Collectors Corner - North British 1980
Within our Collectors Corner is a bottle of North British 1980 Cask Strength. Having spent many years in the private collection of our Chairman Mr Tim Morrison, this bottle brings back happy memories of his time working at the North British Distillery in the 1960s.
I was fortunate to spend half a year working at the North British Distillery following on from a year in Speyside as part of my training in the early 60s.
Travellers in Scotland have written of the primitive simplicity of the Malt Distilleries with their pot stills and pagoda like chimneys and of the wild hilly landscape in which the distilleries nestle. No one goes into raptures over a Grain Distillery, which may often be mistaken for a cotton mill or factory and located in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Much of the romance went out of the business when Grain Whisky came on to the market, or rather all the romance settled on the Malt side of the trade. For me arriving at the North British Distillery gave me an insight into a very important part of the Whisky Industry and I arrived as the early 60s began the dawn of the golden years for Distilleries and Blenders of Scotch Whisky.
The North British Distillery was established in 1885 and was directed and administered exclusively by established Whisky Merchants and Blenders, not infrequently their sons and grandson inheriting the business, followed them onto the Board of The North British.
I have many memories of my time, three stand out. Firstly, that in principle, the manufacturing of Grain Whisky was a simple matter, although the final operation of distilling was a critical one and it was facilitated by the invention of the “Patent Still’ or Coffey Still, in 1831. It was a Dublin exciseman named Aeneas Coffey who patented the idea of the continuous still as opposed to the batch process. The Coffey Still of modern times is a model of precision engineering and some architectural beauty and remains a firm favourite with Distillers today.
I remember that the North British charged its trade customers 1/6d a gallon in the early 30s and produced 300,000 gallons, by the time I joined the price was 9/6d and it produced 3 million gallons. Having been used to the small production of the Malt Distilleries such a huge volume produced during my time was awe-inspiring. However what really captured my imagination was the shunting locomotive which the distillery has purchased for £1,200 in the mid 50s. This was affectionately known as the “Grain Train” and was part of the rail network inside the distillery and shuttled back and forth between the distillery and Leith Docks, picking up grain for the mashing process.
Probably my most vivid memory during my time was the fact that Heart of Midlothian Football Club’s ground adjoined the warehouses of the distillery. From the top floor of those warehouses, you had an excellent view of the field of play, and it was a fact that on afternoons when Hearts had a mixed fixture, that was where you could be confident of finding most of the office staff and the odd trainee!!
They were happy times for me at the North British especially as our family business had firm ties with the Distillery and I was able over the years to enjoy the friendships that I had made during my stay.
S.W. Morrison
Would you like to add it to your own Whisky Collection? You can buy the bottle from our Whisky Shop (UK delivery can be arrange) - Click Here To Visit Our Collectors Corner >>