WHERE ONCE THERE WERE SHIPS - A History of Glasgow Harbour
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- Опубликовано: 26 янв 2022
- From the demolition of St Enoch Railway Station to the demise of Queen's Dock, a look at how in a one-hundred-year period Glasgow Harbour grew to become one of the busiest ports in the world. So why is the River Clyde now so silent, and what caused the collapse of so many of Glasgow's major riverside industries? Included in the video are many of Glasgow's docks and quays, from Kingston Dock to Prince's Dock (originally named Cessnock Dock) and Queen's Dock, and quays and basins at Yorkhill. Glasgow was once referred to as The Second City of the British Empire, supplying much of The Empire and the world with goods made in the city. So what went wrong?
Great story, I first saw Glasgow in 1966 as a young sailor from the Holy Loch, I was amazed looking at the dock lands and the shipyards along the Clyde, I sure miss them, thanks for the memories
I live in Partick and can remember the docks , my father was a docker and used to work between the KG V , Prince's dock and the Granary , which is now the Harbour housing area , I still remember as a young apprentice travelling home from Birmingham the first time I crossed the Clyde going into Central station and seeing the river empty , around 1979 , shocked isn't the word . Days gone by .
Very moving...and informative. Stunned how I am learning now what should have been taught, in History lessons, whilst I was child at school in Paisley during the 70's and early 80's.
Thanks Derek.
Thanks Eddy for a great informative video. Helpful for this English man to understand and appreciate more about Glasgow’s fine heritage. Whether we call such developments “progress” is a matter for debate, but it surely demonstrates the ebb and flow of man’s existence. Perhaps you give a similar treatment to the development and disappearance of Glasgow’s ship building industry. I would certainly welcome a similar treatment of that subject.
Many thanks for your comment Byron. The demise of shipbuilding on the River Clyde is very much tied in with what I've said in the video, in that the river was essentially too shallow. That said, we do still have some shipbuilding left.
s not fair.
Eddy, congratulations on a wonderful historical documentary.
I know the area well as I was born at Vine St/Russel St, took the various ferries back and forth as my friends and I went exploring. My memories have drawn me back to that and other areas along the river has drawn me back and I have attempted to make RUclips videos of the area as a backdrop for my family to learn from
as I moved to Toronto in 1973.
So I know the amount of time, research, editing, producing etc that you have put into this wonderful documentary.
My best friend who lived up the next close to us on Vine St moved to Kelvinhaugh then a few years later emigrated to N.Z. We visited them a few years ago and I was astounded to find the Crane ship that shows up at around 13.55 in your film. You probably know it was built by Sir William Arrol and appears in many historical photographs which are in the public record.
It is no wonder so many men in our family worked in the shipyards as did I having served my time in John Brown’s with training time in Fairfield’s and the Stephen’s training centre.
It is entirely possible that we have walked past each other when we were younger. We spent time at Cris Road Park where we Rolled our eggs at Easter and went to the TIVOLI when I had money.
Later I spent a year st Balshagary Hamilton Crescent School before moving to Knightswood.
The music is fantastic and the whole production is deserving of an Oscar
Kind regards
Charlie
Thanks Charlie. I remember the Tivoli. Not just so many cinemas around these days. Take care.
Brilliant Ed,my granmother was born in stowcross street,our grandfather Thomas Fitzpatrick had a house down facing the water loved the video
Cheers. 👍
Thanks Eddie, alot of my ancestors lived in Glasgow ,your videos give me an idea of what it was like .
The music adds to the poignancy of this great video
Thank you for making
Thanks Rosemary. All the best.
Thank you
My Mam and Dad sailed on Corfu from Burma back to England in 1946 ❤️🙏
Corfu was built in Glasgow back in 1931 ❤️🙏
Thanks so much for this! What a fantastic video.
Many thanks.
Brilliant video Ed, very informative and a real reminder of some of the great industrial heritage that we have lost. Thankyou for bringing history back to mind.
Cheers Dan.
Thank you for that...enjoyable and educational.
