A game worth the candle

and throws some light on the subject.

SHEARER, one of the few Glasgow companies still working from its

original Victorian-era factory, owes its survival to Edward Heath.

If there is one thing a modern candlemaker relishes it is the prospect

of power black-outs. Prime Minister Heath's ill-fated decision 20 years

ago to tackle the miners could hardly have come at a more opportune time

for the Govan-based firm.

The ensuing three-day week and threat to electricity supplies by the

miners' strike sent the great British public into a frenzy of panic

buying. Shearer promptly made more money in three weeks than it had in

the previous three years.

By the late 1960s, ''barely flickering'' and ''snuffed out'' would

surely have been the irresistible expressions to come to mind when

looking at the once-vast candlemaking industry.

''The advent of gas and electricity obviously decimated a trade which

at one time would have boasted a factory in every decent-sized Scottish

town,'' says Ian Barnet, managing director of Shearer and a candle

enthusiast to the core.

''The conglomerates that had taken over most of the small firms saw

little future in such a low-margin and apparently redundant business,

and the vicious circle of higher prices, lower sales, and closures soon

began.''

Started in 1897, the company had been run by the Shearer and Harvey

families until 1972 when Barnet's father took over the factory, sited in

the first block of buildings to be built in Govan's famous Copland Road.

Just how much the city has changed in the intervening years can be

gauged by the fact that next door was originally a milking parlour where

the local farmers drove their cows every morning.

Outside the factory today the cityscape is dominated by the

ultra-modern, towering stands of Ibrox, barely a good free-kick's length

away from Shearer's back door. Inside is an industrial historian's

dream.

Vast tanks of white paraffin, the basic ingredient for most candles,

jostle for space among whirring wheels and dripping, wax-coated moulding

machines that could be lifted straight out of a Salvador Dali painting.

The basic techniques of candlemaking have changed little over the

years and though some of the machinery has been modernised, pride of

place still belongs to a pre-war ''dipping'' contraption which can pump

out one mile of candles every two hours.

Two giant spinning drums loosely stretch the string wicks through an

open tub of liquid wax, passing them into the dip thousands of times,

each revolution picking up a smear of wax.

Growing imperceptibly fatter by the minute, they are tweaked by one of

Shearer's workers every now and again to check the consistency,

temperature, and so on until the desired thickness is reached.

Such devoted attention allows Shearer, one of half a dozen

industrial-sized candlemakers left in the UK (local rivalry is provided

only by one in Musselburgh), to tailor its production to specific

demands. It can also claim the all-important handcrafted label.

Barnet joined his father in the company in 1972, shortly before the

brief era of the three-day week that saved the firm. Demand at the time

of the Heath-miners dispute was such that planes were chartered to bring

over French candles from Nantes after Shearer ran out of stocks.

Only three or four people were employed by then and they were soon

twiddling their thumbs after most of the threatened power cuts failed to

materialise and millions of Britons were left with boxes of candles to

be used over the next decade.

But the sudden cash inflow allowed Shearer to upgrade some of its

operations and gave it a vital breathing space to expand its markets.

As the ''back to nature'' fashion gathered in the 70s and the public

began to look for ways of adding a personal touch to their artificially

lit and heated homes, so the demand for candles started to grow.

''We are only now beginning to catch up with the continentals who

never completely abandoned the candle the way we did in Britain,'' says

Barnet who has embarked on a #500,000 expansion of the plant which

currently provides 20 much-needed jobs to Govan.

The somewhat colourful nature of the locale -- now sadly bereft of

vitually all manufacturing -- brings its own dangers and diversions.

Such as the time two years ago when somebody started a fire at the back

door one Saturday night after a Rangers match.

''Candle wax is not particularly easy to light but, when it does

catch, it is bloody hard to put out,'' says Barnet who has run the

company for the past 10 years.

Given that the plant hosts a 20-tonne tank of paraffin wax, the

company escaped relatively lightly and most of the machinery was saved.

Another incident, recalled with more relish, is the time some 30 years

ago that the factory was broken into and bags of tallow mix stolen. The

animal fat-based wax, rarely used nowadays, looked like lard, smelt like

lard, and probably tasted like lard.

Some local fish and chip shops, no doubt unwitting accessories to the

crime, became aware of the mistake only when news began to circulate of

a sudden upsurge in severe stomach complaints.

Barnet, a 39-year-old Glaswegian, is proud, understandably enough, of

his role in keeping alive a manufacturing tradition that could well have

gone the way of most of the rest of Glasgow's industrial heritage.

With Government estimates of a 10% annual growth in demand for candles

from the likes of householders, the catering trade, and the gift market,

the future for Shearer seems assured.

The company provides every kind of candle, from nightlights and

lantern varieties, to the sophisticated-looking red ones that invariably

accompany a romantic meal out.

A dozen scented varieties are also produced and -- whisper it -- word

around Byres Road has it that the patchouli version is almost foolproof

at disguising the aroma of a well-known illicit smoking substance.

Shearer has just taken on a production manager, Tony McKelvie, to

allow Barnet more time to ''sell the flame'' as he puts it. Grants from

the Scottish Office and Glasgow Development Agency have also helped and

up to 10 new jobs should be created with the expansion.

''Candles can bring a special atmosphere of natural warmth that is

lacking from most British houses nowadays,'' says Barnet, adding that

the West Indians have apparently found other, more mysterious, uses.

With 15% of its #500,000 annual sales going abroad, Shearer still gets

regular orders from the Caribbean islands asking for candles with at

least 50% tallow content.

''They tell me that with this mixture, if they are not happy with the

flame or burning time of the candles, the wax can be used as an aid for

body-massages.'' A far cry indeed from lighting up Glasgow tenements.