Breif ouline of the 3rd statistical account for Port Glasgow which was written in 1952 and revised in December 1958.

Statistical Accounts

Conclusion

This page last modified on Tuesday, March 04, 2003

The character of a people is inevitably affected by their history and way of life, their living conditions and the nature of their work. Port Glasgow people live in very close proximity to one another; their work s in heavy industry and is fairly arduous. They are, not surprisingly persons of warm humanity, finding self-expression and satisfaction in people or with people rather than with books and cultural activities. They are a race of craftsmen and they produce in ships one of the most fascinating of all the products of man's labour. They have pride in theirork, a just pride, for their craftsmanship is carried to the ends of the earth to be seen and tested and approved by men in every port of the seven seas. They are people of simplicity of outlook rather than of sophistication. They are argumentative and ready to state an opinion, blunt folk who call a spade a spade, not suffering fools with any gladness; without humbug, standing no nonsense, and wholly free from affectation. In their loyalties they are devoted. They have a splendid honesty of outlook and character

and purpose, and they possess a ready responsiveness by which they enter into things that interest them with refreshing whole-heartedness and generosity. They are sober, hard-working folk who get a great deal out of life and contribute to it not a little.
These are general statements, none of which are without their exc-~-tions. On a Friday or a Saturday evening some man is sure to be seen rolling home and there is a fair amount of noise as the public houses 'scaling'. Those who are known as 'foremen-dodgers' can contrive to in a day doing remarkably little work. Plenty of houses are untidy and ill kept, as if nobody in the world had any idea of system and order and art of home-making. There are lazy and careless and irresponsible people here as elsewhere. But all these are much in the minority. And if the traveller passing through the town has an impression from the road or the railway of untidy streets and unkempt gardens and bleak brick walls and dark high tenements, let him remember the congested living conditions and be surprised that the outward aspect of things is not far grimmer than it in fact is.
In Port Glasgow, where history is short and limited to the rise of local industry, folk-lore and tradition are scanty and few customs are peculiar to the town. The town bell rings each morning at 6.30am and each evening at 10pm to rouse or quieten the townsfolk, as it has done for decades.Life is centred mainly in the day's work which the bell begins or closes and the symbol of that work is the grey river that flows endlessly past the town the sea.
Not that the work itself is by any means endless. A shipbuilding comunity is all too liable to boom and slump and to all the changing fluctuations of trade. A town that suffered so bitterly as did Port Glasgow in the 1920s and 1930s can never have the assurance of economic security. Those were the years when the grass grew in the shipyards, when one shipbuilder laid down ships for which he had no orders in the hope that some day a purchaser might turn up, when-as at one period-eleven out of twelve employable men were out of work, when scores went off to America. Those years left their own terrible aftermath in a dark threating cloud which now hangs over the river, the menace of returning unemployment. During the second World War the men of the town gave themselves without stint in the yards, day and night, seven days a week That was too much but how much better than nothing at all, as in the grim days that went before. Maybe social legislation and economic planning will help to prevent or minimise the return of depression, but fear of it is very real. This feeling of insecurity leads to an attitude in some of the people that one might as well live for today with no thought of tomorrow. One indication of it is the improvidence in some quarters and the poor response to the National Savings campaign.
This is a pleasant place in which to live. Something of interest is always going on here, and sometimes something of excitement. All sections of the -community get on well together. That has not always been so and differences of class and origin, as well as differences of religious outlook, causing strife in the earlier years of this century. But now the people live in good will and tolerance and mutal understanding

All the groups realise that they are closely inter-related. Whether a man be a riveter or a grocer, a caulker or a medical practitioner he is still concerned ultimately with ships. The prosperity of all depends on the shipyards.
Possibly the most striking thing about the life of Port Glasgow is its community spirit, which is quite remarkable and outstanding, especially when it is remembered that it has a large immigrant population, that it is only a part of a larger built-up area and that it is only 19 miles from the city of Glasgow. There is a keen civic consciousness and an abiding affection for 'the dirty wee Port' and the townspeople scorn all suggestions of amalgamation made by Greenock.
It is unfortunate that so many people with positions of responsibility in industrial and professional life live out with the burgh and spend only their working hours in the town. Only the ministers and doctors can be counted on as making their homes inside the town; and recently, for 20 years, even the minister of the town's parish church lived beyond the boundaries. Some of the bank managers and some of the teachers live in the town, but by no means all; and many of the executives in the industrial concerns live in Kilmacolm or Greenock or Gourock. It is not necessary to point out the loss to the community thereby and the extra burden of leadership thrown on those who do choose to live within the town.
Family life is probably less strong than social life. There is no lack of affection and devotion within the family circle, but the various members have their own ways to go in filling their leisure, and it is seldom, except during the hours of sleep, that all the members of the family are likely to be found at home at one time; all have their own spare-time interests and occupations. Education is hardly a burning passion in any heart and most people, apart from the executives, are satisfied with such elements of knowledge as are acquired up to school-leaving age. There are other schools of knowledge and other skills, perhaps more necessary, in the lengthy technical apprenticeships and in rubbing shoulders with other men and women.
A growing sobriety is notable. In the previous Account is was recorded that the number of public houses was 70 in a population of 6,000. Now, with a population of 21,000, there are no more than 19 licences, of which 13 are public houses and one a hotel, the rest being grocers' shops. The number of cases of drunkenness seen in the streets or brought before the local court show a marked decline. There is a wholesome regard for law and order; but a troublesome minority of hapless incorrigibles, most of them young and foolish, are unable to resist a fight, or a wordy battle that leads to blows; or they are not too particular about a pane of glass in a shop window, if there is a tempting haul of cigarettes to be had with the aid of a suitable half-brick. A rise, from 577 in 1950 to 988 in 1952, in cases of delinquency and crime dealt with by the burgh courts looks serious enough, but the cases are usually of small significance and point to the misfits, the maladjusted and the bad tempered in the community rather than to disquieting and dangerous criminal tendencies.
Religion has much meaning for the people, who are loyal to them.

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