Welcome to the
History Channel. We have extensive pages showing the
history of Healthcare, Shipbuilding, Education,
Singer's Sewing Machine Factory, Housing and the
Clydebank Blitz.
To view some fantastic Scottish history captured on
film from the BBC Click Here (Broadband
Only)
The Making of Clydebank
The various parishes and villages that are now part of
Clydebank have been settled for many hundreds of years.
As an example, ruins of the Roman Antonine Wall were
found on the hill of GoldenHill Park in Duntocher, and
stone outcrops carved with druid-like symbols can be
found north of the area that is now Faifley.
In medieval times Old Kilpatrick was the centre of
religious worship for the earldom of Lennox, and for
many centuries it was reported to be the birthplace of
St. Patrick (Kil-patrick translates to Saint Patrick).
Old Kilpatrick once held the title of the Burgh or
Regality, and the lands were gifted to Paisley Abbey
around the 13th Century.
Clydebank as a town did not truly exist until 1886,
when the Thomson brothers moved their shipbuilding yard
from Govan to a spare bit of green pasture (at what is
now the UIE/Kvaerner yard) and setup the
Clyde
Bank Shipbuilding Yard.
Over time this came to be known as the
Clydebank
Shipbuilding Yard,
and the tenements built around it as
The
Clydebank Tenements, then finally over time it came to
be known simply as Clydebank.
Clydebank became a Police Burgh in 1886, and included
the land from Mountblow road east to Yoker Mill road
(the east boundary of Clydebank which is still in
place) and from the River Clyde north, to the land
bordered by what is now the "Singer" railway line.
Continued growth of the town between 1886 and 1975
resulted in Radnor (in 1906), Parkhall and Mountblow
(in 1925), Whitecrook (in 1937), Faifley (in 1949) and
finally Duntocher and Old Kilpatrick (in 1975) becoming
part of the Burgh of Clydebank.
To view an old map of Clydebank click here :
Old Map of
Clydebank
Several important factors led to the establishment of
Clydebank as a Burgh way back in 1886. One of those
factors was that the Parochial Board of Old Kilpatrick
was unable to provide proper public health facilities
such as drainage and sewage disposal.
A decision was therefore taken that for the town and
it's people to prosper, a fully established Police
Burgh would have to be formed and run in the correct
manner. Burgh Commissioners were elected on 21st
December that year, some local people expressed their
concern that they might unfairly reflect the interests
of local employers, or small businessmen.
Given that the Commission was very important to the
success and growth of Clydebank, it isn't really
surprising that few non employers or businessmen became
Commissioners.
The
Population Explosion
When the
Burgh was formed, Clydebank had a population of just
over 5,000 in 1886. By 1914 this had risen dramatically
to over 43,000. Clydebank gained the nickname of the
'risingest burgh' because of the pace of the towns's
growth.
This population expansion (mainly due to the new Singer
Sewing Machine factory, and the rapidly developing
shipyards) made great demands on the burgh for
provision of general amenities such as housing, water,
education, welfare and leisure & recreation.
Town Boundaries
Due to a
severe lack of land for new housing, Clydebank's
boundaries were extended in 1906 to take in a further
542 acres, about 2,000 houses and almost 10,000 people
into the burgh.