Whitecross Brickworks, Linlithgow Scotland. April 09

"Today (A Friday in 2006) marks the end of an era when the lights go out for the last time at Manuel Brickworks in Whitecross.

The facility has employed thousands of villagers and many more from the Linlithgow, Bo’ ness, Bridgend and Maddiston areas for decades.

Its workforce has dwindled dangerously after changing ownership several times in recent years after a long period of stability under the GR Stein banner Now the works officially close today and electrician, Robert McMeechan has the unenviable task of shutting down the works where he has been employed since he was 16 year old

There has only been a skeleton staff working in recent weeks with hundreds departing over the past few months most of them knowing no other work than what they did at the brickworks plant.

Said local amateur historian Murdoch Kennedy this week: "I was reminded of the words of the late George Charleston in a poem about the closure of another local employer Lochmill when he wrote:

'The latest local victim of, the economic knife
Was to. them, not just a workplace
But, far more, a way of life'"

Whoa! Slow down girl, you'll run out of things to explore

Another cracker, Gorecki. :

The main shed is massive & part occupied! When we were in there some people arrived & started in part of the main shed the other side of a partition wall!

We also had to leg it from a guy driving a car carrier similar to that found in scrapyards!

...& hide from several cars that drove through!

A very interesting site.

Those girders in pic 2 look almost new - they have shiny ends and chalk writing on them. Perhaps there is an engineering firm borrowing the site? Was there any machinery left from the brickworks?

It breaks my heart to see all these industries going one by one. When will it end??

This thread reminds me - I have something similar (hopefully!) lined up.......

There are a number of firms operating in small areas of the site.

There wasn't really a great deal of anything left