Camperdown Works

Camperdown Works was a jute works in Dundee, Scotland, which covered around 30 acres and at one point employed over 14,000, mostly female, workers. It was for a time the world's largest jute works and was owned by Cox Brothers.

The Cox family was connected with the linen trade in Lochee from the early 18th century when a member of the Cox family was a small manufacturer in the area. In 1827 James Cock (subsequently known as Cox),the son of James Cock of Foggyley and Helen Scott, assumed control of the family business and in 1841 formed a copartnery with his brothers, William Cox, Thomas Hunter Cox and George Addison Cox. The firm was quick to adopt the most recent improvements and moved over from the linen trade to jute. In 1849 they began construction of Camperdown Works, in Lochee and within a few years all of their operations relating to the manufacture of jute were carried out in these works.

The first building to be erected on the site by the Cox Brothers was the power loom factory which was the largest ever built in the city of Dundee. A hand loom factory was built to its north in 1853, holding 225 looms. One of the most significant developments on the site was the High Mill, which author Mark Watson argues to have been one of the finest textile mills in Victorian Scotland. It was built in three stages from 1857 and included a 100-foot clock tower. By 1878 the works had its own railway branch, made its own machinery and employed 4,500 workers, a total which had risen to 5,000 by 1900.

A foundry and stables, which could hold up to thirty horses, were built in the 1860s. Also on the site was a half-time school which was built in 1884 and closed in 1896. Other buildings included warehouses, a small fire-station and a three-bay shed for railway engines using the works' branchline, which joined the nearby Dundee and Newtyle Railway.

The works' 'greatest landmark' was its 282 foot high brick chimney, known as "Cox's Stack". Built between 1865 and 1866 it was designed by the architect James Maclaren and the engineer George Cox, one of the Cox brothers. The stack was linked to the Works' 57 boilers and could be seen when approaching Dundee from the south by crossing the River Tay. The stack still stands today and is Scotland's tallest surviving industrial chimney.

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