Great video, thanks 👍 My dad was a Glasgow docker as his dad before him, he unfortunately was killed by a crane falling on him at the docks when my dad was very young. It was a hard and dangerous job.
Brilliant video
Great stuff I remember my uncle saying in the 1960s passing the graving Dock in Govan that's the last ship you will see in there. Why they had to destroy the railway infrastructure is beyond me so much fantastic routes for cycling or light electric vehicles. Glasgow City Council continues its policy of allowing ugly developments to be made at high profits for private organisations.
Brilliantly presented. You could argue its getting used for leisure now, fun-fares, pop concerts, shows etc. That is the evolution of mankind. Sure we can mourn the loss of a bygone era, however too suggest it was better place for the folk living at that time would be a stretch.
Fair point, but at least most folk at the time were employed.
it was all tenements then which were not a good place to bring up a family I was born in townhead/ garngad in a room and kitchen four kids plus mum and dad shared toilet for four families top floor we thought ourselves lucky because the two adjacent doors were single ends one room only where the kids slept on the floor or a Z bed these tenements were jusr storage places for workers between shifts the normal people did not share in the wealth that they helped create
Thanks for posting
Superb stuff thank you for this.
Hi Ed great video loved it having been born in cowcaddins I remember a lot of areas u showed and was lucky to have been treated to lunch by my employer of my first job in 1971 at St Enoch Hotel wonderful memories thanks Ed
Thanks 👍
Another well made and moving Video. Well done!
Many thanks.
Mate, you have taken this to another level...this is brilliant.
Cheers Martin. I sometimes get an inkling that I may have made a half-decent video when I find myself weeping in front of the computer during editing. Thank you.
excellent presentation, with some very good pictures thanks :)
Many thanks.
Well researched as ever, Ed.
I lived in Overnewton, next to the Haugh, until age seven.
I remember the loud ships' horns when it was foggy, and at the bells.
Just re-watched... Incredibly well done :-) Shared your link on a few social media locations where people might be interested in coming to watch.
Thanks for that. Sometimes when planning and making these videos you're never entirely sure how it's going to work out. With this one, and one or two others, I was never sure that I could do it justice. You can throw all sort of planning and stuff into the pot, but in the end a good bit of luck is always welcome. And sometimes that's simply the way it is: lucky it turned out the way it did. But I'm certainly happy with it. Thanks again.
I really enjoyed this presentation. Thank you. Watching from Cairns in Far North Queensland (aka FNQ) Australia. 😊
Thanks Lisa.
Great video , brings back memories
Many thanks.
As a govanite, this took me back to my younger day's.
Family worked in Fairfield's and Stephens.
I am amazed how you come up with all these different subjects.
Very professionally carried out. Hollywood becones 👍👍
Cheers Dougie. 👍
Great Ed hard to imagine the hustle and bustle that once was on the Clyde 👍
Absolutely.
Brilliant video thanks for uploading
Many thanks.
Brilliant job on the research and presentation, history really is all around us. You did well finding the old images for past comparisons. Nothing beats "old school" engineering. They just set out to do something and do it. I have always been interested in the "Titan" style cranes. I think there are only 4 left in Scotland of William Arrol's design. Strangely there is one still in regular use in Japan. Great video as always.
Many thanks. The view out of my window faces west, and always in that view is what I presume to be another of those Titans, somewhere between Whiteinch and Scotstoun. Beyond that, out of my view, is the Titan at Clydebank. I didn't know about the Wm Arrol design or whether all mentioned are those designed by him. Where's the fourth?
@@EdExploresScotland There's another still standing in Greenock
@@EdExploresScotland I think the one you will be seeing is the Barclay Curle Crane. It's kinda yellow in colour. The other remaining ones are Finniston (in this video) Titan Clydebank and Greenock James Watt Dock. There was one at Fairfields shipyard, but it was demolished about 10-15 years ago. The strangest one is Nagasaki in Japan.
Thanks for that. Titans aside, I always felt a great loss when they removed the bulk of the old cranes from Fairfield's, or BAE.
