Industrial Heritage: "Poynters" of Greenock partial demolition in progress...

Video of the partially demolished "Poynters" site in Greenock Scotland. The business under various names produced charcoal from animal bones for use in the sugar industry from 1834 until 2013/14 when with the loss of about 30 jobs the operation was transferred to Mexico. The demolition company which now owns the site intends to demolish many but not all of the buildings at the Dellingburn Street/Baker Street premises and create a "waste transfer station".
*History;
"Poynters" or "The Bone Factory" as it is still known locally (and the smell still remembered) was established in Greenock c1834 at 21 Dellingburn Street by John Poynter & Co (est 1825 in Glasgow) then in 1853 becoming John Poynter & Son when John Edgar Pointer joined his father in the company. The main business was to produce charcoal used in the purification of sugar. In 1868 Andrew and John MacDonald joned the firm and it became "John Poynter, Son and MacDonalds" then in 1930 the named changed to "British Charcoal and MacDonalds Ltd" until it became part of Tate & Lyle, one of the UK's largest sugar producers, in 1970. When Tate & Lyle closed the last sugar refinery in Scotland in the late 1990s, the business returned to independent ownership under the name Brimac Carbon Services trading as BRIMAC.
In 1838 John Pointer (Poynter) was President of the Greenock Burns Club (The Mother Club, Est 1801). He died in 1864 aged 56 yrs. His son John Edgar Poynter died in 1889 aged 52 yrs.
Video ©Robert M Wilson 5th July 2023.
Filmed 4th June 2023. DJI Mini 3 Pro
*Info from various sources including;
brimacchar.com...
www.greenockte...
canmore.org.uk/...
www.greenockbu...

[@johnnymac26]

Nicely done mate

[@Fee212]

I recall the smell as I drove past this. Yuck! 🤮