Window to the Past: Shanks’ kiln workers

JOHN Shanks made his name in Barrhead after opening up, as a 25-year-old, his own plumbing business in the area’s Lowndes Street in 1853.

He opened a brass foundry off Main Street in Foundry Lane where the fittings for his baths and toilets were created.

Up until 1904, the company bought in the pottery they needed until, in that year, it moved from the centre of town to a much bigger site.

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Here we have a photograph of the men who worked the kilns dated September, 14 1926.

The name Shanks became synonymous with bathrooms and sanitary equipment the world over for well over 100 years .