Steele and Brodie Bee-Keeping Supplies
Steele and Brodie
Steele and Brodie were for most of the twentieth century the only bee equipment manufacturers in Scotland. Robert Steel started his beehive manufacturing in the 1870s in Dundee, and very soon moved to premises in Gauldry. A fire in 1899 forced another move, this time to Kilmany Road, Wormit. Very briefly in 1900 the firm was listed as Steel and Raitt, but thereafter only Robert Steel. By 1910 the more familiar Steele (with an e) and Brodie partnership had evolved, and this partnership soon became a familiar and well respected name among beekeepers. After the First World War the company expanded into general joinery work and production of poultry houses, but soon the demand for bee equipment led to their concentration on that. They remained in business as bee equipment manufacturers and suppliers until closure in 1998. Four houses now occupy the site of the beehive works, and the name of the houses, the Beehives, along with a decorative panel built into the entrance wall, are now the only reminders of this once thriving business.
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I worked there from 1976 till it closed, still have a few photos and many memories!
Brian Nish
Elderly Mrs. Brodie lived quite near the works. In 1947ish bananas reappeared with considerable fanfare in the Press but were only available to families with children. I tasted my first one then and was bitterly disappointed. Later that day my mother gave me a brown paper bag to deliver to Mrs. Brodie which I did. She looked into the bag, saw a banana, and cried. She had apparently told my mother at some time how much she missed them.
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