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Title: CROMBIE

Reference number: 4210

Date: 1961*

Production company: [ Don - Mor]

Sound: sound

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 34.54 mins

Description: Day-to-day workings of the esteemed woollens manufacturer, Crombies of Aberdeen. Interiors of the factory, where wool undergoes various mechanical processes. It is sorted, cleaned, dyed and separated into fine thread for weaving. The wool is then packed and made ready to be shipped for export.

Find out more about Crombie's at http://www.crombie.co.uk/ [last accessed 27/11/2015]

Shotlist: Company seal (0.01) Two miles from Aberdeen on the North Bank of the quiet flowing Don, stands Grandholm Works. For over a century now Crombies have woven here - the best and finest of Scottish cloth. To-day the works cover twenty five acres and eight hundred workers are emplyed producing a million yards of cloth yearly....... [music: waulking song] (0.37) landscape (0.42) The J & J Crombie Ltd policy of quality above all has been so vigorously and faithfully pursued at Grandholm works that the name Crombie is now synonymous the world over for all that is best in woollen overcoatings. In all the capitals of the world, the finest shops are proud to display overcoats bearing the name... (0.57) Crombie (1.01) ext. mills viewed across river (1.16) personnel, mostly women, arriving for work (1.48) workers entering factory gates (2.08) int., men sorting bales of wool fleeces, pan woolsorters workspace. Some c/u's fleeces (3.57) female woolsorter (4.06) forklift truck moving bale to wool scouring (washing) department (4.35) gvs wool washing process in machines (4.55) operator (5.25) wool fed into large industrial washing machine (5.37) c/u wool being softly washed (6.49) pressure guage (6.55) elevated view large washing machine, more gvs process (7.33) clean wool emerges into container which is manually pushed towards dyers laboratory (7.49) int. laboratory, dyer places three balls of wool in beakers with different coloured dye (8.40) dyer mixing dye powder (9.07) clean wool being brought into dyeing department and placed into large vats (9.38) lid being lowered, water being added (10.07) ext. shot river Don (10.25) mill laid water supply to works (10.36) int. dyeing room, vat lid being removed (10.49) int. vat, wool blue, wool being removed (11.35) examples of various coloured dyed wool (11.48) wet wool being fed into a drying machine (12.07) dried wool blown across to blending department. Two men mix wool (12.40) blend being put through mixing machine (13.00) machine for spraying wool with oil (13.08) blended wool being blown across to carding department (13.38) wool being fed into carding machine which features a series of rollers with teeth for combing wool into fine strands. Gvs carding process which is repeated five times (16.16) bobbins of wool being loaded onto the spinning mules (17.00) gvs spinning process using mules (17.43) fraying spinning method, c/u machine (18.24) yarn being transferred to weaving department (19.15) gvs warp binder at work (20.00) warper loading creel of different coloured yarn to create tartan pattern (21.44) gvs department (21.50) completed warp beam being taken to drawing department (22.17) c/u woman drawing threads in small bunches through a reed (23.18) pan weaving shed, multiple workers on looms. C/u's looms (24.55) girls examining cloth (25.21) darners at work (25.48) cloth being taken to be shrunken (26.10) alkaline bath (26.30) milling machine (27.06) cloth washed (27.30) some cloth being put in drying vat (27.42) carts of cloth being taken to raising department, gvs cloth on various machines (28.22) raising department (28.30) ext., two men fitting rows of wooden teasles to metal rods (29.08) cloth being run against 'teeth' to raise pile (29.22) cloth rinsed and dried again (29.33) cloth passing through cutting machine (29.55) cloths examined again, 'birlers' at work (30.28) gvs finishing department (30.50) gvs warehouse (31.20) further examination (31.33) c/u various cloths (31.49) cloth packed for despatch (33.02) c/u labels 'Made in Scotland F. & L. New York ', '...Montreal' (33.26) ext. loaded lorry leaving the works (33.39) int. overhead shot woman looking at sample catalogue (34.19) ext. ship departing harbour and sailing into distance (34.45) crest, zoom into END (34.54)