Turkey red

Todd and Shortridge also expanded at this time and by 1778 had built the Milton Works at lower Levenbank which now bleached the new material - cotton.

In 1783 Thomas Bell devised a method of using a copper cylinder with the pattern engraved. By the middle of the next century this method had almost completely replaced block printing although it was 1846 before the first five-colour printing machine was erected at Cordale Works. Despite their slower speed, block printing overlapped the new system for many years and unlike the roller method is still used today on expensive, exclusive, short-run orders.

During the next forty years, while there were advancements in bleaching technique, not least the use of sulphuric acid as a bleaching agent, bleaching of cloth stopped being an end in itself and became the first step in a process that also involved dyeing and printing. While the first printworks in the Vale of Leven was established by Todd, Shortridge and Co at Levenfield the real impact was to come two year later. In 1770 William Stirling nephew of Walter Stirling, moved his printworks from Dawsholm on the Kelvin at Maryhill to Renton. The attraction of clean air clean fast water and cheap labour were too good to miss for a man whose family were well respected Glasgow merchants.

Through expansion William Stirling and Co built Cordale Printworks, and the works at Dalquhum and later Croftengea.

Prior to 1783 all the printing that took place was block printing. Designs were hand carved in a block of wood and the printer would place the print pasted block on the cloth and repeat the process until a complete pattern was produced.