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Dixon's Blazes

Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection

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Dixon's Blazes

William Simpson's view, drawn in the late 1840s, showing William Dixon's Govan Ironworks at Hutchesontown from the south. The row of single-storey houses in front of the ironworks was known as "Collier's Raw".

The ironworks were founded by William Dixon (1788-1859), the son of the owner of the Little Govan Colliery. William extended his father's collieries in Govanhill but also, in 1839, founded an ironworks with five blast furnaces. The furnaces lit up the night sky on the south side of the River Clyde, and earned the ironworks the nickname "Dixon's Blazes".

Dixon's Blazes was acquired by Colvilles and Glasgow's last working blast furnace was in operation there until closure in 1958. In 1983 Yaqub and Taj Ali's company, A A Brothers, opened the Castle Cash and Carry Warehouse on the site.

Reference: Mitchell Library GC 914.14353 SIM

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning

Keywords:
blast furnaces, chimneys, Colliers' Raw, Colliers' Row, Dixon's Blazes, Dixon's Ironworks, Govan Ironworks, Little Govan Colliery, miners' cottages



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