St David's
Picture 1 – Extract from Pastmaps
Picture 2 – Google
FORDEL BRICKS & TILE WORKS
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
Background contribution – Scottish Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry website.
Fordel or Fordell …that is the question!… both spellings are correct. Back ‘in 1853 the laird required that the name be inscribed as Fordell on Ordnance Survey plans, ‘an Anglicisation he was keen to standardise’ (Alan.Brotchie – ‘Early Railways of West Fife’)
Sadly, I cannot source a picture of the factory so we will have to build the story from the 1854 map from PASTMAPS (Picture 1). If you look closely there appears to be 4 parts to the site and are situated just to the left of the north pier, so roughly where the flats are now (as shown on the Google screenshot).
Picture 3 – 1851 newspaper adverts
Based on the first advert the works were part of the Fordel Colliery and in 1851 were being leased by the agents William Aitkin Shipping Agents. They advertised those offers were to be received by 31st Of December 1851 (Picture 3).
Picture 4 – Fife Herald advert
Within the ‘Fife Herald’ adverts we can see that the works had access ‘to the facility of a private Railroad to Crossgates (Fordell Railway) and the well-known good harbour of St David’s, are great auxiliaries in favour of the Work’.
I am not sure where we were with advertising standards back in 1851 but seemingly the Fire Clay had been analysed by a Professor Anderson and found it to be ‘an excellent quality and fit for making all kinds of Ornamental and Plain Work’
The ‘Fife Herald’ went on to report on the 24/6/1852 that the lease was taken up by H.Stirling & Co, which had connections to the ‘Clackmannan Brick and Tile Works’
On 13/4/1855 the ‘Edinburgh Gazette’ reported that ‘Henry Stirling, residing at St David’s Harbour ceased to be a partner leaving David Sharp as the sole partner H.Stirling & Co.
Picture 5 – Dunfermline Saturday Press 1863
21/3/1863 ‘Dunfermline Saturday Press reported on the new occupiers of the site being ‘William Crawford & Co’
I can’t find any reporting of its demise but the site name disappeared from maps in the mid to late 1890’s
Picture 4 – Credit Scottish Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry website
These bricks have been exported across the world. The first brick picture was reported in 19/2/2018 as being found in New South Wales, Australia. With the spelling of FORDEL therefore we can presume it was produced before 1853.
Picture 5
The last brick picture five is our connection to St Petersburg as both the pictured bricks were found in the city and notably, they have both spellings, therefore a regular export destination in the mid 1850’s
SEAFIELD FARM and remembering the Dickie family
Contributor: Heritage Trail Brian and Mike Brown
Credits: Dalgety Heritage Trail Digital Library, George Hastie, BNA
Following on from our post on this site recently where we delved into the history of the farm (15th of September) and looked at its earliest records and in particular, whilst it was under the tenure of the Steadman family in the 1960’s. Today we want to go back a bit further and spotlight the farm when the Dickie family were there and to reflect on the sacrifices that the family had to endure during the ‘Great War’
Henry Dickie had been the tenant farmer at Seafield for around fifty years when his death was reported in the ‘Dundee Evening Telegraph’ on the 5th of February 1925 after a long illness. This takes his time on the farm back to around 1875 and therefore this 1969 picture of Seafield Farmhouse shows the house that the family lived in as the lintel is dated 1857.
The 1901 census informs us more about the family and in that year, Henry was aged 40 and was married to Elizabeth (38). They had three young sons. Robert was aged 9, David Marshall was 7 and finally the youngest sibling Henry Anderson was only 3 and they were born in Dalgety, presumably here in the Seafield Farmhouse.
Back to Henry senior, he kept Shetland ponies on the farm which, according to the Dundee Courier on the 1st of July in 1912, came first and second at the Dunfermline horse show that year. Back in 1910 the farm grew potatoes and again Henry proved himself a best in class, he even beat the Earl of Moray at a show for the ‘class’ late Potatoes at the agricultural show back then but interestingly it was a variety which appears to have been created by him and it was called ‘The Aeroplane’. His versatility in farming was even on show away back in 1899 when he was a winner in a West Fife show for pigs and he was also the secretary of the Dunfermline and District Dairyman Association for many years.
