Everything about Greenock totally explained
Greenock (
Gaelic Grianaig, ) is a large town and former
burgh of barony in the
Inverclyde council area of western
Scotland. It forms part of a contiguous urban area with
Gourock to the west and
Port Glasgow to the east.
Greenock's population was recorded as being 45,467 in the
2001 census, a decrease from about 78,000 in 1966. It lies on the south bank of the Clyde at the "
Tail of the Bank" where the
River Clyde expands into the
Firth of Clyde, and is in what was the
county of
Renfrewshire.
History
Name
The origin of the town's name is uncertain. It is generally accepted, however, that the town is named after the
Gaelic "Grianaig" meaning a sunny place. The suggestion that the town's name comes from the words "Green Oak" is unfounded, but the image has been taken as a logo for the town's main shopping centre,
The Oak Mall and was once emblazoned on the local
Co-operative Society emblem. The story that 'Greenock' derives from 'Green Oak' is also perpetrated in a local song (
The Green Oak Tree) and in the fact that the local
dialect makes virtually no distinction between the
syllables -ock and
-oak. Significantly, no green oak appears on the town's
coat of arms which features three sugar caskets, a sailing ship in full sail and three
herring above the motto
God Speed Greenock.
Early history
Greenock was founded as a fishing village sometime prior 1592 when it split from the
Inverkip parish. It was quickly established as a port, and was the location for the second voyage as part of the ill-fated
Darien Scheme. This fleet left on
August 18 1699 arriving in
Panama on
30 November with the majority of its passengers diseased or dead. After the
Act of Union 1707, Greenock's facilities made it the main port on the West Coast and it prospered due to trade with the
Americas, importing
sugar from the
Caribbean.
In 1827
Loch Thom was constructed as a reservoir with
The Cut,
aqueduct, bringing water to power industry.
Greenock Central railway station at Cathcart Street opened in 1841, for the first time providing a fast route from Glasgow to the coast linking up with
Clyde steamer services. The provision of this new line eliminated the necessity of taking the steamer all the way down river from Glasgow. In 1869 the
Caledonian Railway was bypassed by the rival
Glasgow and South Western Railway which opened a station on the waterfront at Princes Pier. To regain custom, the Caledonian Railway extended (what is now known as the
Inverclyde Line) the
Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway west to Gourock; this line was built to run inland through deep cuttings and tunnels to avoid disturbance to the villas of Greenock's west end.
Prosperity
The Greenock
Custom House building was designed by
William Burn in 1818 and considered by many to be the finest in Britain. It underwent refurbishment which was completed in 1989 and now houses a
customs and
excise museum which is open to the public on weekdays.
Victoria Tower
Greenock's increasing importance and wealth was manifested in the construction of the
Italianate Municipal Buildings, whose Victoria Tower, completed in 1886, stands 245 feet (74.7 metres) tall. Begun five years previously in a competition won by architects H. & D. Barclay, it audaciously trumps the tower of the contemporaneous
Glasgow City Chambers by more than a metre. It remains uncompleted, however. A local businessman called Robert Cowan refused to sell his building in front of the tower for less than his own price, preventing completion of the right hand
façade of the southern elevation.
Villas
Further evidence of this wealth can be seen in the large villas of Greenock's west end, one time home to the shipowners, industrialists and investors. The area is fronted by the mile long (1.6 km) sweep of the Esplanade with its views across the Clyde to
Kilcreggan which almost convinces the visitor that no heavy industry could have been anywhere nearby.
Battery Park and torpedoes
At
Fort Matilda railway station the tunnel emerged near the coast, and the excavated material was used as landfill to the west of the old coastal gun emplacement of
Fort Matilda, forming a level area which became the playing fields of
Battery Park.
In 1907 the
Admiralty compulsory purchased part of this land and constructed the
Clyde Torpedo Factory, which opened in 1910, with 700 workers transferred from the
Royal Arsenal,
Woolwich. The site carried out design and testing of
torpedoes which were trialed in
Loch Long. During the
Second World War site switched entirely to manufacturing torpedoes. The original gun battery site was occupied by the
Navy Buildings, the main offices, just to the east of the torpedo factory buildings.
Second World War
Greenock suffered badly during the Second World War and its anchorage at the
Tail of the Bank became the base for the
Home Fleet as well as the main assembly point for
Atlantic convoys. On
30 April 1940 the
French Vauquelin class destroyer Maillé Brézé blew up off Greenock with heavy loss of life following an accident involving two of her own torpedoes. Although this disaster occurred before the
Free French Naval Forces were established, many people tend to regard the
Cross of Lorraine on Lyle Hill as a memorial to the loss of the
Maillé Brézé as well as to the later losses of the Free French naval vessels which sailed from the town. On the nights of
6 May and
7 May 1941 around 300
Luftwaffe aircraft attacked the town in the
Greenock Blitz. A large building housing a drapery business constructed on Cowan's property at the corner of the Municipal Buildings was badly damaged and was demolished, leaving the blank brick corner area still known as "Cowan's Corner".
