| Photographs are yet to be added to some of the articles here and 'surfers' who can't wait should have a look through the Albums of PHOTOGRAPHS here for pictures corresponding to the subjects of the articles listed here which belong either directly to the main-linked Skelmorlie group of websites or to their 'sister' websites for the Clyde Steamers, Greenock Academy, Kintyre and Fessenden - which offer 'surfers' a huge and varied set of links around The Firth of Clyde and 'The Rest of The World'. CLICK HERE FOR NEW PHOTOGRAPHS
1,000 postcards and photographs of the villages
of Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay and Click Here for More Old Skelmorlie Photos * * * * * * * * * * * 1812 - 1901 CLYDE PASSENGER STEAMER LIST - Taken from Captain James Williamson's 1904-published book, the list begins with Henry Bell's "Comet" and ends with The World's First Turbine Passenger Steamer, the 1901-built "King Edward" - See the steamer passengers coming off the train here at Wemyss Bay
* * * * * * * * * * *
Wemyss Bay Pier History - Undoubtedly one of Britain's finest architectural gems, Wemyss Bay's railway station and pier complex was opened officially on Monday, December 7, 1903. Designed by James Miller, The Caledonian Railway Company's own architect, the glass-roofed complex, with its 'Queen Anne' styled half-timbered frontage finished with roughcast and red sandstone, is dominated by a four-sided sixty-foot high clock tower. A truly majestic building it so captured the minds of a party of Japanese government officials, visiting Lord Inverclyde at nearby Castle Wemyss, that they requested copies of its plans in order that they could build an exact copy when they returned home to Japan later in the following year - HERE IS THE SUCCESSION OF STEAMERS THAT USED THE PIER IN ITS EARLY DAYS - HERE TOO A LINK TO SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE STEAM TRAIN DAYS AND A PHOTO TOUR OF THE STATION. * * * * * * * * * * *
Farmers' Rules for Weighing Cattle and Haystacks - Even if it is easy to count cattle and sheep ‘by the head’, farmers and butchers had to value animals more precisely - With the coming of the railways, came, often complex, fares and freight tables and rules ! Some railway stations introduced weigh-bridges, but why not stick to an old fashioned measuring tape like the butchers. * * * * * * * * * * *
1888 Sinking of The "Princess of Wales" - On Saturday, June 16, 1888, the new 216-foot long paddle-steamer “Princess of Wales”, built for The Southampton and Isle of Wight Royal Mail Company and the steamer “Balmoral Castle” collided when both were running trials that day on the Skelmorlie ‘Measured Mile’.
* * * * * * * * * * *
1907 Sinking of The "Kintyre" - The “Kintyre” was running ‘light’, without cargo or passengers, down-river for Campbeltown, where she was to pick up a special sailing for the ram sales in Tarbert. Her course lay close inshore to the Renfrewshire coast which not only gave her the advantage of the current but also put her on a virtual straight line from The Cloch Lighthouse to Holy Isle on a beautiful day, on a calm sea and in excellent visibility. The new, Denny-built, “Maori”, a 3,500-ton turbine steamer for The Union Steamship Company of New Zealand - their 1901 “Waipori” and 1913 “Kamo” in fact products of Campbeltown’s own shipyard - had just completed her northward run on The Skelmorlie ‘Measured Mile’. At 11.45 a.m. on Wednesday, September 18, 1907, the bow of the “Maori” stove in the starboard quarter of the “Kintyre”, just at the after hatch and close to the engine compartment.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Pier Signals - Until 1889 there were no means for regulating the arrival of vessels approaching the piers at the same time. Each skipper did his best for himself and sometimes, when three or four boats approached a pier together, the unrestricted scrimmage for the berth threatened to bring about serious disasters. To put an end to this state of affairs competitive devices were invited and their designs were submitted to The Clyde Pilot Board, as the local authority. The device selected was that of Mr. Charles Allan, third son of the late Alexander Allan of The Allan Line, who lived at Ashcraig on the road to Largs.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Skelmorlie Measured Mile - Though its historic, "B-Listed", marker posts are in a sorry and neglected condition today, this came to be regarded as the most important ‘measured mile’ in Britain. Having sought out the agreement of The Earl of Eglinton, who owned the land, John, son of Robert Napier, erected the necessary unlit beacons at Skelmorlie and, on July 4, 1866, George Henry Richards, at The Hydrographic Office of The Admiralty in London, sent out “Notice to Mariners No 36, Scotland West Coast, Measured Mile in The Firth of Clyde” to the effect that “Notice is hereby given that beacons to indicate the length of a nautical mile (6,080 feet) have been erected on the eastern shore of The Firth of Clyde". |