War broke out in 1914 and like many families across the country the Dickie family would see their young men called up or volunteer to join the services, Henry and Elizabeth were no different as all three sons would see action.
The Dickie family would have been so proud of young Henry who became Dalgety’s first DCM hero aged only 21. He was mobilised in August 1914 on the outbreak of war and would go on to serve with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli and in 1915, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Egypt and proceeded to France in May 1918.
He was awarded with the Distinguished Conduct Medal ’for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’, his war record goes on to say:
“When the rest of his Lewis gun team became casualties in an attack, he carried the gun and ammunition to the final objective, where he used it with great effect putting out of action an enemy machine gun and the team of a field gun. He set a splendid example of courage and determination”
Let’s take the story forward to the summer of 1918 when you could imagine the elation of Henry and Elizabeth to find that their three sons were not only safe but on leave at the same time and also the Parish wanted to celebrate their hero, Henry junior. The celebrations even reached the papers and the Dundee Courier reported on the 8th of July:
“The parish of Dalgety was en fete on the occasion of a public presentation to its first DCM, Lance Corporal H.A. Dickie, Lewis Gun Section, youngest son of Mr Dickie, Seafield Farm, Hillend. The Rev. D S. Rose presided, and Major Moubray, in name of the subscribers, handed over a beautiful gold watch to the gallant corporal. The recipient is only 21 years of age, and his two brothers fortunately happened to be on leave when their gallant brother was publicly honoured. One is a captain in the R.F.A., while the other, Corporal D. Marshall Dickie, has been temporarily relieved from active service to assist his father in the management of the farm.”
Sadly, this would be the last time the family unit would be together as young Henry re-joined the war in the trenches in France and died of his wounds on September 4th of that year. I am sure you are all aware that the war ended two months later on ‘the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’.
He was fatally wounded on the 2nd of September whilst with the 14th Battalion of Black Watch. A full description of the battle that took place between the villages of Moislains and Allaines can be found in the Black Watch History on pages 324 & 325, pictured here (2).
Pic 2
Pic 3
He is commemorated and remembered to this day at our war memorial at Dalgety Parish Church, picture 3.
Brother Marshall was also reported on in the Dundee Evening Telegraph on the 5th of June 1912 whilst he was only 17
“INVERKEITHING YOUNG MAN Meets with Revolver Accident.
David Marshall Dickie (17), son of Mr Henry Dickie, farmer, Seafield, Inverkeithing. has met with an unfortunate accident. The young man was engaged ploughing in field on the farm, and in order to accustom his horses to the report of firearms he fired several blank cartridges from a revolver. One of the cartridges hung fire, and while closely examining the revolver to ascertain the cause the cartridge exploded, injuring his left eye severely, and after he had been attended by Dr Gordon he was conveyed to the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh, where it was found necessary to remove the eye. The young man is a Territorial, and intended to take his horses into camp this summer, hence his reason for endeavouring to accustom them to the report of the revolver.”
This didn’t deter him from having a career in the army, in fact he rose through the ranks to Corporal before his discharge in 1919, so well done to him to continue to serve with his disability.
Intriguingly Marshall was in the 1/1st Highland (Fifeshire) RGA from 1910 and was manning the Forth Port guns on the outbreak of war before being posted to France. The RGA unit operated 4.7inch guns which means he might have spent time manning the gun emplacement at Downing Point, his home patch.
Robert was born in May 1891 and joined Inverkeithing Public School in 1899 until July 1905, we have his progress and withdrawal papers from school (see picture 4 and 5). Robert worked on the family farm until he joined up in 1914 with the Royal Field Artillery Territorials and he too can boast of a military career rising to the rank of Major at this time. He gained the Military Cross and was mentioned three times in despatches. His service records show that he served in France, Belgium, Salonica and the Caucasus, see picture 6
Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6
We next find public records of Robert on the 26/04/1920 where he was subject to a press report in the ‘Dundee Evening Telegraph’
“INVERKEITHING MAN APPOINTED AS EXECUTIVE OFFICER To Fife and Kinross Agricultural Committee. Fife and Kinross Agricultural Executive Committee met at Cupar this afternoon, and appointed Major Dickie, Seafield, Inverkeithing, to the post of executive officer at a salary of £300. Major Dickie, who is 28 years of age, is: the son of a dairy farmer and has a practical knowledge of farming all its branches, having been associated with his father arable and dairy farming eight years
prior to August, 1914.
