William Bain and Co Ltd began life in 1859 in the old Lochrin Distillery in Edinburgh as Lochrin Iron Works – producing iron fencing and gates for estates in Scotland.

Mr William Bain, the man behind the name, had always had an interest in iron, however iron fencing was in its infancy in these days and it wasn’t until people gradually began to realise that fencing had a double purpose – to keep animals in as well as to keep people out!

He ran this business until he passed away in the early 1870’s when the business was taken over by his widow, two sons and one daughter. It was under his elder son, William P.C. Bain, that the small project grew into a large one by devoting most of his time to invention and the
Lochrin businesses.

It was in 1871, when William P.C. Bain took over his father’s business, the very first steel company in Scotland started in Lanarkshire – it was not to be long before William Bain would look to the West of Scotland for expansion and turn from iron to steel.