Thanks Ed for this well researched and informative video. Very much appreciated.. I love how you bring old Glasgow to life.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Hi Eddy, this is surely one of your very best video productions. The shipbuilding industry on the Clyde was the envy of the world and you have demonstrated that very well.
It was really interesting to see the iconic old pictures and layout of the shipyards.
Well done Eddy, keep well and stay safe, regards Rob.
Cheers Rob. 👍
Great stuff! Thank you.
Many thanks Alan.
Great video and a great help😊
Cheers Chris.
It must have been the late 70’s when me and two friends swung a huge long thick wooden log lying at the side of the quay, perhaps 4 metres by 0.5 metres by 0.5 metres straight into the water head first to see if it would go straight in then straight up out again and it did.
Excellent video. Nice wee summary of this part of Glasgow's geography and history.
Many thanks!
Fantastic as always Ed!
Cheers Zeno. 👍
fantastic video thanks for putting this together and one day it will be seen in schools and many more places to show how a city becomes a home that we were proud of amen
Another excellent video Eddy, can u make one on the water powered industries of the river cart? 1700s ??
Re the River Cart, it's one of many things I'm looking at. Many thanks for your suggestion.
@@EdExploresScotland its a fascinating stretch of water, lots of ruins of the old textile, paper and snuff Mills still there
In the centre quay in queens dock there was a Sea School where seafarers prepared for their exams for EDH, A/B & lifeboat certificates which was administered by the Board of Trade. I sat all three in 1966.
Great video Eddy. Thanks for all the research and thoughtfulness you put in to your work on these wonderful looks back in time. Footprints of our past may get covered over, but having historians like you will forever keep us connected.
Thanks so much. Lynn 😎
Thanks Lynn.
I meant to mention we often played in the “spare ground” at the bottom of Hayburn Street, directly opposite the grand H&W Fabrication Shop. I can remember the remains of slipways but never knew at the time what the history of that area was
Glasgow still gets Ships arriving most Days, but it's down at the kgv-dock and Rothsay Dock.
Superb! Great music too.
Many thanks.
Great video. Thanks Ed. So many wonderful photographs, many of which I'd not seen before. I didn't know that the magnificent St.Enoch building had been used to fill in part of the dock where the Science Centre now sits. It's mind-boggling the extent of the cultural / architectural vandalism the City Fathers have inflicted on our dear green place. Such poignant music as an accompaniment brought tears to my eyes at points. I also hadn't realised that the rising sediment of the Clyde was the cause of the demise of the shipping lanes into the city. I didn't know about the swing bridge either. Incredible feats of engineering, all but vanished.
Fabulous film and narrative Eddie, thoroughly enjoyed it. If I could just point out one thing, and that is that Glasgow Harbour - and indeed the entire upper reaches of the Clyde were man made. A shallow waterway made deeper by hard engineering and dredging but that was limited to the level of the underlying bedrock so it was never going to make it to the age of big ships.
Many thanks Robert. I've touched on the subject of water depth in the upper Clyde in my most recent video, 'We Still Build Ships'. Hope you enjoy it too.
Great as usual Sir 👌🏼
Thanks Graham.
@@EdExploresScotland From Australia Ed. Thanks for the memories. What was the title of that music with the video.
Bob Hay.
I don't think I gave the music a title. Often, when creating music, I just go with a date for when I started it. It certainly has a sad feel to it, which pretty much echoes the sadness in the loss of Glasgow Harbour and all the activity that went with it. Let's call it, 'Where Once There Were Ships.' Cheers Bob.
It is sad that I now live in my Home City and still get homesick.
It's still here, Tam. It just looks a little bit different. Get out there and explore it.
@@EdExploresScotland I watched my Birth Home, being demolished, replaced by a shopping centre, watched that being demolished and replaced by an even bigger shopping centre. Silverburn now sits on top of the ground my house was on.
Iwas born in 1946, and St Enochs station was iconic, how anyone could just decide to obliterate it is beyond imag8nation
And its absence may explain why nearby Central Station is way too busy a lot of the time.
Good story Eddy. I was in Mumbai harbour a month ago (Bombay) it was good to see that those docks built so long ago are still in good condition and still used. On a drive from the dock back to my hotel, we passed warehouses similar to the ones you show in the video, with a solid sign in stone saying built in 1872.
