James Blake & Co Engineers Ltd was established 85 years ago in 1938. We now trade as the Blake Group and the Metal Centre and most of our current customers know us by one of these 2 names.

Over the years our business has gone from strength to strength and we are now a key employer in the Lothians and Fife.

From its early beginnings as a blacksmith company, located by the Port of Leith in Edinburgh, we are now located in new premises at West Craigs Quarry off Turnhouse Road where the business now celebrates 85 years of steel fabrications.

The business was set up by James Horne Drysdale Blake, who had worked as an apprentice blacksmith in the Henry Robb shipyard in Leith. However, to enable him to earn more money he became a stocker on steam trains such as the Flying Scotsman. Moving forward, he bought an existing blacksmith business located at the Citadel in Leith after borrowing £20. James with just a welding plant and wheelbarrow set off building his business. He hired his father to work shifts during the day in the workshop as he had to continue his day job on the trains. He would return to the workshop after his shift and take over from his father, also called James and who was a blacksmith himself.

Ronnie Blake with his current team celebrating 85 years in business with a wheelbarrow and £20.

Ronnie Blake the current Managing Director, along with his two brothers Ian and James, inherited the business from their father James who started James Blake & Co Engineers Ltd.

Fast forward several generations and Ronnie is now the man with the plan to ensure that the family business lives on for years to come.