Virtue And Industry ...

A belated entry for this week's Sunday Challenge, for which we were asked to produce an image that matched our idea of maximalism.

This is actually 3 images combined of the glass façade of the new £53 million Ayrshire College, which opened this year and occupies the area of the town where the old Johnnie Walker factory was located.

Travelling through the town last week on the way back 'home' to North Yorkshire following a family funeral this was the first time I'd seen the new building up close and I was blown away by the scale of it.

The design of the main entrance incorporates so much glass that it seemed an ideal subject to shoot for the challenge.

As it happens, the world famous brand of Scotch whisky owned now by Diageo actually originated in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. It is believed to be the most widely distributed brand of blended Scotch whisky in the world, sold in almost every country, with annual sales of over 130 million bottles. Sadly, in 2009 Diageo announced that under a restructuring programme production would be moved from the brand's original home to Diageo plants in Leven, Fife, and Shieldhall, Glasgow.

So in March 2012, the Johnnie Walker plant (then the largest employer in the town of Kilmarnock) closed its doors and the name joined a long list of world famous brands that had once originated from or been heavily associated with the town: names such as Massey-Harris (later Massey-Ferguson) and Saxone Shoes.

We can only hope then that some of the bright young students that will pass through the doors of this most impressive looking new college will go on to develop ideas, products and businesses that will in time become equally famous and provide employment for local people because overall it has to be said my hometown needs to find a new direction.

Incidentally, the old Kilmarnock College campus on Holehouse Road, which was the predecessor if you like to the huge new Ayrshire college is still there although I'm not sure what the long-term plans are for that particular site.