I wonder if our young people today know what their forefathers achieved.
A great production Ed. I've just finished Billy Connolly's autobiography and he talks of his early working life building ships on the Clyde. I assume that would be a different location to the one featured here. He also mentions that he lived in Partick, your neck of the woods.
Thanks. The history of Glasgow is certainly all about the history of the River Clyde.
Great documentary, I was born in 79 when the ships stopped coming up, I still remember the warehouse’s along the expressway and the dock, I think it was st george’s dock I might be wrong
Thanks for your comment. Just checking the web there; I think St George's Dock was on the south of the river near Shieldhall and the sewerage works, between there and Braehead shopping centre.
Its recent history, the last of the Glaswegians . I started my saturday shop job aged thirteen,a few hundreds yards from Beardmore's, aka today, The Forge. Colvilles was tapping furnaces at night in winter as i passed by in father's car, not many folks had a car.
Sad to see the clyde now compared to how it was but as you say eddy things move on. Its a bigger tragedy that just about all of the shipyards have gone. The cheaper labour in the far east saw to that as well👍
Very interesting. The decision to close this station was another mistake imo.
I would love to know more about tradeston !
A little bit about the area in Canmore: canmore.org.uk/site/289051/glasgow-tradeston-general
Hi Eddie, thanks yet again for a great video, I love listening to your voice without the pics even and love the music on this video can you tell me what the music is? Again, thanks, linda 🙋♀️🌻
Thanks Linda. It's just a bit of music I made up using software on the computer, mostly using midi sounds linked to a BBC orchestra. I generally have some sound files of music I've made hanging around on my desktop, ready to slot into future videos, but I didn't have anything suitable with this one and so created music for the video that I was eventually happy with. I sometimes get a feeling that the music fits in well with the visuals when I have a tear in my eye during editing.
@@EdExploresScotland So wonderful, I went to sleep with you and your music, thank you for your spirit, creativity, expertise and sharing, just amazing.
Thank you.
Hi eddy I haven't got through all your videos yet have you done anything on the glasgow garden festival 88. I worked there would be really interested ❤
Hi Heather. Certainly an interesting subject. I've generally got any number of ideas swilling around. I'll have a look at it.
Fascinating, Eddy!! I'm not sure this loss of heritage is actually progress..... It's not just at Glasgow docks - the Goliath crane at Scott-Lithgow (Greenock) was also pulled down.... 🤔
You do have to wonder about so-called progress.
Moving documentary.
I think the Finnieston crane was used to fit a new boiler in the Waverley around the early 80's.
One of the old boilers from PS Waverley is on display in the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine. It's so huge it's very hard to imagine how it actually fitted in in the bowels of the ship.
The docks and all heavy industries were gone within 15 years.
How deep is the Clyde at Govan?
I don't know Paul. Deep enough for the PS Waverley.
It’s around 8m at Govan Paddle
❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
scotland was an economic threat to england so had to be stopped before it could not be destroyed. it had tried with different ways from sending in armies and clearances. it was also how thatcher destroyed scotland . it was all deliberate and workd.
music and stills too much
This breaks my heart as a Glaswegian and bred. Where once was Ships , Glasgow a total Powerhouse of a City now a City full of Economic Migrants bleeding the system and our City dry Economic Migrants Junkies everywhere no shame, Romanian beggars on every corner, Alkies and Wee Neds running amok.
Glasgow Men and Policemen of old would have taken total control of these people. Wtf is wrong with our Men now?So so afraid to offend turned into Women parading about in women’s clothing, make up, cheap wigs etc.
As a Glaswegian it is embarrassing. Glasgow was an industry powerhouse with architecture to rival anywhere in the world The Glasgow City Council and SNP government are only interested in cheap student accommodation and Crap hotels. I wonder who’s palm is being greased! Save Glasgow’s beautiful buildings and Amazing Glaswegian people not fakes scroungers or pretentious People coming in and taking over. I thought us as Glaswegians had more grit than that? Shameful.