Monklands Memories - Airdrie & Coatbridge areas

The firm of Thomas Hudson, boilermakers, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, was founded in 1870 by Thomas Hudson, who seems to have come from the north of England. From its inception it manufactured both boilers and structural ironwork.

In the 1890s, presumably due to the growing use of steel plates, the works was enlarged and re-equipped with heavier machinery, much of which was still in use in the 1970s. The firm was an early user of both compressed air and electricity, having their own power station. By the 1890s the firm had established itself as makers of colliery plant, including scrapers, conveyor buckets and coal washing machinery. They also had a considerable trade with the local malleable and pig iron works, and the associated chemical plants. They exported boilers and other products overseas.

The firm continued to make a mixture of products until the 1950s. Around 1900 they invested in a perforating machine and a large flanging press. These were to be the secret of the firm's survival into the 1970s, the output latterly consisting almost entirely of flanged plates for the trade and perforated sheets for colliery screens. Thomas Hudson and Co Ltd was taken over by an Irish firm in 1980, Graepel Perforators Ltd, who kept the original name alive. On demolition of the works in 1989, the company moved to Airdrie, continuing to operate as agents for Graepel

Poster from John White Collection