Port Glasgow Timber Ponds

The timber ponds at Port Glasgow today, with Dumbarton just across the Clyde (and a cameo appearance by me). Two towns closely associated with my family.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries logs imported from North America for shipbuilding were stored in these ponds, seasoned by the salt water. As iron & steel became the standard material for ships, trade in timber gradually decreased. The last wooden ship built on the River Clyde was launched in 1859 but the ponds were still in use up until the start of the First World War. The pond stakes reappear when the tide is out and are visible for miles

Lyon's Lane, Port Glasgow

Henry and Sarah Clyde McErlane were both born in 18 Lyon’s Lane, Port Glasgow in 1889 and 1890 respectively. Their father John worked as a Shipyard Labourer; the family – mother Elizabeth & older sisters Jane and Margaret moved to the Port in 1888/89 and were still there by the time of the 1891 census.

Lyon’s Lane was described in the 1856 Ordinance Survey Name Book as ‘a narrow lane or alley leading from King Street and terminating at Fore Street. It is wholly paved and lighted up with gas’.

In the 1896 Ordinance Survey Map the street is unnamed – it’s the lane running parallel to and directly to the right of Church Street, just above King Street in the extract above.

MacDonald’s Scottish Directory & Gazetteer 1893-4

Only two businesses listed in the lane in this gazetteer…

Blacksmiths – Lambie, W., & Sons, Lyon’s Lane

Coal Merchants – Kelly, Neil, sen., & Co., Lyon’s Lane; best qualities of household, steam and smithy coals always in stock; also metal ballast for ships

Dockhead Close

A couple of streets away…

All but the main streets in central Port Glasgow have been knocked down. Next time I’m up there I’ll have a look to see if there’s any trace of Lyon’s Lane!

Grace Street, Partick, Glasgow

The McErlane family

John McErlane (1862-??) was born in Ballynease, County Derry but spent most of his adult life in Scotland. John married Elizabeth Clyde (1864-1895) in Dumbarton in 1885; Elizabeth was born in Scotland (Old Monklands) to Irish parents, William & Sarah from Aghaderg, County Down.

The couple had five children and their birthplaces bear testament to the itinerant life of the Irish navvy in the late nineteenth century. Jane, born 1886 Queensferry (Forth Rail Bridge); Margaret, born 1888 Clydebank; Henry born 1889 Port Glasgow: Sarah born 1890 Port Glasgow; John born 1895, Partick.

Partick, Glasgow

In the late 18^th century into early 20^th century Partick was transformed from a village to a busy, industrial part of the city, with an influx of ‘migrant’ workers – mainly Irish emigrants and Scots who had made their way south from the Highlands. In 1851 the population of Partick was 17,000; by 1901 it had reached 54,000.

Tenement housing was built to cope with the population growth but the tenements became (famously) overcrowded themselves. Partick / the West End was (and is) an area where some of the richest Glaswegians lived but Dumbarton Road marked the class divide – the poorest classes lived to the south, closest to the River Clyde.

Grace Street

At some point between 1891 (when the census recorded the family as living in Port Glasgow) and 1895 John, Elizabeth and family moved to Grace Street in Partick, where John worked as a Shipyard Labourer.

Grace Street is no longer there but was just south of Partick Cross. You can clearly see the street pattern from the ordinance survey map of 1894 preserved in the modern street layout (Google Maps).

1894 Douglas Street = Purdon Street; 1894 Kelvin Street = Keith Street.

Grace Street has gone but it’s easy to figure out where it was…the tree just at the end of Walker Court marks the line where Grace Street ran along.

Grace Street houses

I can’t find a photo of Grace Street (yet) but this is an old postcard (1901) of Kelvin (or Keith) Street, just a few steps away. These particular houses were demolished in the 1930s – no doubt Grace Street met the same fate at the same time.

Elizabeth Clyde McErlane

Elizabeth died at 9 Grace Street, Partick on 4^th October 1895, just a month after her child John was born. She died of gastro-enteritis and cardiac failure, aged 31.