Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017659
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017659
After setting up a shipbuilding yard in 1863, Randolph and Elder eventually abandoned their old works in Centre Street in favour of an immense new engine-works at the Govan yard. Erected in accordance with drawings dated 1869 by Angus Kennedy, the building represents a rational step forward both in the scale of it layout and in structural design. Occupying the considerable area of 296ft in (90.4m) by 294ft (89.6m), it is divided into four machine halls running N and S and interspersed by three side-aisles, respectively 49 ft 9 in (15.16m) and 27 ft 6 in (8.38m) wide. The internal frames, divided into nine bays by cast-iron stanchions spaced at 39 ft (11.89m) centres, are contained without a stout cutain wall of brick, treated with restrained classical facades and large dispatch doorways. The boxed I-section stanchions have web-flange dimensions of 28 in (0.71m) by 18 in (0.46m), narrowing to 12 in (0.31m) at the flange head, and incorporate the usual bearing-point for supporting the gantry-beam-an iron plate girder measuring 48 in (1.22m) by 18 in (0.46m) in section. The construction departs markedly from the previous examples in the use of a two-stage framework composed of boxed girders and bracing-struts for stiffening the stanchions. A third stage is repeated in timber to support the hall and aisle roofs, which intersect with a transverse roof at each end strengthened by a series of girder-trusses. The four machine-halls served respectively as the fitting shop, turning shop, machine shop and boiler shop, and among the numerous uses served by the gallery floors was that of a school for apprentices.
Although the building was subsequently extended at its W end, thereby augmenting further the amount of covered space available for normal engineering duties, many of the activities connected with the shipbuilding industry were necessarily conducted out of doors or in single-storey sheds with open sides. An impression of the wide range of facilities and the vast scale on which a Clydeside shipyard operated in its prime may be obtained from the contemporary illustration of Fairfield in 1890.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
