Rowena Comrie and Duncan Comrie with the 'Ironheart 2022' mural. Falkirk Made Friends coined the name Ironheart as a way of uniting the iron achievements of the many iron townships of the Falkirk area.
World-famous products made by Falkirk’s foundries feature in the eye-catching ‘Ironheart 2022’ mural created by Falkirk Made Friends (FMF) and funded through Falkirk Council’s Community Choices scheme.
The 49ft by 6ft mural covers the entire length of the former Malcolm Cockburn’s Gowanbank Foundry office block situated just off Grahams Road in Gowan Avenue, Falkirk.
Using the colour palette favoured by the foundry in the 1930s, the vibrant piece of public art features the baths, cooking ranges and utensils that transformed how people lived.
The mural aims to give passers-by a better understanding of how past innovations helped improve public health and spark young people’s interest in science, engineering, and product design.
Dr Duncan Comrie, Secretary, FMF, said: "The pandemic has raised the profile of public health and provided a new context to consider how products designed and cast locally helped raise people’s standard of living. The mural features products that changed how people heated their homes and cooked as well as those that improved cleanliness and sanitation."
Funding creativity
FMF has used the phoenix rising from a cauldron to symbolise the birth of both the Carron Company in 1759 and the establishment of the area as one of the largest producers of domestic cast iron products. The introduction of the domestic cauldron enabled ordinary people to make their own hot water for the first time and helped transform public living standards.
The mural was made possible after FMF secured c£5k through Community Choices, Falkirk Council and Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership’s participatory budgeting programme.
The initiative provides people with a way to apply for public funding to improve their local area and vote to decide how public money is spent.
Cllr Cecil Meiklejohn, Leader of Falkirk Council, said: “By securing funding through Community Choices, the group has been able to create a mural that highlights the many energy-efficient products produced locally that helped improve everyday life worldwide. It is a truly eye-catching piece of art that will be enjoyed by everyone who passes by.”
Duncan added: “We’d always wanted to create a mural but needed to find a suitable building and funding. After finding an old bathtub made by Cockburn’s, I met with the owner of FBS Plumbing, who own the Gowan Avenue building.
"Because her business is a bathroom distributor and her family used to own Falkirk Brass Foundry, she bought the bathtub and allowed us to use the building to bring to life a part of our local history in a fun and attractive way. Without her support we wouldn’t have had a canvas to create the mural.
“Funding from Community Choices then gave us the fuel to tap into the creative furnace of Ironheart achievements, allowing us to design the mural and buy materials to make it happen.”
Inspiring a love of design
One of the bathtub designs created by pupils from St Mungo’s High School.
Set up in 2019, FMF’s initial aim was to save several of the area’s working K6 phone boxes cast by the Carron Company. With the help of two local high schools, the group injected new life into the telephone boxes, turning them into public art.
The success of that project inspired the group to ask school pupils once again for help. This time to design an element of the mural.
Duncan said: “Two marvellous bathtub designs were used from the many submitted by St Mungo’s High School pupils. The pupils fulfilled the remit of creating designs that highlighted the artful intricacy of drainage and bathing?as a flight of the imagination. It’s great that the young people got in involved, as many of them will pass the mural going to and from school each day.”
Creating connections
FMF now aims to turn an old iron telephone box door (pictured above) into an information board, using the panels to provide information about each element of the mural alongside QR codes to find out more.
An iron bathtub will also be displayed beside the mural and mini-iron bathtubs have been cast to mark the mural’s completion.
Duncan said: “Because Cockburn’s used to make bathtubs, it only feels fitting to install one – upside down! – by the mural while using the telephone door ties neatly with our original project.”