Page 21 - 375457 NLP263064 BB Magazine (April Issue 97)

New Life for Nobel’s Explosives Factory Memorial
Those of you who shop or take refreshment at the Regent Centre will have noticed the poor state of repair of the stone monument, and the unkempt overgrown condition of the planting, in the raised bed nearest Blackness Road. Linlithgow Civic Trust has obtained permission from the Centre’s owners to adopt, improve and maintain the bed, including carrying out much needed repairs to the monument.
The monument commemorates both the erection of
the Regent Factory for the Nobel’s Explosives Company Limited in 1902 and the opening of the present Regent Centre on the site some 81 years later. Buried beneath the monument are a time capsule dating from the opening of the factory and two more – one from 1983. The Regent Factory, a major employer in the town, was used for armament production during both World Wars. Most of the workers were women known as munitionettes, but the yellow hue of their faces, caused by exposure to sulphur, gave rise to the nickname ‘canaries’. A recently formed facebook group – More than Mary - aims to explore Linlithgow’s women’s history and has selected
the munitionettes as their research project for April. (www.facebook.com/groups/morethanmary)
The plan is to clean the monument’s stonework, fully restore the original pink granite plaque and replace the eroded sandstone plaque
with one of dark grey granite and
silver lettering. In addition, a deep
layer of topsoil will be renewed
Eroded sandstone plaque.
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and all the existing shrubbery will be removed to be replaced with evergreen groundcover planting and five flowering cherry trees. LED lighting, controlled by a dusk-to-dawn sensor, is to be installed to floodlight the monument and up-light the trees. A new interpretation board will be erected to tell the important story of the factory, including the working lives of the munitionettes,
in the context of Linlithgow’s industrial past.
The Trust already has a quotation for the refurbishment of the monument and is now in process of obtaining estimates from local contractors for the landscaping and electrical works. When all costings have been received, we will seek funding from various local sources as well as from AkzoNobel -
the present-day incarnation of the original company.
Linlithgow Civic Trust
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