Transport on the Firth of Clyde – A Historical Perspective

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Emily Malcolm, Curator of Transport and Technology with responsibility for Maritime Collections at the Glasgow Museum of Transport, provided a fascinating and vivid look back at transport on and around the Firth of Clyde using historic images from artworks and photographs. She illustrated the main modes of transport on the Firth focussing on the build up to the late Victorian “golden age”.

Emily Malcolm began with the thought that “integrated transport” maybe today’s buzzword, but the Clyde has a long history of fast, reliable and affordable transport. When we talk about transport, people’s preoccupations are the same whatever period in history we are talking about. Passengers want to get to their destination at a price they are willing to pay in as much comfort and as quickly as possible. Proprietors of transport services are trying to make as much money as they can, whether this is providing a premium service at a price to match, a bargain basement no frills service or are able to tap into funding sources to support loss-making services.

The presentation looked at the very early and the very late nineteenth century – covering Emily Malcolm’s special interest of steam transport on the water at the very beginning. This was really the highpoint of river services. The presentation covered the Clyde from Glasgow to the firth and beyond.

Emily started by looking at Clyde transport in 1811. The transport system on the Clyde consisted of individual efforts – journeys undertaken by foot, or if you could afford it on horseback or by private carriage. Services were scanty – with a daily service to Paisley by coach, taking around three/four hours and a thrice weekly service to Helensburgh – taking anything up to six hours. This was all fine in the summer, but in winter time you could often double or even treble the journey time if the roads were passable at all. An alternative was transport on the river itself by one of the many “fly boats” which plied between Greenock/Gourock and Glasgow, or one of the horse drawn conveyances on the Forth and Clyde canal. This had the advantage of a smooth ride if the weather wasn’t too stormy, but the little boats found it difficult to catch a wind on the inland waterways and it wasn’t unusual to spend up to 10 or 12 hours en route from Glasgow to Greenock and vice versa. A “packet boat” to Bute could take 3 days to reach Rothesay. This meant that most of the firth and the lands to the north west were considered very remote from Glasgow . Dorothy Wordsworth, a visitor to Scotland in 1803, recorded only Gaelic spoken once she reached Loch Lomond.

The first attempt at providing a “service” on the river as we would recognise it in the modern sense came with Henry Bell’s Comet. Bell wasn’t just an “inventor” but a businessman who wanted to encourage business at his therapeutic baths and hotel in Helensburgh. His brother had been involved in the coaching service between Glasgow & the town but this wasn’t really helping his business in the way that Bell wanted. In August 1812 he advertised his new steamboat service to Greenock with a connection by rowing ferry to Helensburgh. However, this didn’t run for a very long time and Bell soon turned his attention to longer sightseeing trips up the west coast and also took the Comet to Leith. The success of the idea can be gauged from the fact that almost immediately a number of competing services were established.

As time went on, the Firth of Clyde became more accessible and people began to view places like Dumbarton, Helensburgh, Dunoon, Rothesay, as places they could visit for a day trip and then as places where they could live while still being within commuting distance of the metropolis.

Following the introduction of ferry services, piers were built along the Clyde. Piers allowed better integration of transport by making the transfer of passengers quick and efficient. Places like Dunoon between more “fashionable” in the 1820s and the pier was built in 1835. By the 1840s the “all the way” sailing from the Steam Boat pier on the Broomielaw to the Firth of Clyde towns was the standard method of travel.

One of the first examples of integrated transport dates from 1823 when it was possible to undertake a day trip to Loch Lomond by catching the steamer “Dunbarton” at the Broomielaw at 6am, transferring to coach in Dumbarton for the ride by road to Balloch which was then followed by a trip on PS Marion setting off at 10am. Passengers returned to Dumbarton at 6pm and were back in Glasgow at 8pm.

Glasgow, Paisley & Greenock Railway opened in 1841 running from Glasgow to Paisley, Langbank and Greenock. The terminus was close to Custom House Quay and the railway entered into arrangement the following year with the Bute SP Co to provide onward services in their steamers. The railway company bought out the SP Co in 1844 & bought three steamers - Petrel, Pioneer & Pilot. This started a price war with the “all the way” private operators and the experiment only lasted 2 years.

1865 was the next major attempt to provide a rail and sail service for the Rothesay/Millport service. Greenock & Wemyss Bay Railway was built at considerable difficulty & great expense. Its success hinged on being able to capture the profitable Bute/Cumbrae trade with a journey time of 1 ½ hours as opposed to 3-3 ½ hrs on an all the way sailing. However, the steamers weren’t very fast and just couldn’t keep to the timetable resulting in massive delays as trains were held up at the junction with the mainline at Greenock. The railway company eventually give the contract for service to Gillies & Campbell who ran to Rothesay, Port Bannatyne & Millport.

Once the efficiency of the combined services had been proved and the monopoly of the up river steamer companies had been broken. The railway companies – Glasgow & South Western and Caledonian on the south banks of the river and North British to the north – began to offer more and more services from their pierhead termini, competing with each other to offer the fastest journey time and the most comfortable voyage.

1851 Caledonian Railway took over Glasgow & Greenock Railway and linked in with steamer sailings. This was an inadequate and unpopular link via East Quay Lane. 1869 The “Caley’s” main competitor the Glasgow & South Western Railway Co sponsored the Greenock & Ayrshire Railway’s new pierhead terminus at Princes Pier, Greenock. This new pier “leapfrogged” over Caley with direct route to steamers and shorter journey times – Rothesay & Port Bannatyne etc with connections to Williamson’s steamers. Connections at the Glasgow end were better too – St Enoch’s was closer to centre of town than Caley’s Bridge Street. Caledonian soon became a second rate service. In 1889 the Caledonian Railway Co built a new railhead at Gourock and bought two steamers to set up an associated company “Caledonian Steam Packet Co” . Again the journey time was cut, the connections improved and the public responded.

Having presented the development of transport on the Firth of Clyde throughout its “golden age, Emily Malcolm presentation by inviting anyone interested in finding out more to visit the Glasgow Museum of Transport or to contact her on 0141 287 2720. The Museum website is www.glasgowmuseums.com