John Pollock’s Victoria Cabinet and Chair Manufacturer in Beith

Matthew and John Pollock were considered to be the pioneers of the cabinet and chair-making business in Beith.  John’s mechanical inventions and design abilities saw him rise above the ordinary cabinet maker.

John Pollock was born 04 October 1835 in Beith, the third of eight children born to parents, John Pollock, a Grocer in Gateside, and Agnes Wilson. The 1841 census reveals that his father had become a Publican and the family had moved to Schoolwynd, Beith.  Following their father’s death, John and his older brother Matthew were apprenticed to cabinet maker James Dale.  By 1851 the family had moved to 4 Main Street, Gateside, where their mother supported her family by working as an ornamental muslin sewer.

During his apprenticeship, John invented several of the tools he would later use in his own business.  After the completion of their apprenticeships John and Matthew formed the Victoria Cabinet and Chair Works together in 1858.   The brothers dissolved their partnership in 1879 and Matthew subsequently erected the Caledonia Cabinet & Chair Works, next to the Victoria Cabinet and Chair Works.

John Pollock continued to run the Victoria Cabinet and Chair Works.  The factory was built of white brick and occupied around 1½ acres of land.  A large portion of his timber comes from Cadzow Forest and the Duke of Hamilton’s policies.  He built furniture from Scotch oak, Scotch March, ash, birch, beech, and cherry woods, along with foreign woods such as mahogany, rosewood, walnut, satinwood, and ebony.  His woodyard was connected to the mill by means of a short railway line.  The wood was cut, then sent to the four-storey drying stores, where the temperature was kept at 102 degrees Fahrenheit to extract water from the wood, and thereby ‘season’ it.

Once seasoned the wood was sent to the cutting floor.  The foreman was supplied with a list of the precise sizes required for each cabinet, etc., being made.  The ‘list’ followed the wood around the cutting floor to ensure that every piece was cut to size. The wood was then sent back to the drying stores to be double seasoned before the carpenters began their work.

The machinery in the factory was supplied by Messrs John McDowell & Co. of Johnston, New Brunswick, and the Brothers Kerr, of Auchengree, Glengarnock. Kerr’s made the patent automatic carver which John Pollock invented.

Each department within the factory focused on making specific types of furniture.  There was a department for making bedroom suites, another given over to dining room furniture and a third to dining room chairs.  The Victoria Cabinet and Chair Works also produced organ cases and cabinets for ships and yachts.  The exquisite scenes on the wood panels of the furniture were all hand carved.

John Pollock lived at Crummock House, Beith and later Grangevale House, Beith.  He married Agnes Templeton on 13 June 1859 at Hessilhead Lodge, Beith.  The couple had four children, the eldest of which died in infancy.  Agnes died 17 March 1910 at Glenele, Beith.

John Pollock died on Friday 03 July 1913, 10.05am at 1 Ashburn Gate, Gourock, aged 77.  His cause of death was given as Diarrhoea (Enteritis) which he had suffered from for nine days.  His daughter Agnes Wilson Gordon registered his death. The site of the former Victoria Cabinet Works and adjoining Caledonia Cabinet and Chair works is now occupied by Laigh Court, a retired housing complex, built in 1991.