for the development and manufacturing of engines for military and commercial aircraft.
Nerston is a village situated on the northern green-belt boundary of the new town of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Ford Trafford Park Assembly Plant was a car assembly plant established by Ford of Britain at Trafford Park, beside the Manchester Ship Canal, a short distance to the west of Manchester. It was the first manufacturing plant established by Ford outside the United States, though originally it was established merely to assemble vehicles using parts imported from Dearborn.
Bentley Crewe, also named the Pyms Lane site after the street it is located on; is the headquarters and design and manufacturing centre of Bentley Motors Limited on the outskirts of Crewe, Cheshire, England. The site covers an area of 521,111 m2 (5,609,190 sq ft), of which 166,930 m2 (1,796,800 sq ft) is indoors.
British shadow factories were the outcome of the Shadow Scheme, a plan devised in 1935 and developed by the British government in the buildup to World War II to try to meet the urgent need for more aircraft using technology transfer from the motor industry to implement additional manufacturing capacity.
Sir Arthur Frederick Sidgreaves was a British businessman who was head of Rolls-Royce, notably during World War II.
The 1943 Rolls-Royce strike was a strike action called after Rolls-Royce failed to implement a 1940 agreement on equal pay for female workers at its Hillington plant in Scotland. This plant produced the Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 engine, used by British fighter and bomber aircraft in the Second World War. The strike, led by Agnes McLean, lasted for around a month before Rolls-Royce agreed to implement equal pay for equal work. It was the only major strike over women's pay during the war.
William Arthur Robotham was a Rolls-Royce executive involved in the development of Rolls-Royce cars, during World War II of tanks and tank engines, and post-war of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars complete with bodies and then of industrial petrol and diesel engines.