Richards of Aberdeen
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Richards of Aberdeen was a
textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
company based in the Hutcheon Street area of
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.


History

The company that became Richards had its origins in the early 19th century. It was founded by John Maberly. He brought in new finance with John Baker Richards as a partner, in 1825, trading as Maberly & Co.
James William Freshfield James William Freshfield (8 April 1774 – 27 June 1864) was an English lawyer and founder of the international law firm of Freshfields. He was also a Conservative politician and Member of Parliament, representing the seats of Penryn and Boston. ...
and Robert Langford became involved as property trustees, in 1829. Maberly during the 1820s introduced steam power in the linen factories; but ran into trouble in financial operations. He was in the end bankrupted by 1832. Others brought into the firm included William Leader (died 1828), to whose son
John Temple Leader John Temple Leader (7 May 1810 – 1 March 1903) was an English politician and connoisseur. Early life Born at his father's house, Putney Hill Villa, on 7 May 1810, he was the younger son of Mary and William Leader, a London merchant, and Whig ...
debts owed by Maberly passed. The name of the firm became Richards & Co. from 1831, and that year
Lancelot Holland Vice-Admiral Lancelot Ernest Holland, (13 September 1887 – 24 May 1941) was a Royal Navy officer who commanded the British force in the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941 against the German battleship ''Bismarck''. Holland was lost ...
became involved. Henry Lancelot Holland (1808–1893) joined Richards & Co. in 1837. He became one of the partners, with his father Lancelot Holland, John Temple Leader, George Edwards and others. He was later head of the company. At its height, Richard had its Broadford Works in
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
; also spinning and power looms at Montrose, and
bleachfield A bleachfield or bleaching green was an open area used for spreading cloth on the ground to be purified and whitened by the action of the sunlight. Bleaching fields were usually found in and around mill towns in Great Britain and were an integral ...
s at Rubislaw and Craigo. Broadford Works was the oldest iron-frame mill in Scotland, and in the end the last remaining
textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...
in Aberdeen. It was also one of the principal employers there with more than 3,000 people working in the mill in the early 20th century. Richards of Aberdeen became a public limited company in 1898. With the decline in traditional flax spinning activities, in the mid-1960s the company embarked upon a programme of development of synthetic yarn ranges which it maintained with few changes until the 21st century.


2004 closure

Richards was purchased in 2002 by Ian Suttie, chief executive of First Oil, while facing receivership. In 2003 the company moved its headquarters to the outskirts of Aberdeen, with assistance from
Aberdeen City Council gd, Comhairle Cathair Obar Dheathain , native_name_lang = , other_name = , image_skyline = Town House, Municipal Offices and Court Houses in Aberdeen.jpg , image_caption ...
. Fifty-two job losses were announced at the start of November 2004, despite the employment of 80 new staff in May of that year. Soon the entire remaining workforce of 196 was made redundant. Many had been at the mill for their entire working lives. Workers were angered not only by news of the closure itself but by the way they discovered what had happened: payments simply stopped arriving in their bank accounts. Another indicator came when supplies ceased to arrive at the site. Aside from global
economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
conditions, one of the main factors causing the closure was the company
pension scheme A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
which by November 2004 faced a shortfall of £5m.


Post Closure

The pension scheme continues to cause problems for the mill's former employees and there are calls to wind up the plan as soon as possible.


Future plans

The mill is currently under consideration for possible conversion into an '
urban village In urban planning and design, an urban village is an urban development typically characterized by medium-density housing, mixed use zoning, good public transit and an emphasis on pedestrianization and public space. Contemporary urban village id ...
' of 398 homes, many of which would be in historical
listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
which require careful planning considerations before any work can commence.


Gallery

File:Decay.jpg, Richards mill, in March 2006 File:Hose Drying Tower.jpg, The mill and its famous hose tower, one year after closure File:Main Entrance.jpg, The main mill entrance in late 2006


References

{{Reflist Companies based in Aberdeen