And again in 1934 in the Dundee Courier which shows us that possibly his dad’s expertise in potato farming has helped him in later life and within this article we find not only his military achievements but has also been awarded with an OBE
POTATO SCHEME APPOINTMENTS FARM and MARKET TOPICS
By Our Agricultural Correspondent.
“COLONEL ROBERT DICKIE, MC, 0BE TD, Inverkeithing, a distinguished Fife soldier, was one of the six regional supervisors for Scotland appointed by the Scottish members of the Potato Marketing Board at Perth on Saturday. For the six appointments, each at £400 per annum, applications totalled 1500, and the board members made their final decisions from a short leet of 25 applicants, all of whom were interviewed in the Station Hotel, Perth. Mr Alex. Batchelor, Craigie Home Farm, Dundee, vicechairman of the Potato Board, presided, and in attendance were Mr E. C. Boughton, secretary of the board, from London; and Mr J. M. Barr, who was recently appointed chief supervisor for Scotland. Messrs David Lindsay, Perth; W. Gray, Forfar; and G. K. Smith, Ballomill, Abernethy, were appointed supervisors for the Perth region. Mr James Gillies, Dumfries, was allocated the Edinburgh region, and Mr Allister, McLeish, Glasgow, the Glasgow region.
Colonel Dickie, who was appointed supervisor for the Inverness region, is a son of the late Mr Henry Dickie, who farmed Seafield, Inverkeithing. He was born and brought up on that farm, and served throughout the war with the Royal Field Artillery, with which he held a commission. Colonel Dickie’s war career was distinguished, and he won the MC and was thrice mentioned in despatches. After the war he took a Territorial commission, and commanded the Forth Heavy Brigade, with headquarters
in Edinburgh. It was during his service with the Forth Heavy Brigade that Colonel Dickie was raised to the rank of Colonel. Last July he was honoured by the King at Buckingham Palace, receiving the title of OBE TD.
Colonel Dickie is well known to farmers and agriculturists in Perthshire and Fife. During the past seven years he has conducted potato business on his own account in Inverkeithing, and for a period of four years before that he held appointments with the leading potato firms of Pattullo, Higgs & Company, Ltd., Dundee, and with Messrs Powrie Brothers, Perth.”
So, what about Mum?
Well, in 1926, a year after her husband passed away, Elizabeth moved out of the farmhouse to live in The Anchorage in Preston Crescent in Inverkeithing. Elizabeth would have seen all of the honours and awards of her three sons including Robert’s OBE and would have been rightly proud of all of their achievements but losing her youngest son to war would have been a constant painful memory.
It has been an honour to be involved in bringing this story to our page, a big thank you to Mike for his assistance in the research. Our town has covered its history under the tarmac but let us not forget about this hard-working family from Seafield Farm, and on remembrance Sunday spare a thought for our local hero Lance Corporal Henry Anderson Dickie DCM.
Picture 1: St David’s Harbour Plans from Tay Homes 1992
St David’s Harbour in Retirement
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
Picture Credits – Dalgety Heritage Trail, Ainslie map 1775 courtesy of NLS, Kim Hosty, George Hastie, Pastmap
It would be fair to say that the harbour’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed over the centuries. It now looks a little neglected in the shadows of its neighbouring, shiny new flats as it sits wondering if the planned Bistro will ever come and give it a new lease of life. Time will tell.
All of the plans that were displayed around the walls at the consultation event at the Dalgety Parish Church back in 1992 have now been donated to the Dalgety Heritage Trail.
On numerous occasions the question has been raised on the ‘Billboard’ and other local social media pages ‘where is our promised Bistro’ Well, the challenge should be ‘Where is my Bistro, my Pub and local shops’, have a look at the areas highlighted red on picture 1.
Let’s roll back the years to when, after a legal dispute with the Earl of Moray, on the exporting of coal from near St Bridget’s Kirk, Sir Robert Henderson, the 4th Baronet of Fordell had to find a new route to export coal from his mines in the north of the parish.
