Description
Francis Webster & Sons was a textiles firm in Arbroath, founded in the late 18th century and only ceasing business in the 1990s. In 1956, they were commissioned to weave the canvas sails for the replica ship ‘Mayflower II’ that was being built at the Brixham shipyard in Devon. In 1957, when Mayflower II sailed from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, MA, thousands of reports covered the event in the local and national press, and brought attention to companies like Francis Webster & Sons. In 1959, the Alma and Burnside Social Club – which served the employees of the firm – decided to rename their ‘Alma-Burnside Hall’ to ‘the Mayflower Hall’ in ‘honour’ of the event. In the early 1960s, the firm even started a society for former women employees called the Mayflower Club; into the mid-1960s, they were still gathering to watch the film of the voyage for the memories it brought back. In the mid-1960s, it ceased to be the Mayflower Hall and became a Red Cross Centre.
Source
‘Film thrill for the Arbroath sailmakers’, Aberdeen Press and Journal (21rd January 1963), 6.