Carron Works Clocktower

The iconic red telephone box designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott is one of the items of street furniture that used to symbolise Britain. A large proportion of these boxes were manufactured in Falkirk, Scotland, by the ironworks complex which used to stand behind this tower. The tower was the central point of the Carron company's main office block and, when built, the works was the largest of its kind in Europe. The ironworks was established in 1759. The works have been claimed to be "the single biggest contributor to the Industrial Revolution as it took hold in Scotland". At one time there were 1000 employees and the arch under the clock tower was their entry into the plant.

Prior to producing telephone boxes, the company had produced the signature British cylindrical posting boxes with the royal cypher of the monarch of the time. They can still be seen all over the former British Empire, these days painted in a variety of colours. Important as these products were, however, the company was more famous for producing (under Royal Charter since 1773) cannons and, in particular, the short-barrelled, large-calibre naval weapon known as the Carronade, named for the company that developed it around 1778 (itself named for the river that flows past it).

Carronades were used widely to defend private merchant vessels and as a supplement to the long gun armament on naval vessels. They were particularly popular with the US Navy and in some cases the carronades were equal in number to the long guns. When smooth-bore and muzzle-loading guns were overtaken by armament developments, the company continued to make cannon for decorative purposes, often mounted on rather impractical, but decorative, carriages. A small collection of long-barrelled guns (said to have taken part in the Battle of Waterloo but certainly not on those carriages) along with some naval carronades is on display behind a wrought-iron gate in the arch of the preserved clock tower.

The company also made domestic items such as cast iron stoves, fireplaces and baths. The company was the first port of call for James Watt when he constructed his first steam engine. It was also used by Henry Shrapnel and Alfred Nobel

The works behind the tower is now closed. Production has been transferred to Slovakia and the Netherlands, but a Carron Baths distribution centre is just round the corner (within the old works boundary wall) and the tower now stands as a reminder of the great industrial past of Falkirk.