Saracen foundry

The Saracen foundry was the better known name for the Glasgow based foundry company W MacFarlane & Co. Ltd, founded and owned by Walter MacFarlane.

MacFarlane started his company in central Glasgow, but in need of lands for expansion he agreed a deal with the son of Colonel Campbell to buy 100 acres of his Possil estate in 1849, including the house, on which to build a vast new works.

MacFarlane renamed the location Possilpark, which went from being residence to 10 people, to 10,000 in less than two decades. MacFarlane oversaw the removal of all the trees, and after creating railway access to his foundry, laid out the rest of the park land as streets and houses, including naming the street fronting his factory "Saracen Street." After Alison's death in 1867, the main house was also demolished as the foundry works expanded. The developing layout of Possilpark was described by the then Glasgow Town Council as: "Their work is one of the finest and best conducted in Glasgow, and the new suburb of Possil Park, laid out by them with skill and intelligence, is rapidly becoming an important addition to the great city."

Saracen foundry made to a set of standard designs, a series of decorative iron works, from railings and water fountains to park bandstands. These were exported all over the British Empire, and can still be found in abundance in many parts of North Glasgow. However, the Second World War reeked havoc on Possilpark in two ways: firstly, by making its industrial works a vast and well lit target; and secondly when the Minister of Supply and the Ministry of Production made the recovery of iron a key component in increasing war production, removing much of the footprint of Saracen's contribution to the world.

After the war, the combination of the collapse of the British Empire, the move away from steam power and the adaptation of new designs and materials meant a vast decline in orders for Saracen's standard designs. The MacFarlane company moved into standard foundry work, inclduing being one of five foundries casting Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 Telephone box for Post Office Telephones. After a take over of the company in 1965, the works closed and the infrastructure demolished in 1967.