Thirty miles south of Glasgow, in the grounds of a country house, thousands of students visit every year to learn heritage skills such as stone masonry and stained glass making.

Dumfries House is home to The King’s Foundation, an educational charity set up by King Charles III.

For this special episode of The Factory Next Door, we take a tour of Dumfries House with the Foundation’s Head of Education, Dr Simon Sadinsky.

During our walk we consider the value of preserving heritage crafts, the importance of looking beyond our areas of specialist knowledge, and question whether our education system is too focused on learned expertise rather than practical experience.

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The world loves Scotch whisky. Forty-four bottles are exported every single second – that’s 1.4bn a year.

On this week’s The Factory Next Door, we head to the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula in the Scottish Highlands to learn what it takes to build a distillery.

Number 31 on our list of the greatest products we make in Britain is The Single Malt.

Alex Bruce, Managing Director of the Ardnamurchan Distillery, tells us why he’s not worried about US tariffs, explains why he does worry about dust, and reveals the reason they put the distillery in such a remote location.

We also see a giant underground bunker, consider whisky Jenga, and learn how the whisky is bringing families back to the area.

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The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.

Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:

www.aveva.com/factory

Sheffield is about to embark on a brand refresh which celebrates the city’s role in the history of cultural phenomena such as football, electronic music, and cask beer. But we’re heading there to champion something omitted from the marketing rebrand – the city’s skilled steel workers.

On this week’s The Factory Next Door, we’re visiting the workshop of Ernest Wright, where they’ve been hand-making beautiful scissors and shears since 1902.

Number 30 on our list of the greatest products we make in Britain are The Kitchen Scissors.

Owner Paul Jacobs explains why he bought the company before he’d even visited it, discusses how to ensure younger workers want to join the team, and looks to start an argument with a colleague.

Also on the show, we gate-crash birthday celebrations, give praise to a very specific chunk of metal on a saddle grinder, and team member Jonathan reveals the sign that stood in his way and commanded him to become a scissor-making.

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