The owners of Kirkintilloch’s only surviving foundry came up with a novel idea after vandals spraypainted their building.
Ian and Andrew Young of Archibald Young Ltd. drew upon the talents of a professional graffiti artist to cover the tagging with a striking wall mural.
It depicts welders working with molten metal - traditional skills still used at the foundry today.
Managing Director Andrew said: “It took the graffiti artist called As One about three days in total to do the mural.
“The vandal had struck about a year ago and tagged his initials on the side of the building.
“We tried to scrub it off but you could still see the shadow so we decided to get a proper artist to do a better job.
“We asked him to do a hole-in-the-wall type feature with welders and hot metal and this is what he came up with.”
Dad Ian, who is chairman of the company, added. “It can also be seen by people from the main road, which lets them know there is a foundry here.”
The local foundry has been in the family for three generations, established by Archibald Young in 1959. The firm has been in its current site in Milton Road since 1972.
Andrew took over recently from his dad Ian and the firm are proud to have retained the traditional skills which Ian says have been ‘around since the Bronze Age’.
He added: “ We have worked hard to retain these skills and have created a niche market in Scotland.
“That’s the secret of our success and why we have survived.”
Sculptors, artists and public authorities commission work from the Archibald Young Ltd. from all over the world.
These include Historic Scotland, who ordered a heritage plaque for the Scottish National War Memorial, used as part of this year’s commemorations to mark the beginning of World War One a century ago.
Kirkintilloch was once a hotbed of iron foundries, who were major employers in the area.
The most famous was probably The Lion Foundry who were responsible for the iconic red telephone boxes.
Source: kirkintilloch-herald.co.uk
