Periods
Clydebank, 1870-1914
By Pat Malcolm
Prior to 1870, the area of what was to become Clydebank was largely rural. A few scattered industries included the Stanford Chemical Works in Whitecrook; a soda works at Dalmuir Shore (replaced by the Clyde Navigation Trust works in 1859); paper making and a print works at Dalmuir; cotton mills in Duntocher, Faifley and Hardgate and a few coal mines and lime pits.
The Risingest Burgh
The seeds of what could be described as a 19th century "new town" were sown in 1871, when J & G Thomson relocated their Clyde Bank Shipyard from Cessnock Bank in Govan to a new green field site at Barns o' Clyde. The location, opposite the mouth of the River Cart, allowed the yard to launch larger ships than could be built in the narrow reaches of the Clyde further up-river, and Clydebank was to become world-famous for the construction of mammoth liners such as the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2. Other industries followed the shipbuilders to the area, and a new town grew up around the yard.
By 1886 the town qualified as a "populous place" under the General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 (sometimes referred to as the "Lindsay Act") and it was formally declared a police burgh on 18 November 1886. The new commissioners (later councillors) named the burgh Clydebank, after the shipyard. James Rodger Thomson, the managing partner of the business and one of the prime movers in the campaign to form a Burgh, was elected the first Provost. A double shop on Glasgow Road (later occupied by the City Bakeries) was procured for offices and a meeting place for the new council. A town hall incorporating a police station was officially opened on 4 April 1902, followed a month later by the public baths in Hall Street. The fire station, adjacent to the baths, opened in 1904. Clydebank's population rose from 2,700 in 1873 to over 43,000 in 1913, earning it the nickname "The Risingest Burgh".
The Clydebank Shipyard
Meanwhile, in 1873, J & G Thomson had launched the new yard's first ship, the Braemar Castle, and laid its first keel, for the Cunarder Bothnia . Thomsons had built up a relationship with the Cunard Steamship Co before re-locating to Clydebank and it was with Cunard that the new yard's name became most closely connected. In 1881 the firm moved its boiler works from Finnieston to Clydebank, and the engine works followed in 1884. However, by 1890 the company was in financial difficulties and the Thomson brothers were ousted from control of the family firm. The company was reformed as the Clydebank Engineering & Shipbuilding Co from 1897 to 1899, when it was purchased by Sheffield steelmaker and armaments manufacturer, John Brown & Co.
John Brown's interest in the Clydebank shipyard lay in a desire to have a ready market for its own steel and armour plate and in its first few years the orders came flooding in. By 1914, £855,000 had been spent extending, modernising and upgrading the works resulting in one of the best equipped shipyards in Britain. Ships such as Cunard's Aquitania and the blue riband winner, Lusitania were built during this period, as were a large number of warships for the Royal Navy including the battlecruisers Inflexible and Tiger.
Transport
During the early 1870s, there were few public transport services for workers travelling to the Clydebank Shipyard. The Forth and Clyde Canal and its branch, the Forth and Cart Junction, were not suitable for carrying large numbers of passengers. The toll road between Yoker and Dumbarton was kept in a poor state of repair and often flooded, making it unsuitable for heavy commuter traffic. The nearest station on the Glasgow, Dumbarton & Helensburgh Railway was at Kilbowie, a long walk to the north. At first, the Thomsons had to provide a ferry to carry their workers downriver from their homes in Kinning Park, Govan and Finnieston. However, the relocation of the yard and other new industries in the area, and the resulting growth of population, encouraged the construction of new railways and road improvements.
The Glasgow, Yoker & Clydebank Railway opened in 1884, with a terminus near the shipyard. It was extended to Dalmuir in 1897. The Lanarkshire & Dumbartonshire Railway was completed in 1896, with stations serving the Clydebank yard, the Singer factory and Dalmuir. In 1903, Glasgow Corporation extended its tramway system to Bon Accord Street and the following year to Park Road (later renamed Beardmore Street). From 1908, people wanting to travel further west could cross the bridge and pick up the Dumbarton Burgh & County tram on the other side.
