Greenock, 72 West Blackhall Street

Running from May 2016 to September 2017 and part of the Canmore Mapping Programme, Yard by Yard was an area-focused, desk-based project that tested the Defining Scotland’s Places (DSP) methodology in an area for which the records in the NRHE showed considerable variation from one historic map source to another.

Following discussions with local heritage groups and with the ambition of collecting data useful to the communities’ ambition to develop a coastal heritage trail, the project aimed to map the extent of the shipyards and associated industry between Port Glasgow and Greenock. To achieve this aim, the project used historic mapping, ortho-rectified modern aerial photography and the HES aerial photograph collection to map the extents of, and upgrade the records of, the shipyards and associated features such as quays, docks, areas of land reclamation and associated industry.

This timber yard is depicted on the OS large scale Town Plan (Greenock 1857, sheet II.5.10). It is unclear if any of the surrounding buildings were part of the yard which had a narrow entrance on to West Blackhall Street on the SW. The yard appears to have been redeveloped by the 2nd edition of the OS 25-inch map (Renfrewshire 1897, sheet II.5).

Information from HES, Survey and Recording (AKK) 2 April 2017.