Postwar years
Greenock thrived in the post-war years but as the heavy industries declined in the 1970s and 1980s unemployment became a major problem, and it has only been in the last ten years with reinvestment and the redevelopment of large sections of the town that the local economy has started to revive. Tourism has also appeared as an unexpected bonus with the development of the Clydeport Container Terminal as an Ocean Terminal for cruise ships crossing the Atlantic. Students who don't travel further afield for study often attend the
James Watt College of Further and Higher Education.
Greenock reached its population peak in 1921 (81,123) and was once the sixth largest town in Scotland.
Governance
Until 1974
Greenock was a
parliamentary burgh in its own right. It was merged with Port Glasgow to form
Greenock and Port Glasgow constituency. In 1997 it became
Greenock and Inverclyde. After the redistribution of Scottish seats it was merged into an enlarged
Inverclyde constituency- the first time in political history that Greenock hasn't been named in a parliamentary seat.
Greenock and Inverclyde remains a
Scottish Parliament constituency.
Health
Ravenscraig Hospital is also located in Greenock dealing with pyschatric, day patients, referrals and specialised prescribing.
Geography
Areas and suburbs
Arran View,
Bogston,
Bow Farm,
Braeside,
Branchton,
Bridgend,
Broomhill,
Cartsburn,
Cornhaddock,
Fancy Farm,
Fort Matilda,
Gibshill,
Greenock West,
Grieve Hill,
Hole Farm,
Larkfield,
Lyle Hill,
Lynedoch Overton,
Pennyfern,
Strone,
Strone Farm, and
Whinhill.
Economy
Historically, the town relied on
shipbuilding,
sugar refining and
wool manufacturing for employment, but none of these industries are today part of Greenock's economy. More recently the town relied heavily on
electronics manufacture. However this has given way mostly to
call centre business,
insurance,
banking and shipping
export.
Shipbuilding
In the early 17th century, the first
pier was built in Greenock. Shipbuilding was already an important employer by this time. The first proper
harbour was constructed in 1710 and the first well-known shipbuilders,
Scott's, was established the following year. It was the oldest shipbuilding business in the world and gained numerous contracts with the
Royal Navy from 1806, building ships such as the
Prince of Wales.
Scott's was
nationalised in 1969 and merged with
Lithgow's (founded 1874, later the largest privately owned yard in the world) the same year becoming
Scott Lithgow. Other yards included Cartsburn, Cartsdyke, and Klondyke - all of which closed during the 1970s and 1980s due to competition from
South Korea and
Japan.
The site of the
Scott's yard is now occupied by a
T-Mobile call centre.
Ship repair work continues at the Garvel dry dock.
Shipping
Freight traffic is handled at the
container cranes of Greenock's
Ocean Terminal, at
Prince's Pier which was constructed for the
Glasgow and South Western Railway. The same terminal is also a regular port of call for
cruise liners visiting the west of Scotland.
Greenock's Great Harbour is one of the three main ports providing marine services support to the Royal Navy, in dual site operation with
Faslane at
HMNB Clyde on the
Gare Loch. This formerly came under the
Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service, but is currently operated by
Serco Denholm, who are
preferred bidders
for the next contract. This facility means that "Admiralty" boats and tugs are a common sight on the Clyde.
Greenock's attractive esplanade provides a gently curving riverside walk just over a mile (1.6 km) long extending to the west from
Ocean Terminal to the
Royal West Boat Club sailing and rowing facilities and clubhouse at the corner of the
Navy Buildings which house a main
Her Majesty's Coastguard centre as well as a
Royal Naval Reserve establishment,
HMS Dalriada.
Sugar
Sugar refining began in Greenock in 1765. John Walker began a sugar refinery in Greenock in 1850 followed by the prominent local
cooper and shipowner
Abram Lyle who, with four partners, purchased the
Glebe Sugar Refinery in 1865. Another 12 refineries were active at one point. The most famous of these (and successful, being the only survivor until August 1997) was
Tate & Lyle. It was formed from a merger in 1921 between Abram Lyle, who had expanded into
Plaistow, and
Henry Tate, who had set up a sugar refinery in
Liverpool and had also expanded into
London.
By the end of the 19th century, around 400 ships a year were transporting sugar from Caribbean holdings to Greenock for processing in the 14 sugar refineries.
Tobacco from the Americas also arrived here.
