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James Templeton & Co was a Glasgow-based textile company that grew to become one of the leading carpet manufacturers in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries.
James Templeton (1802-1885) was a farmer's son born in the Campbeltown area on 7 July 1802 the son of Archibald Templeton and his wife Ann Harvey. [1]
Around 1820 he came to Glasgow to work in with a Mr Rose, a draper by trade. [2] In 1823 he moved to Liverpool, and soon after he obtained a lucrative post in Mexico where he made enough money to return to Scotland and start his own business in 1826. In 1829 he opened a shawl manufactury in Paisley, as shawls were the new fashion. In 1837, through contact with another shawl manufacturer, William Quiglay, a new process was invented for processing chenille, a standard fabric for shawls, into compact C-shaped tufts which were both very soft and preserved their shape very well, enabling complex patterns to be created, and Templeton immediately saw this as ideal for carpet manufacture. Quiglay and Templeton took out a patent on this tufted carpet process, but only for 14 years. [3]
The ensuing carpet firm of "James Templeton & Son" was established in Bridgeton in 1839. The original factory was on King Street (now called Redan Street) but burned down on Christmas Day 1856. In 1857 a new factory was built on William Street (later renamed Templeton Street). The factory specialised in "picture carpets", such as the Twelve Apostles Carpet which they exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1867.
John Stewart Templeton (1832-1918) and James Templeton Jr (1838-1921), the sons, took over the firm around 1865. Both father and son and the extended family lived in a large townhouse at 7 Woodside Crescent in the Kelvinside district. [4]
James Templeton died in 1885 and is buried in the upper part of Glasgow Necropolis. His wife Mary Stewart and son James lie with him.
In 1889 a further carpet mill (originally called Albert Mill after Prince Albert) was built facing Glasgow Green, based on the Doge's Palace, Venice. This quickly became a much-loved local landmark. The company also had its own recreational facilities in Rutherglen [5] which are mostly now playing fields for the local high school, although the bowling club bearing the Templeton name at that location continues on its own. [6]
In 1969, Templeton's bought a rival carpet firm, Grays, of Ayr, but their expansion brought about the demise of the firm. The company was bought by an American group, the Guthrie Corporation, and briefly traded under the name of "British Carpets" but could not survive. In 1974 the company was renamed as "British Carpets Ltd" but the name continued to some extent. [7]
At its peak, Templeton's Bridgeton factory employed 3000 people before closing in 1979.
In 1981, the rights to use the name "James Templeton & Co" were purchased by their former rivals, "Stoddard & Co" who had begun carpet production in 1864 and a new factory was built in Elderslie. The Glasgow Green factory building was converted by the Scottish Development Agency and became a business centre, Templeton On The Green, in 1984. In 1990, when Glasgow was the City of Culture for that year, the building featured on a UK postage stamp.
Rutherglen is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, three miles from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lost its own local council and administratively became a component of the City of Glasgow District within the Strathclyde region. In 1996 the towns were reallocated to the South Lanarkshire council area.
Rose's lime juice, often known simply as Rose's, is a sweetened concentrated fruit juice patented in 1867. This was the world's first commercially produced fruit concentrate.
The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. The line serves the commercial and shopping districts of Glasgow's central area, and connects towns from West Dunbartonshire to South Lanarkshire. Named for Glasgow's Argyle Street, the line uses the earlier cut-and-cover tunnel running beneath that thoroughfare.
Glasgow Green is a park in the east end of Glasgow, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde. Established in the 15th century, it is the oldest park in the city. It connects to the south via the St Andrew's Suspension Bridge.
Bridgeton is a district to the east of Glasgow city centre. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is bounded by Glasgow Green to the west, Dalmarnock to the east and south, Calton to the north-west at Abercromby Street/London Road and Broad street to the north-east.
Glasgow Bridgeton was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Glasgow. From 1885 to 1974, it returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.
Chenille is a type of yarn, or the fabric made from it. Chenille is the French word for caterpillar whose fur the yarn is supposed to resemble.
Dalmarnock is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated east of the city centre, directly north of the River Clyde opposite the town of Rutherglen. It is also bounded by the Glasgow neighbourhoods of Parkhead to the north-east and Bridgeton to the north-west.
Burnside is a mostly residential area in the town of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Including the neighbourhoods of High Burnside and High Crosshill, respectively south and north-west of its main street, it borders Overtoun Park in Rutherglen plus several other residential areas of the town, as well as western parts of neighbouring Cambuslang.
Keiller's marmalade is named after its creators James and Janet Keiller, and is believed to have been the first commercial brand of marmalade in Great Britain. It was made by James Keiller in Dundee, Scotland, later creating James Keiller & Son, a brand name which became iconic in the 18th and 19th centuries, and has been sold several times.
William Quarrier was a shoe retailer and philanthropist from Glasgow, Scotland. He was founder of the Orphan Homes of Scotland in Renfrewshire, which later evolved into the social care charity Quarriers.
Templeton On The Green, converted from the Templeton Carpet Factory, is a distinctive building near the People's Palace, in Glasgow, Scotland, opened in 1892. In 1984 it was converted into the Templeton Business Centre, then in 2005 a major regeneration project made it into a mixed use 'lifestyle village' incorporating apartments, office space, and the WEST brewery, bar and restaurant.
The A749 road in Scotland connects East Kilbride with Glasgow city centre via Rutherglen and Bridgeton.
Sir John Train was Scottish politician who was a Unionist Party MP for Glasgow Cathcart. He was first elected in 1929, and held the seat until his death in 1942. He was knighted in the 1936 New Year Honours for political services.
Sir Charles Bine Renshaw, 1st Baronet was a Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party politician.
William Leiper FRIBA RSA (1839–1916) was a Scottish architect known particularly for his domestic architecture in and around the town of Helensburgh. In addition, he produced a small amount of fine ecclesiastical and commercial architecture in Glasgow and the Scottish Lowlands. He was also an accomplished watercolour artist, and from the late 1870s spent much spare time painting in oils and watercolours.
The Switchback was a railway line in the East End of Glasgow, Scotland, constructed by the Caledonian Railway (CR). Connecting the lines at Rutherglen on the south side of the city with Robroyston on the north side, this route also served a number of industrial sidings and rail yards.
Shawfield is an industrial/commercial area of the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located to the north of the town centre. It is bordered to the east by the River Clyde, to the north by the Glasgow neighbourhood of Oatlands and the adjacent Richmond Park, to the south-west by Glasgow's Polmadie and Toryglen districts, and to the south-east by Rutherglen's historic Main Street and its Burnhill neighbourhood, although it is separated from these southerly areas by the West Coast Main Line railway tracks and the M74 motorway. A road bridge connects Shawfield to the Dalmarnock, Bridgeton and Glasgow Green areas.
The Rutherglen Bridge or the Shawfield Bridge is a bridge which was built 1893–96, which crosses the River Clyde, in Scotland.
Arthur Francis Stoddard (1810–1882) was an American-born entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded Stoddard Carpets, Scotland's largest carpet company in the 19th century and a specialist in "tapestry carpets". The company later became Stoddard International.
Fred H. Young, A Century of Carpet Making 1839–1939, Collins, Glasgow, c.1940s
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