On the 21/7/1752 he agreed a £52 feu-duty with James Spittal of Leuchat for:
‘4 Acres of ground’ near that rock called Saint Davies Castle in lands of knows and Seafield in the parish of Dalgety. Together with a rood of 24 foots of breadth with the sea and sea ware opposite the said lands’
Sir Robert then applied to the Barons of his Majesties Court of Exchequer at Edinburgh (Commissioner of Customs) in February 1753:
‘For the harbour lately made called St Davies Castle where there is a key already built to be a creek of the Port of Borrowstoness. The harbour is bounded on the east by Downie Point near the house of Downey Bresal’ see picture 2 (Ainslie map 1775).
St David’s Harbour, was a tidal harbour, which further down the years would be its undoing. However, it was now up and running to support the Hendersons mineral activities.
Sir Robert went on to expand his ownership of the corridor down our side of Letham Hill woods in 1766. Presumably when the Earl of Moray acquired the Leuchat Estate, which owned the lease on St David’s harbour, a deal needed to be completed.
Picture 2: Ainslie Map 1775 courtesy of NLS
The farm of Seafield and the harbour of St David’s was transferred from the Moray Estate to Sir Robert in exchange for parts of Easter and Wester Little Fordell Farms, which were absorbed into the Moray’s estate. This allowed the Earl to create a drive with a new West Gate to service Donibristle House. However, the deal needed to go to arbitration and the Earl had to pay Sir Robert £2,915. Today that’s the equivalent of £540,000, according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator.
The industrial revolution, broadly speaking, covered the years 1760 to 1840 and the Henderson’s were well placed in the right industries to prosper from the changes in working practices and the Harbour really gave them a unique opportunity to own their own supply line from the pit to the sea. This joined St David’s harbour to their mines by improving the existing coal road and then in 1770 by building one of the first wooden waggon ways in Scotland.
This was not an easy task, especially with the topography over the 4 miles that it was laid on. The gradients were steep: at Vantage it was as challenging as 1 in 13. The wagons needed the gravity, remember this was a pulley system, initially requiring horses before steam engines were introduced to the line.
Coal was a key driver in this era and the Hendersons were prospering from exploiting their mineral wealth. The family had already moved from their seat at Fordell Castle to their new estate mansion Fordell House in 1721 (see the post from our page on 14/01/21).
Back down to the Harbour, it also went through investment phases to keep up with the changes of the times. As more and more minerals were exported there was a need for increasingly bigger boats. The Harbour was deepened in both 1826 and again in 1832 to accommodate the larger vessels.
The volume of coal and the size of the collier ships demanded that the south pier needed extending. The Hendersons were exporting annually as much as 70,000 tonnes through St David’s and by the mid 1730’s and in 1844 they laid an improved siding and invested in coal hoists. The extension, designed by an Edinburgh engineer called James Leslie cost around £2,000 (today’s equivalent of £270,000). Inverkeithing Foundry, a local firm, built the two staithes at the end of the pier. They were designed by John Scott and the drawings and a model of them are held at the National Museum of Scotland.
The harbour needed labour whether it was for hoisting the coal onto the boats, managing the waggons going up and down to the pits, looking after the horses. Working the salt pans, manning the custom house the loading and unloading of other cargo; this was a busy harbour. To solve this the Hendersons built workers’ tied cottages and the village of St David’s with its red pan tiled roofs and diamond shaped windows. See picture 3, a painting by an unknown artist.
Picture 3: Painting by an unknown artist
Picture 4: St David’s Lighthouse
The harbour got some company in 1855 when the lighthouse, see picture 4, was built at a cost of £400 (around 43k in today’s money).
It’s similar in appearance to the North Queensferry Harbour Light which was built in 1817 by Robert Stevenson. However, although the Stevenson Family were asked to tender design changes to the Fordell Railway, the St David’s Harbour light is not listed within their extensive lists of recorded work around Scotland.
According to the Northern Lighthouse Board it may have been the Stevenson’s family or Telford and Rennie who between them, designed many of the harbour lights in Scotland during the 19th century but as it was not then for ‘general navigation’ the Northern Lighthouse Board do not hold records for the St David’s light. They did suggest that it could have been built by whoever erected the harbour which would be James Leslie.
This was a time of innovation. The harbour went through other changes as the waggon way worked through from wooden to iron rails and then to steel. Horses almost disappeared as steam trains shunted the coal.
