Drain cover, Bangor

Image: © Rossographer Taken: 20 May 2011

Drain cover located on Clifton Road in Bangor. It bears the name "Norman Macnaughton and Sons Limited, Belfast" - this is likely to be the same firm seen on covers such as Image The only Norman Macnaughton that I can find trading in Belfast in the late 1800s and early 1900s is one trading as a "cement merchant" from premises at 42 Waring Street (on the right hand side of this picture: Image). There is an interesting extract on the company in "Industries of Ireland, Part 1. Belfast & the Towns of the North" (published 1891) which I reproduce below: "Norman Macnaughton, 42 Waring Street, Belfast. The important business carried on by Mr. Macnaughton is another remarkable instance of the spirit and energy which characterise the business men of the city. Occupying an excellent suite of premises in Waring Street, and enjoying a high repute among all the large users of fine cements, the extent of his transactions, and the high quality of the articles themselves, give him a leading position amongst the great importers of Belfast. The Belfast Harbour Commissioners have lately been supplied with a hundred thousand bags of fine cement; the contractors (a Belfast firm) for No. 5 section of Thirlmere Aqueduct, Manchester Corporation Waterworks, with one hundred and thirty thousand bags; while the Board of Works, and various Irish public bodies and local corporations, have placed recent orders of considerable magnitude. In many cases the cement has been subjected to very severe tests, and its superior quality may be understood by the initiated when we state that a given-day test of samples taken at random by the Assistant Surveyor of the Royal engineers' Office, Belfast, containing thirty-two parts of cement and six of water, and of a section of one and a-half inch by one and a-half inch remained unbroken, under various conditions, though subjected to a tensile strain of over half a ton. Few cements in the market could show a similar record, and this explains the general patronage accorded to the cements especially at the disposal of buyers by Mr. Macnaughton. He is also largely engaged in the sale of special brands, for particular purposes, such as the celebrated Carlisle plaster of Paris, Keene's famous cement for fine work, Robinson's fireproof cement, and other specialities. He is also the local agent for the well-known Darlington Forge Company, and for the patent windlass for vessels made by Harfields & Co., of London. His highly-reputed cement is the manufacture of the great works of J.C. Johnston & Co., of London and Gateshead-On-Tyne, for which he is the sole Irish agent. The Belfast offices and stores, located in Waring Street, near the Quays, are of the best description, the stores having a storage capacity of ten thousand bags. It is needless to add that the business is conducted with exceptional ability, and that Mr. Macnaughton is universally regarded as one of the most influential and accomplished business men of this city. He is no less favourably known in the metropolis, where his premises are located at 25, George's Quay, and in every respect takes a high rank for his enterprise, and for the magnitude of the transactions which he has undertaken with such singular and remarkable success." Norman Macnaughton himself lived at "Dundarave", Malone Park, Belfast Image He died, aged 72, on March 4th 1927. The firm Norman Macnaughton merged with Joseph Blair (see Image) c1972 to form the new company Macnaughton Blair Limited which still trades today - see http://www.macblair.com/ . At that time both firms were owned by Blue Circle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Circle_Industries .

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