Hugh Farmer: On a visit to the HK Museum of History on 6th Feb 2014 I noticed this enticing snippet from the Information Services Department 1960s. “Most home utensils such as baskets and strainers were woven from rattan rather than bamboo as in the past. Demand was high for bamboo-made fishing and farming tools, such as fish traps, cages for […]
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Hugh Farmer with thanks to IDJ for the following report: This extract from a report in the Modern Tramway Journal c1988, mentions several proposals, none of which came to fruition.’ Namely: a) building a second line to the Peak in 1908 c) 1948-1958 extending the existing Peak Tram line further down into Central b) constructing a funicular railway at Lion […]
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Hugh Farmer: These two extracts provide a clear indication of the range of manufacturing and products produced by Chinese in Hong Kong at two periods. It would be of interest to hear a little about some of these goods. “While the expatriate investors set up all the major industrial enterprises , the Chinese community also went beyond handicraft industries and […]
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Hugh Farmer: The mine was in the bottom left hand (SW) corner of the island (apologies for a fuzzy picture that resembles shark’s fin soup) West Brother Island lies to the north east of HK International Airport. I have read an account that the graphite was discovered in the early 1950s by fishermen who were looking for sandstone to make […]
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Hugh Farmer: The article The Hongkong Cotton-Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Company Ltd 1898-1914 contained a number of terms with which I and possibly others are unfamiliar. I thought it might be useful to explain what these words or phrases mean and to briefly mention the aim of any process involved rather than detailed construction of any machine mentioned. The latter […]
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IDJ : Quarries supplying construction materials for the proposed Ping Shan Airport are thought to be at the location above, the nearest mapped quarries to the site. They were connected to the airport site by a temporary narrow gauge railway. Site drawings for this project have not been found so far. The RAF’s Airfield Construction Branch paper mentions the clearing […]
» Read moreThe Industrial History of HK Group has been featured in HK’s mainstream media twice over the past week. First, Annemarie Evans interviewed Hugh Farmer for RTHK’s Hong Kong Heritage programme. You can visit by RTHK website page for the interview here and or go directly to listen to the interview here. Then on January 15th the SCMP featured an interview with Hugh […]
» Read moreLawrence Tsui suggests that the place name Yau Ma Tei originated through the industry there of making marine ropes – literally, ‘Place for the Oily Flex [Flax?] Ropes’. Hugh Farmer adds: Gwulo had a forum about the origin of the name Yau Ma Tei in 2006 to which several people contributed quoting a variety of sources. I have included the […]
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The first article on this company was written by Amelia Allsop of the Hong Kong Heritage Project Archive and posted on Nov 9, 2013. Jan 13 2014 a new image sent by IDJ: There is also a connection in the following to the article “Shanghai Spinners: Pioneers of Hong Kong’s industrialization, 1947-1955” written by Carles Brasó Broggi and posted on 9 […]
» Read moreHugh Farmer was interviewed by Annemarie Evans on her RTHK programme Hong Kong Heritage, first broadcast on Saturday 12 Jan. He spoke about how he became interested in Industrial History in the UK and Hong Kong and why he set up The Industrial History of Hong Kong Group. He then highlighted a few subjects of interest including incense water mills and […]
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