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Clydebank

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Clydebank. Coordinates: Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton to the west, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and Drumchapel districts of the adjacent City of Glasgow. Clydebank is part of the registration County of Dumbarton, the Dunbartonshire Crown Lieutenancy area, and the wider urban area of Greater Glasgow.[3] Clydebank was founded as a police burgh on 18 November 1886. History[edit] Early origins[edit] The town encompasses part of the Antonine Wall, including, at Hardgate/Duntocher, the site of one of the forts built at regular intervals along the wall.

Before 1870, the area which later became Clydebank was largely rural, and agricultural. Industrial development[edit] Gradually, as the shipyard grew, so did the cluster of buildings grow nearby. In 1882 a railway line was built running from Glasgow out to the new shipyard (the Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway). Browser Population. Scotfax: Clydebank Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland. Clydebank. Clydebank is the historic heartland of the Scottish shipbuilding industry located on the banks of the River Clyde to the west of Glasgow. During the 19th century, Clydebank grew from a small village to one of the world’s major ship building centres.

The town was originally known as Barns o’ Clyde, but changed its name in 1882 to Clydebank after the Thomson brothers relocated their shipyard to the village and began building tenement housing for the workers. Visitors can learn all about the local, social and industrial history of the region at the fascinating Clydebank Museum. Scotland’s most unusual visitor attraction, the Titan Crane, is also located near the town.

There are also a number of heritage sites near the town including part of the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site, which marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, and mysterious stone outcrops with carved symbols to the north of Faifley. Clydebank history & industrial heritage: John Brown's Shipyard, Titan Crane, Wartime Clydebank - Clyde Waterfront Heritage. Clydebank Museum - Clydebank. Situated beside the shipyard where many of the famous liners of the Clyde were built. New permanent exhibitions concentrating on Clydebank's proud industrial heritage (Singer Sewing Machine Factory and The Sipbuilding Industry) have been created alongside new high specification temporary galleries, for exciting touring exhibitions as well as housing the Council's permanent exhibition of fine art.

In addition to the district museum, we also have "The Backdoor Gallery" which hosts a variety of exhibitions throughout the year. The gallery is situated within Dalmuir Library, 3 Lennox Place, Dalmuir, Clydebank G81 4HR tel 0141 562 2425. email enquiries: trish.robbins@west-dunbarton.gov.uk website. Clydebank Museum and Art Gallery. Clydebank Trades Union Council. Home. Welcome to Clydebank. Clydebank Post. Clydebank Live - news and events in Clydebank. Clydebank Community Councils. Community Services - Leisure Facilities - West Dunbartonshire. Clydebank Town Hall is a beautiful 'A' Listed Building which has been sympathetically refurbished to provide an excellent venue for a range of events. Whether you are planning a meeting, conference, show, party, wedding, ceremony or grand theatrical performance - this is the venue for you!

The venue is available to hire for your event and offers a range of flexible accommodation to suit most needs. Clydebank Museum and Gallery is located within the Town Hall. Why not come along and browse the Museum and Gallery then enjoy some fresh home baking or lunch in the Coffee Shop? Opening Hours: 8.00am - 4.30pm Monday to Saturday. My Clydebank Photos - Home. John Brown & Company. Marathon Oil bought the Clydebank shipyard from UCS and used it to build oil rig platforms for the North Sea oil industry. UiE Scotland (part of the French Bouygues group) bought the yard in 1980 and closed it in 2001.

History[edit] Origins[edit] J&G Thomson[edit] The brothers separated their business association in 1850 and, after an acrimonious split, George took over the shipbuilding end of the association. Despite intermittent financial difficulties the company developed a reputation based on engineering quality and innovation. In 1899 the steelmaker John Brown and Company of Sheffield bought J&G Thomson's Clydebank yard for £923,255 3s 3d.[2] John Brown & Company[edit] His next move was to examine the iron cladding used on French warships. Despite this success, however, Brown was finding it increasingly difficult working with the two partners and shareholders he took into the company in 1859.

John Brown & Company, shipbuilders[edit] World War I[edit] Between the wars[edit]

John Brown Shipyard

RMS Lusitania. RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner, holder of the Blue Riband and briefly the world's biggest ship. She was launched by the Cunard Line in 1907, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. In 1915 she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew.

When she left New York for Liverpool on what would be her final voyage on 1 May 1915, submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic. Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom to be a war-zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed a newspaper advertisement warning people not to sail on Lusitania. Development and construction[edit] Lusitania, before her launch. The American millionaire businessman J. Design[edit] Lusitania unloading Christmas mail to a post office boat. The ship was designed by Leonard Peskett[12] and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland.

Deck plans of Lusitania. Interiors[edit] Finished First Class Dining room. RMS Lusitania. HMS Hood (51) HMS Hood (pennant number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1920, she was named after the 18th-century Admiral Samuel Hood. One of four Admiral-class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916, Hood had serious design limitations, though her design was drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be completed. Hood was involved in several showing the flag exercises between her commissioning in 1920 and the outbreak of war in 1939, including training exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and a circumnavigation of the globe with the Special Service Squadron in 1923 and 1924.