When Tate and Lyle finally closed its Greenock refinery in 1997 it brought to an end the town's 150-year old connections with sugar manufacture. A newly built sugar warehouse continued shipping operations at Greenock's
Ocean Terminal. The former sugar warehouse at the James Watt Dock was by then scheduled as a
grade A listed building as a fine example of early industrial architecture, with an unusual feature of a
colonnade of cast iron columns forming a sheltered unloading area next to the
quayside. This building has since lain empty, with various schemes being proposed for conversion and restoration. The photographs show the building still intact in February 2006, but a fire on the evening of
12 June 2006 caused severe damage to much of the building before being brought under control in the early hours of
13 June. The local council confirmed that parts of the building will have to be taken down to ensure public safety, but promised an investigation and emphasised the importance of this world heritage building.
Electronics
Since
IBM arrived in the town in 1951, electronics and light manufacturing have, until recently, been the mainstay of local employment.
National Semiconductor has also run a
silicon wafer manufacturing plant in the town since 1970.
However, with manufacturing moving to
Eastern Europe and Asia, work has shifted to the
service sector, especially call centres. T-Mobile and IBM both have major call centre operations in Greenock, while the
Royal Bank of Scotland Mortgage Centre processes Mortgage applications from throughout the UK & Ireland.
IBM have in recent years curtailed their operations greatly in the area.
Sanmina, another electronics company, took over much of the IBM installation. As of 2006, Sanmina have themselves announced major cuts, with 370 jobs being moved to
Hungary.
(External Link)
Sanmina has now shut and the remaining workers are being re-located.
Lenovo has now also re-located away from Greenock, and the plant is at 10% of the 1999/2000 capacity
As of 2008 the plant has now been scheduled for 'shutdown' with the remaining workers being 'relocated'
Trade and commerce
Greenock's main shopping throughfare was Hamilton Street, which connected West Blackhall Street in the west to Clyde Square in the east. In 1975 it disappeared along with several other streets as the area was
pedestrianised as Hamilton Way. In the 1990s it was refurbished again, and
The Oak Mall indoor
shopping centre now forms the central feature of the town, and provides most of the major retail shops in Inverclyde, with approximately 85 units, with main anchor stores including
Marks and Spencer,
Woolworths,
Boots,
Primark and a newly opened
New Look store. Both Marks and Spencer and Woolworths are in their original buildings (Marks and Spencer dating from 1936) which were simply built round during the first phase of pedestrianisation. Two major supermarkets
Tesco and
Morrisons, are sited close to the mall. A further shopping estate of large shops is located nearby, in front of the
Waterfront swimming pool and leisure centre, and the streets around the mall provide a large number of smaller shops. Small groups of shops in most of the areas of the town provide for day to day needs, but most of the specialist shops are in the town centre. The town contains one diplomatic mission, an Italian consulate.
Transport
Greenock's most significant transportation connection is the Container Terminal (see above).
Greenock is Scotland's best served town in terms of railway stations. It boasts nine:
Bogston,
Cartsdyke,
Greenock Central,
Greenock West,
Fort Matilda,
Whinhill,
Drumfrochar,
Branchton and
IBM Halt. Only Glasgow has a much greater number of stations and Edinburgh possesses only one more.
Greenock is located at the end of the
A8 road/
M8 motorway which begins in Edinburgh. It is also the northern terminus of
Euroroute E05 which heads south through
England, France and
Spain, ending at the Spanish port of
Algeciras which also possesses a container terminal.
Culture
The town has a daily evening newspaper,
The Greenock Telegraph. It is one of the oldest daily local newspapers in the United Kingdom.
Greenock is fictionalised as 'Gantock' by
Robin Jenkins in his 1979 novel
Fergus Lamont (The Gantocks are in fact a rocky
shoal in the
Firth of Clyde nearby, just off
Dunoon).
Alasdair Gray's 1984 novel
1982, Janine is set in a Greenock hotel room. Greenock has featured in several of the poems of
Douglas Dunn.
The
Victorian landscape artist
John Atkinson Grimshaw depicted a somewhat idealised Greenock in several of his paintings.
Greenock has featured as the backdrop to several films: the television films
Just a Boy's Game (1979),
(External Link) and
Down Among the Big Boys (1993)
(External Link) and the theatrical films
Sweet Sixteen (2002) and
(External Link) and
Dear Frankie (2004).
(External Link)
Notable residents
Greenock's most noted son is the engineer
James Watt. He is remembered in the name of the local college, at the library instituted in his memory and by the original James Watt Memorial College building on the site of his birth place in William Street which incorporates a commemorative statue.
