Port Glasgow, Ardgowan Street, Glen Mills

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.

Glen Mills, Sailcloth/Canvass Manufactory, is depicted and annotated on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Renfrew 1864, sheet II.11) as a complex of buildings on the NE side of Ardgowan Street, with a flax bleaching ground to the NE, between the buildings and the shore. The mill was still in operation at the time of the 4th edition of the OS 25-inch map (Renfrew 1940, sheet II.11), but it is not clear when it ceased to operate. By 1971 the area contained buildings belonging to the Kingston Shipyard and since then the area has been redeveloped.

Information from HES, Survey and Recording (AKK) 23 June 2017.