It also had a great view of the Forth Rail Bridge from the start of construction in 1882 to its grand opening in 1890. It also found itself at the centre of one of the Forth Rail Bridge centenary celebrations in 1990: With parachutists, the Toyota stunt flying display team, yacht sail past, fireworks, local radio stations Forth RFM and MAX AM (their old names) broadcasts, see picture 5.
Picture 5: Newspaper cutting credit Kim Hosty
Back to the 19th century, the harbour was still being worked hard with coal being exported around the UK and as far away as the Baltics. The Henderson’s were also shipping out product from the salt pans, ‘The Fordell Brick and Tile Works’, stone from the quarries all trundling through the harbour leaving their mark on the coast which tiny traces can still be seen today.
As we move into the late 1880’s the harbour’s fortunes were in decline. In 1883 the Brick & Tile works closed and not too long after that the Millstonemeadow Quarry was infilled. Coal was still trundling down the hill but less so as the industry was moving towards steamers. Both Burntisland and Methil, not affected by the tides and had the depth to take the ships and, of course, the mainline was also becoming an established route out for coal from Fife.
During WW1 the harbour was more or less closed down by the Admiralty. By the time it reopened after the war the damage to the trade line was done and it never recovered. The Henderson’s were still mining their coal but if you take 1932 accounts the mines sold 92,000 tonnes but only 8,000 went via St David’s.
WW2 gave the harbour a bit of a lift as Fordell coal for the Rosyth Naval Dock was transported through St David’s. It also had some new neighbours as there were also six seaplane mooring points at St David’s.
After the war there was no way back to its past glories and the waggonway and harbour was shut down. The last shipment of Fordell coal left the harbour on the 10th of August, 1946 at 11am. The ‘Cuban’, owned by J&J Hay of Kirkintilloch berthed around 1pm on the 9th of August ready for loading the next morning, see picture 6.
The harbour and shore were used for storage and shipbreaking under the ownership of James A. White and Co, which we will cover in future posts. The long-standing pub, the Fordell Arms was still trading in the early 1950’s and the lighthouse nearly reached 100 years old, when it too was lost.
Picture 6: The Cuban making the last shipment from the harbour
The harbour sprung into life a few times, notably in 1955 when the National Coal Board launched an £186,000 Sea Drilling Tower that was designed by Maunsell, Posford & Pavry and assembled on site, covered by this page on (10/09/20).
Today it is difficult to envisage the size of the harbour, picture 7 will help us visualise the scale as I have overlayed modern Dalgety Bay with St David’s Harbour in it’s prime.
Picture : Extract from Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland (1747-1755) credit National Library of Scotland
Rough estimates of where these settlements were are marked on the Google Earth view (Pic 1). Early maps which show these areas of population are not accurate enough to show exact locations, and some are not shown at all, so I apologise for frequently using words such as “approximately” and “roughly” in describing their locations. Pic 2 shows the area as per Roy in 1755. This is the earliest map in Scotland that tried to show small settlements but there were many errors of omission and inaccuracies in it, with hamlets not being shown to scale, mis-located or even missed completely.
Picture 7: Map overlay
To allow the development of the ‘new’ St David’s we needed to remove not only all the red tiled roof homes but to infill the historic harbour. An embankment was built to stop the inward water, see picture 8 and then backfilled with rock, see picture 9.
Picture 8: St David’s harbour infill from the ‘George Hastie Collection’
Picture 9: The rock used for the infill of the harbour from the ‘George Hastie Collection’
We can’t stop progress, and nor should we. By developing the harbour, we now have a lovely, modern place to live. What you can do though, is acknowledge the past and understand what was there before. With that in mind, why didn’t we carry forward the road names of Quality Street and Elm Row out of respect to the hundreds of people who not only worked there for over 250 years, but who brought up their families in hard times in those red roofed and diamond window paned homes. (Picture 10)
Picture 10: Credit Past Maps
St Monans abandoned salt pans – Picture credit: James Allan
St David’s Salt Pans
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
Picture Credits – James Allan, St Andrews University and Pastmap.
Salt has had a history of taxation around the world from as far back as 300BC where it is believed the Chinese used the proceeds to fund the Great Wall of China. The tax has also created uprisings and rebellions across Europe including the Bay of Biscay revolt in 1631 to 1634 and it was a contributing factor in the French Revolution where the ‘Gabelle’ was unfairly based on your position in society.
