Tuesday, November 15, 2011

R is for Rob Roy

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I came across this old machine near the little orchard inside the Sisters of Sion convent in Ein Kerem.
It's a cement mixer, yes?

It was exciting to read the boilerplate!
The mixer was brought all the way from Monifieth, Scotland, a long time ago.

Please enlarge the photo. What can you make of the "Date made:" date?

Wow, it came all that way, so long ago, in order to build up the Holy Land.


The wheelbarrow with a metal wheel looks to be something of well-used antique also.
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Back home, I learned from Wiki that the Low family (like on our machine's ID tag) first set up a foundry in the village of Monifieth in the early 1800s and in 1815 developed the first carding machine for flax tow in the area.
During both world wars the foundry produced shells.
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The Monifieth History Society adds this:

"The return of the men from the armed services found changes being made in the Foundry. Due to the recession in the jute and textile industry, operations were transformed to the production of building contractors plant, such as dumper trucks, concrete mixers etc. The firm then assumed the name of Rob Roy and was owned and managed by a family from India.
Sadly by early 1980`s all production had ceased and the `foundry` was condemned for demolition to be cleared away to make space for a shopping precinct.
The `heart` of Monifieth was gone and very soon forgotten.
"
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Well, at least the former foundry is still remembered in a convent in the Hills of Jerusalem.
And Rob Roy is remembered for R day at ABC Wednesday.

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30 comments:

  1. Wonder what Robert Roy MacGregor would have to say about this use of his name. A Rob Roy is also a nice cocktail.

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  2. Yeah, I thought of alcohol first! What does that say about me?
    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

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  3. Interesting.. and so is also the shadow on the last picture. Is that you?
    Luckily, I have not tasted the drink Roy Rob.

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  4. Enjoyed your "R" post...I downloaded the cement mixer photo to see if I can make out the "date made" in Photoshop. Will let you know!

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  5. How interesting! what a great find for R!

    r is for...

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  6. Roger, Rob and Mandy, yeah, I had to scroll way down through Google to get past sites about the Rob Roy cocktail and the movie. It was not easy finding the foundry.

    Spiderdama, oh, yeah, that must be my shadow, but not planned. I think I was trespassing on a "Private" area of the convent and wanted to shoot fast and leave.

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  7. That is an amazing story, Dina. So far from its origins, the Rob Roy remains to remind any who have eyes to see and a curious mind to inquire, of a foundry now long forgotten. I wonder how many other Rob Roys are still in existence somewhere in the world?

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  8. Hi Dina, I can see that the cement mixer is very old, but how old? No I couldn't see that.But it's a piece of antiquity with a piece of history, and therefore very valuable.Is the Sisters of Sion convent the same you were earlier talking about with me?

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  9. Sara, glad you appreciate it. Yes, that would be fun to know about other such mixers still in the world.

    Wil, I think I was telling you about the other place of the Sisters of Sion, the one called Ecce Homo on the Via Dolorosa.

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  10. It is amazing how things tend to end up in faraway places, and not only machines or useful tools...

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  11. Like others, I thought you were going to tell us about the cocktail... LOL! This was more interesting... an antique cement mixer from Scotland in Israel. Couldn't make out the date, though.

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  12. The nearest I can come for a build date for the Rob Roy cement mixer is: 1/52 (January 1952). I believe that is well before the foundry went out of business.

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  13. Theanne, I don't see where you got those numbers. To me it looks like 18 or 1R or possibly 19 .

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  14. Mar, thanks. Yes, finding it made my day.

    VP, you mean like people ending up far away?

    Francisca, well, MIXERS are the non alcoholic ingredients in mixed drinks, right? But this post turned out to be about cement mixers instead.

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  15. You're incredible.

    (I don't think the McGregors know about this!)

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  16. Interesting "R" post and images, Dina. Nice your shadow, while you are taking the photo, in the last picture.

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  17. I had a Rob Roy once. Thanks for the text info today.

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  18. Gosh... I've never heard of Rob Roy.

    By the way, I added a photo just for you on my blog. :-) Art found it for you. I wish I took more from that time, but Art thinks I didn't take many photos because he was taking movies.

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  19. Wonderful, Dina. I didn't think about the cocktail, but I did think about Rob Roy MacGregor.
    I am always thrilled when I find out old things were made in Scotland. (Most of my ancestors were made in Scotland, too.) I once bought a burled walnut piano because it was made in Dunfermline, and was beautiful, even though it couldn't be tuned (warped sounding board).
    I enjoyed this post very much.

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  20. I couldn't make out the date either. Interesting that a family from India re-named the company Rob Roy. When I think of Rob Roy, I think of Liam Neeson, though I never did see the movie :) Some of my ancestors come from Scotland via Ireland - Scotch-Irish.

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  21. Victorian explorers, clerics, artists and technicians were besotted with the HolyLand. I am delighted to see that something remains from one intrepid engineer or another.

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  22. I'm like Rob and Mandy, I hear Rob Roy and think cocktail.

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  23. You do find the most fascinating corners... Thanks for sharing :).

    -----------------------------------
    My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography on etsy and Society6 and bring home something beautiful today!

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  24. Amazing what you find in unexpected places! Unlike your other commenters though, I hadn't heard of a Rob Roy cocktail.

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  25. Hi Dina...I'll send you what I found and see what you think.

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  26. Can't remember if I gave you this information or not, the enlarged photos of Rob Roy's possible build date are on my blog...upper right hand corner...listed with my "pages."

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    Replies
    1. I used to build rows and rows of these I served my engineering apprenticeship there 78-82, it’s now Tesco Supermarkets

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