Some things about Port Glasgow that you might know.......then again you might not!
The first service to be held in St Francis' Church on Auchenbothie Road Port Glasgow was on 8th December 1974
The last Tram to run in Port Glasgow was in July 1929
The Eclipse cinema was demolished in 1938 and the Plazza was built on the site.
Highholm Street was built in 1938-39 on the land that once stood Westvale Orchard.
In the area we know better as the Glen Yard, John Reid shipbuilders once built a floating Church.
Birkmyre Club house was opend in 1956
The Co-op's horse and cart in shown in the old photograph s section was used to deliver bread right up until 1962.
In one time living in Port Glasgow might have given you an address with 1/2 numbers so cramped were the conditions.
This system was used in both King Street and Scarlow Street.
Clune Park School was built in 1887
The fun Factory (sorry!) The Occupational Training Centre which changed it's name to the Skills Centre was first opened in 1966.
Building work on what was to become Bouverie Street first started in 1870.
The Spring Bulb Show which is still held every year in the Port Glasgow Town Hall dates back to 1953.
There was once a Port Glasgow Arts Guild. It was started in 1969 and held it's first meetings in Glen Park house.
The first Library in Port Glasgow was the Moffat Library and opened in 1887, it was in use up until 1958.
In 1971 the Gourock Rope Works was renamed British Ropes and in 1974 the name changed again to Bridon Fibres and Plastics Ltd
Church Street in Port Glasgow was once called Kirk Street.
St Andrew's Church is built on "stilts" to avoid disturbing the graves that lie underneath.
Gas lighting was introduced to Port Glasgow in 1829
A twice weekly postal service to Port Glasgow was first established in 1700.
The first school master in the town was given the job in 1696.
A man by the name of Patrick Stewart.
The parish of Kilmacolm first started to grow potatoes in 1740.
The first road between Port Glasgow and Greenock was built in 1768.
The town was known as Newport up untill 1774
An early version of the hydraulic riveting machine was show to King George V when he visited Port Glasgow in 1915.
In December 1891 the five masted ship Maria Rickmers, the largest sailing ship in the world at the time was launched from the Kingston yard.
She was 375 feet in length!
During the 1950's Hamilton's Yard in Port Glasgow was the first to be fitted with flushing toilets! The men in the other local yards reacted with total astonishment and quickly made requests to their own management.............
King James IV stayed at Newark Castle in May 1495. He left on a boat named the Flower captained by Admiral Sir Andrew Wood and headed Mingary Castle in Argyllshire.
In 1670 4 men set off on a journey to the Caribbean as crew on a trading ship. They were James Watson, James Junkein, Jon Hatrik and John Sinclair. They had all been sentenced to deportation for causing a riot in Kilmacolm!
After the American War of Independance, Port Glasgow became the principal Scottish port handeling north American timber, amounting to 19,650 tons in 1825.
Useless Triva!
The Glasgow- Greenock (Princes Peir) railway closed in 1958 and has now been converted to a cylce path.
In 1950 only 44 people went to college or university from the town.
The Provident Bank opened a branch in Port glasgow in 1818.
This page last modified on Wednesday, March 05, 2003
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