The early Stuarts had dabbled in raising revenue through salt, but it was William the 3rd who introduced the tax in England in 1693 and after the Union the salt tax of 1711 didn’t go down well in Scotland, even though the rules were more favourable than in England.
In the 1790’s salt was Scotland’s third largest export after wool and fish, it was a key component to our economy which benefitted from the tax regime that made salt production in Scotland more profitable than in England and we were able to flood the market.
There were many salt pans in Fife on the Forth, including St David’s but the ‘white gold’ profitability was severely dented by the abolition of the tax in 1825. The industry in Scotland was already in decline with sun evaporated salt from Spain and the abundance of salt from the marshes in
Cheshire, which, when coupled with the removal of the tax, changed the market completely.
The salt pans at St David’s bucked the trend by continuing to make a profit from producing salt whereas the negative impact of removing the salt duty could be seen around the coastal communities like St Monans, who abandoned their salt pans in 1823, see picture.
The Henderson operation was robust and showed in their accounts that they had made a profit throughout the tax transition, where others closed, but also to maintain profitability even during the 1840’s which historians refer to as the ‘hungry forties’:
Profit
1823 – £412 which is the equivalent today of £39,256
1824 – £951 which is the equivalent today of £83,575
1825 – £336 which is the equivalent today of £25,136
1826 – £ 43 which is the equivalent today of £ 3,414
1844 – £267 which is the equivalent today of £27,155
(Figures from the Bank of England inflation calculator)
Why did St David’s prolong its viability?
The first part of the equation is that on the 21/7/1752 Sir Robert Henderson had agreed a £52 feuduty with James Spittal of Leuchat (landowner) for:
“4 acres of ground near that rock called saint davies castle in lands of knows and Seafield in the parish of Dalgety, together with a road of 24 foots of breadth with the sea and seaware opposite the said lands”.
(Early Railways of West Fife – AW Brotchie and Harry Jacks)
Secondly, it took approximately 8 tonnes of coal to produce one tonne of salt. Coal was the fuel source used to heat the evaporation pans where the sea water was boiled to leave you with the sea salt. (See the St Andrews University visuals). The Henderson mines would send down to the harbour the ‘coal dross’ which in turn helped to reduce the cost of production and at the same time improve the waste levels at the pit heads.
St Andrews University visuals
Finally, entrepreneurship, according to ‘The Salt Industry and its Trade in Fife and Tayside c1570-1850’ by C.A Whatley went on to say:
“By far the most impressive arrangement was at St David’s where, some time prior to 1836, a steam engine had been built to pump water into a reservoir large enough to hold as much water as necessary for a week consumption”.
St David’s increased its salt pans from two to five between 1788 and the early 1790’s and along with a few other sites in Scotland continued salt making by importing and refining of rock salt shipped from Liverpool. The high-quality salt which resulted from the process of boiling rock salt in sea water was saleable both locally in Fife and through the traditional outlets such as Perth and Montrose.
Another market kindly opened for them, the previously unsaleable ‘bittern’, a magnesia-based compound which drained from the salt, found a market in the growing chemical industry. In the 1840s, regular loads of six or eight barrels were sent from St David’s to Thomas Astley’s chemical works in Bonnington.
They owned the fuel, the transport link, the harbour to export the salt and they had the rights to use the water, all of that gave them longevity but they had, in this generation of the Hendersons, a bit of a nous in the changing industrial landscape.
Sadly, St David’s joined the many salt pan closures on the Fife coast in 1850. Five producers did remain in Fife though, at Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy, Leven, Limekilns and Wemyss. They were joined by a new one at Kinghorn in 1900. However, one by one they too closed with Limekilns being the last representative in 1946.
However, after 250 years salt production has at St Monans with the East Neuk Salt Co once again harvesting salt, a truly remarkable comeback!
There are no pictures or visualisations of the St David’s salt pans however we can position where some of the infrastructure stood by using the OS 1st Edition 1843-1882 map where we can see the Fordell Brick and Tile works layout that replaced the salt works in 1851. As like today we have bonded warehouses for our spirits, back in the day, the salt also sat in bonded storage due to the tax rules, my assumption would be that some of those buildings would have been converted to the new Henderson venture.
OS 1st Edition 1843-1882 map