Housing
Workers in Clydebank's new industries required houses. In 1872, J & G Thomson built two tenements that accommodated around 700 people in Clydebank Terrace near the shipyard gates. It became known locally as "Tamson's Toon". Better houses were built for the foremen and managers. The shipbuilders went on to sell land in the vicinity of the yard for housebuilding, and then leased back the houses and rented them to their workers. Speculative builders moved in and a building boom ensued, providing housing not only for Thomsons' workers, but also for those of Napier, Shanks & Bell (who opened a shipyard to the east of the Clydebank Shipyard in 1877) and, later, for those of the giant Singer sewing machine factory in Kilbowie. By 1904 Robert McAlpine & Sons had started building the "Holy City", an estate of tenements at Radnor Park on the hill above the factory. As it was built outside the existing Burgh boundary, the new housing did not need to comply with its strict building regulations and there were accusations (hotly contested) of the houses being of inferior quality.
In Dalmuir, the Clyde Navigation Trust had built tenements around Nairn Street and others were built by speculative builders. The opening of William Beardmore & Co's Dalmuir Naval Construction Works in 1905 placed even more strain on the local housing market. The company acquired and built great numbers of houses for its workers in Dalmuir and by 1907 it had built around fifty-nine tenements there. Beardmore formed a house-building company in 1914, the Dalmuir & West of Scotland Estates Co, to erect more.
1,700 new homes were built in Clydebank between 1901 and 1906, but builders were still unable to keep pace with demand and land suitable for building had run out. In 1906, the Burgh boundaries were extended to include Radnor Park, including the "Holy City", Dalmuir West and the well-to-do area of high Dalmuir, adding 9,000 people to Clydebank's population.
Education and Religion
A Mrs Pitbladdo set up Clydebank's first school, in a room in her flat in Clydebank Terrace. In 1873 the Old Kilpatrick School Board became responsible for the education of Clydebank children. It opened a temporary school, known as the "Bothy School", in a shed in the shipyard, until a new building was completed in 1876 in Kilbowie Road. So quickly did the school roll rise that a larger building had to be erected on the same site in 1888. In 1906 it became Clydebank Higher Grade School, containing a primary and a secondary, and by 1908 there were another six primary schools in the town.
Clydebank's first church also opened in temporary accommodation, in a hall at the shipyard. It was popularly known as the "Tarry Kirk". As the population grew, numerous churches of different denominations were erected in the town. St. James' (1876) was the first for Church of Scotland members and Our Holy Redeemer's the first for Roman Catholics (1889). By 1891 there were eleven places of worship in the burgh.
Industry
The most significant industrial newcomer to the area after the arrival of J & G Thomson was the Singer Manufacturing Co. Soon after it opened in Kilbowie in 1885, the 5,000 workers were producing 10,000 sewing machines per week at what was claimed to be the largest and most modern factory in Europe. The new plant also incorporated the Singer clock, reputedly the largest four-face baronial clock in the world and certainly bigger than Big Ben! The firm's record annual output of 1,301,851 sewing machines was achieved in 1913, although the record number of employees (16,055) was not achieved until 1960.
In June, 1906, the first ship to be launched from Beardmore's yard was HMS Agamemnon, the largest battleship yet built on the Clyde. For a while, the firm struggled to win orders during a general slump in the shipbuilding industry. However, the situation eased from 1908 and Beardmore began work on destroyers, cruisers and four battleships for the Royal Navy, as the Admiralty prepared for the threat of war with Germany.
Improved transport links and the ready availability of skilled labour attracted many other industries to the Burgh, including the laundry equipment manufacturers D & J Tullis and the United Co-operative Baking Society. The Clyde Navigation Trust opened the vast Rothesay Dock in 1906, on the site of the old Napier, Shanks & Bell shipyard.
The period 1870-1914 saw Clydebank's transformation from a rural community to the fastest growing town in Britain. During this period, it became world-famous as a centre of shipbuilding and as the home of the world's largest sewing machine factory. This was, indeed, boom time for "The Risingest Burgh".
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