Introduction

Govan underwent a massive transformation during the second half of the nineteenth century, when it changed from what Hugh Macdonald called in 1851 "a picturesque and... rural village" to become the fifth largest burgh in Scotland, and was described as "the shipbuildingest burgh in the world."

During the mid nineteenth century, Govan was a favourite subject for landscape artists such as Thomas Fairbairn, William Simpson and Sam Bough, who were attracted by the tranquil rural charm of a sleepy hamlet by the waterside. Govan’s population amounted to little over 2,500 souls, most of them living in single-storey thatched cottages in the vicinity of Main Street. According to the New Statistical Account report, written in 1840 by the minister, the Reverend Dr Matthew Leishman, 250 Govanites were employed at the silkworks opened by Morris Pollok in 1824. There were 340 handloom weavers in the village, and eighty-one men and thirty-seven women worked in the local dye-works. Govan was also home to coal miners working in nearby pits, such as those at Bellahouston. The Clyde’s salmon fisheries were in terminal decline but the countryside around the village was divided between large, prosperous farms, many of them in the hands of the owners of the area’s large country houses. There were several market gardens in the area, and the neat fields on Govan Moor were famous for the quality of the potatoes, turnips and other crops grown there, on land that was abundantly fertilised with manure from Glasgow’s middens!

Shipbuilding and engineering transformed Govan. In 1840 the first of the town’s shipyards (McArthur & Alexander’s "Old Yard") opened there, and others soon followed. Among them were some of the greatest names in the history of shipbuilding. Robert Napier & Son acquired the Old Yard in 1842 and added the Govan East yard in 1850. Randolph, Elder & Co came to Govan in 1860, and opened the famous Fairfield Shipyard in 1864. Alexander Stephen & Son's Linthouse Shipyard opened in 1869, and Harland & Wolff acquired the London & Glasgow Shipbuilding Co’s yard in 1912.

Beside the shipyards were the great engineering works, where generations of skilled men built the boilers for the liners, warships and other steam vessels made in Govan. Other heavy engineering works and iron and steel manufacturing plants sprang up nearby, vast tidal docks and graving docks were built by the riverside, and Govan became a much noisier, smokier and overcrowded place.

Rapid industrialisation encouraged massive housing developments in Govan. The thatched cottages in the "Auld Toon" and the country houses nearby were demolished, and in their place the first great blocks of sandstone tenements were erected. Supply lagged behind demand, and there is evidence of considerable overcrowding along with the social problems that accompany poor and overcrowded living conditions.

To provide and administer essential services for the rapidly growing community, local householders voted in 1864 to form a Police Burgh. The new burgh incorporated the old village of Govan and the surrounding area, including parts of Ibrox and Bellahouston in the south, Plantation to the east, and Fairfield to the west. Neighbouring Linthouse was annexed in 1901. The new burgh created and administered its own police force, fire brigade, sanitary department and other municipal services. In 1884 it became a Parliamentary Division, together with Govanhill, electing its own Member of Parliament.

In 1864, Govan had a population of just over 9000 people, an area of 1124 acres, and was already one of Scotland’s greatest centres of heavy industry. By 1891 the population had soared to more than 61,500, and in 1912 to 90,000, with many thousands more men flooding in from Glasgow each day work in the burgh’s thriving industries. Many of the new generations of Govanites came from rural areas and the small towns and villages of Lowland Scotland. However, the most distinctive of all the burgh’s immigrants were the Irish and the Gaelic-speaking Scots from the Western Highlands and Islands. The neighbouring burgh of Kinning Park soon housed a sizeable community of Scottish Gaels. In Govan, the Irish community was most identified with Victoria Street, which had the nickname "The Irish Channel."

The growth of the burgh was accompanied by a burgeoning sense of civic pride. The Govan Fair (on the first Friday in June) was a long- established tradition, and the Govan Weavers’ Society and the venerable Victualling Society (founded by Govan weavers in 1777 and said to be Britain’s oldest co-operative society) were local institutions. During the years of independent burgh status, Govan acquired its own newspaper (the Govan Press, founded 1885), and its own municipal buildings. Among the gifts to the community from wealthy benefactors were Elder Park, the Elder Park Library and the Elder Cottage Hospital, as well as the Pearce Institute. Among several football clubs in the burgh, Glasgow Rangers (who relocated to the first Ibrox Park in 1887) emerged as one of the most successful in the country. With its world- famous industries, and its own unique traditions and institutions, Govanites had much to boast about. But it also had a hungry and acquisitive neighbour.

Glasgow Corporation (as its Town Council became known in 1895) was intent on annexing the growing suburban burghs on its boundaries, to add their citizens and large industrial enterprises to the city’s pool of ratepayers. Several attempts to annexe Govan were launched in the late 19th century, but the "Glasgow menace" was resisted by Govanites who feared that local services would not improve to match the higher rates that they would have to pay as Glaswegians. However, it was an unequal fight. In 1912, Govan’s independence ended when the burgh (along with Partick, Pollokshaws and other districts) was annexed by the city. Even today, there are many Govanites who regret annexation, and yearn for the days of the independent burgh.

Two years after annexation, Govan had to adapt to changing conditions created by the outbreak of the First World War. Thousands of men volunteered to fight in the armed forces, leaving their wives and children behind. Thousands more men flocked to Clydeside to undertake vital war work in the shipyards, engineering works and munitions factories, creating a desperate housing shortage and fuelling pressure for rent increases. The famous wartime Rent Strike, which spread across Glasgow in 1915 in protest at attempts by some landlords to raise rents, began in Linthouse, near the Stephens shipyard, and Govan women were among the leaders of the popular campaign.

The end of the First World War heralded an era of uncertainty for the people of Govan. Most dramatically, shipbuilding and heavy engineering soon slipped into recession, and unemployment spread swiftly along Clydeside during the early 1920s. During the following thirty years, Govanites were to face a number of problems related to the gradual decline of its once-great industries.

Further Reading:

Brotchie, TCF, The History of Govan, Glasgow, 1905
Donnelly, Patrick, Govan on the Clyde, Glasgow, 1994
Fisher, Joe, The Glasgow Encyclopaedia, Edinburgh, 1994
Groome, Francis H, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: Volume 3, Second Edition, London, 189[?]
New Statistical Account of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1845, Volume 6 (also available on the internet, at http://edina.ac.uk/cgi/StatAcc/)
Riddell, John, The Clyde: The Making of a River, Edinburgh, 2000
Smart, Aileen, Villages of Glasgow, Volume 2, Edinburgh, 1996
Simpson, John, A History of Govan, Glasgow, 1985
Simpson, John, Govan’s Maritime Past, Glasgow, 1987
Transactions of the Old Govan Club, Volumes 1-5, 1914-34

Search for more stories and pictures of Govan at www.TheGlasgowStory.com:

Govan, 1560s to 1770s
Govan, 1830s to 1914
Govan, 1914 to 1950s
Images of Govan

 
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