She was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet following the outbreak of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Hood was officially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until she had to return to Britain in 1939 for an overhaul. Aerial view of Hood in 1924. HMS Hood. RMS Queen Mary. Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and captured the Blue Riband in August of that year; she lost the title to SS Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers for the duration of the war. Following the war, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and along with Queen Elizabeth commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were initially built. The two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s Queen Mary was aging and though still among the most popular transatlantic liners, was operating at a loss.

After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line, Queen Mary was officially retired from service in 1967. Construction and naming[edit] Overhead view of Queen Mary docked at Long Beach in 2008 History (1934–1939)[edit] Queen Mary in 1936. RMS Queen Mary. RMS Queen Elizabeth. RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. With her running mate Queen Mary, she provided luxury liner service between Southampton, UK and New York City, USA via Cherbourg, France. She was also contracted for over twenty years to carry the Royal Mail as the second half of the two ships' weekly express service. While being constructed, in the mid-1930s by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, she was known as Hull 552[2] but when launched, on 27 September 1938, she was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was then Queen Consort to King George VI and in 1952 became the Queen Mother.

With a design that improved upon that of the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth was a slightly larger ship, the largest passenger liner ever built at that time and for fifty-six years thereafter. She also has the distinction of being the largest ever riveted ship by Gross Tonnage. Building and design[edit] Queen Elizabeth, growing on the stocks. Maiden voyage[edit] Troopship[edit] RMS Queen Elizabeth. HMY Britannia. Construction[edit] HMY Britannia was built at the shipyard of John Brown & Co. Ltd in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Great Britain, being launched by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 April 1953, and commissioned on 11 January 1954. The ship was designed with three masts, a 133-foot (41 m) foremast, a 139-foot (42 m) mainmast, and a 118-foot (36 m) mizzenmast. The top aerial on the foremast and the top 20 feet (6.1 m) of the mainmast were hinged, to allow the ship to pass under bridges. Britannia was designed to be converted into a hospital ship in time of war,[2][3] although this capability was never used.

In the event of nuclear war, it was intended that the Queen would take refuge aboard Britannia along the North West coast of Scotland.[4] Crew[edit] The crew of Royal Yachtsmen were volunteers from the general service of the Royal Navy. The ship also carried a platoon of Royal Marines when members of the Royal Family were on board. History[edit] Replacement[edit] Retirement[edit] See also[edit] HMY Britannia. Queen Elizabeth 2. Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is an ocean liner built for the Cunard Line which was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008.

She was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK, to New York, and was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Designed in Cunard's then headquarters and regional offices in Liverpool and Southampton respectively, and built in Clydebank, Scotland, she was considered to be the last of the great transatlantic ocean liners until the construction of the Queen Mary 2 was announced. Before she was refitted with a diesel power plant in 1986/87, QE2 was also the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service.

QE2 retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008. Characteristics[edit] History[edit] Service history[edit] Queen Elizabeth 2. Titan Clydebank. Coordinates: The refurbished Titan Crane at Clydebank, situated adjacent to the fitting-out basin of the former John Brown & Company shipyard. Titan Clydebank is a 150-foot-high (46 m) cantilever crane at Clydebank, Scotland. It was designed to be used in the lifting of heavy equipment, such as engines and boilers, during the fitting-out of battleships and ocean liners at the John Brown & Company shipyard. It was also the world's first electrically powered cantilever crane, and the largest crane of its type at the time of its completion.

Situated at the end of a U-shaped fitting out basin, the crane was used to construct some of the largest ships of the 20th century, including the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2. History[edit] Ships constructed by the crane include HMS Hood, the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Royal Yacht Britannia.[16][17] Refurbishment[edit] Design[edit] The Titan Crane's jib has been converted into a public viewing platform.

Titan Crane

Red Clydeside. Red Clydeside is the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and urban areas around the city on the banks of the River Clyde such as Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley. The history of Red Clydeside is a significant part of the history of the labour movement in Britain as a whole, and in Scotland in particular. 1911 strike at Singer[edit] The 11,000 workers at the largest factory of Singer sewing machines factory, in Clydebank, went on strike in March–April 1911, ceasing to work in solidarity of 12 female colleagues protesting against work process reorganisation. This reorganisation involved an increase in workload and a decrease in wages.[1] Following the end of the strike, Singer fired 400 workers, including all strike leaders and purported members of the IWGB, among them Arthur McManus, who later went on to become the first chairman of the CPGB between 1920 and 1922.[2] Anti-war activism[edit] Rent strikes[edit] The 40 Hour Strike[edit] References[edit]

Red Clydeside

Clydebank Blitz. A defused, German 1000kg Luftmine (Parachute mine). Glasgow, 18 March 1941 The Clydebank Blitz refers to two devastating Luftwaffe air raids on the shipbuilding town of Clydebank in Scotland which took place in March 1941. The air raids[edit] As a result of the raids on the nights of 13 and 14 March 1941, the town was largely destroyed and it suffered the worst destruction and civilian loss of life in all of Scotland. 528 people died, 617 people were seriously injured, and hundreds more were injured by blast debris.

Out of approximately 12,000 houses, only seven remained undamaged — with 4,000 completely destroyed and 4,500 severely damaged. Over 35,000 people were made homeless. [citation needed] Clydebank's production of ships and munitions for the Allies made it a target (similar to the Barrow Blitz). The building on the right was one of the few which survived the blitz Effectiveness of the raids[edit] War memorials[edit] References[edit] Coordinates: Bibliography[edit] External links[edit]

Clydebank Blitz