Other famous Greenockians include: the composers
Hamish MacCunn and
William Wallace, musicians
John McGeoch and
Thomas Leer, poets
Denis Devlin,
W. S. Graham and
Jean Adam, merchant
Matthew Algie, actors
Richard Wilson,
Stella Gonet and
Martin Compston, playwrights
Bill Bryden and
Peter McDougall, comedian
Charles 'Chic' Murray, Antarctic explorer
Henry Robertson 'Birdie' Bowers and pirate
Captain Kidd were born in the town.
The novelist
John Galt, noted for founding
Guelph, Ontario in 1827, lived in the town and based some of his work, most notably
Annals of the Parish (1821), on Greenock and surrounding towns. He is buried in the Inverkip Street Cemetery.
Lawrence Tynes, kicker for the
New York Giants an
American Football team in the
NFL, originates from Greenock and has several family members still in the town. The British painter,
William Scott (1913-1989) was born in Greenock and lived there with his family until 1924 when the family moved to
Enniskillen,
Northern Ireland. The
Oscar winning
screenwriter,
Neil Paterson (1916-1995) was born in Greenock, as was the radio and television presenter
Jimmy Mack (1934-2004).
Mary Campbell,
Robert Burns's
Highland Mary, is buried in Greenock Cemetery where there's a monument to her memory. Greenock is also home to the world's first Burns club,
The Mother Club, which was founded in 1801.
Its most infamous resident is
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the
Libyan intelligence officer and former head of
Libyan Arab Airlines, who was convicted on
31 January 2001 of murder after causing a bomb to be placed on board
Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over
Lockerbie, Scotland on
21 December 1988 with the loss of 270 lives. Megrahi was moved in February 2005 from solitary confinement in Barlinnie Prison in
Glasgow to
Greenock Prison, where he's expected to serve the rest of his 27-year sentence.
Catherine (Muir), a homemaker, was born in Greenock and immigrated to the United States as an eleven year-old. Catherine is known for being the mother of
Emmy-winning
American comedian and
writer Jay Leno. Jay is best known as the host of
NBC television's long-running
variety and
talk program
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Hugh Enes Blackmore, who appeared with the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1890s, was born in the town.
Another famous local resident was recently covered in an article by
The Daily Telegraph and is known as "The Catman". He is a man of around 60 who lives wild.
Sports
Morton F.C.(External Link), are the local
football side, playing at Cappielow Park. Greenock also has a
rugby union team,
Greenock Wanderers RFC
(External Link), and is also home to
Greenock Cricket Club(External Link).
Climate
Greenock’s climate is
temperate maritime having mainly cool summers but with relatively mild winters. Its location means that the heat retentive properties of seawater help keep winter temperatures higher. Additionally, the effect of the
Gulf Stream on the Clyde helps Greenock's average temperature stay approximately one degree above that of eastern coastal towns on the same
latitude.
Greenock anecdotally has the reputation for having higher than average rainfall (the song
The Green Oak Tree comments on this) but this isn't statistically true; the Western
Highlands in fact has the highest average rainfall in Scotland.
Source: http://uk.weather.com/>
Twin cities
Greenock's twin cities are:
Gallery
Image:Jewel of the Seas G127.jpg|Ocean Terminal is close to the town centre.
Image:Golden Princess 3806 1140.jpg|New waterfront walkway.
Image:Greenock Watt College residences.jpg|PS Waverley at Custom House quay.
Image:PS Waverley 24806 934.jpg|PS Waverley sets off.
Image:Greenock harbour01.JPG|East India Harbour.
Image:Cappielow.JPG|Cappielow Park, home of Morton F.C.
Image:Sugar Warehouse3.jpg|The Sugar Warehouse, across the road from Cappielow.
Image:Sugar Warehouse2.jpg|A covered arcade sheltered sugar unloading.
Image:James Watt Memorial College.jpg|The old James Watt College
Image:James Watt College Finnart Campus.jpg|James Watt College Finnart Campus
Image:James Watt College Waterfront Campus.jpg|James Watt College Waterfront Campus
Image:Greenock Jimmy Watt.jpg|The James (or Jimmy) Watt pub, formerly the main Post Office.
Image:Greenock Central 190906b.jpg|Greenock Central
Image:Greenock West station 61106.jpg|Greenock West
Image:Branchton station 1.jpg|Branchton
Image:Greenock Sheriff Court.jpg|Greenock Sheriff Court
Image:Scotland Greenock bordercropped.jpg|View over the west end.
Image:Greenock Cut 011006 nr Overton.jpg|The Cut – aqueduct.
Image:Cormalees 31806.jpg|Loch Thom.
Image:Free French Memorial Greenock.jpg|Free French Memorial overlooking Gourock.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Greenock'.
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