The list of famous name no longer with us continues with the demise of Kilmarnock's engineering industries.

The installation of a forge in 1780 saw the beginning of engineering in KIlmarnock. From the Water Meter Syndicate to Loom manufacture, trains to tractors. Glenfield & Kennedy's with a factory covering 26 acres and employing 2600 workers. They manufactured everything from four inch water meters to fourteen foot balance disk valves for hydroelectric dams all over the world. ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Andrew Barclay Sons & Co came into being to cater for the great railway boom of the 1840's. In 1859 the Glasgow and South Western Railway opened a locomotive and wagon building works. In 1921 the company was taken over by the London Midland and Scottish railway who moved the repair works to Barassie near Troon and closed the locomotive construction works with the loss of 1200 jobs.
During the great depression of the 1930's several engineering works, including the Britannia Works and Grant Ritchie, went out of business. Immediately after the 2nd World War, Massie Harris ( Massie Ferguson ) of Canada opened a factory manufacturing tractors and combine harvesters. After 30 years in Kilmarnock they shut down with the loss of 1500 jobs and moved the production to Marquette in France. The company founded Moorfield Manufacturing, providing work for about 200 but this in turn closed in 1991. ooooooooooooooooooooooooo Glacier Metal moved to Kilmarnock in 1942 from London because of air raids. They produced metal bearings mainly for the car industry. The company were hard hit by the recession of the 90's and were forced to make much of the 1000 work force redundant.

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