Ferryboat model
Model of ferryboat No. 4 1938 T.1939.2
“Cross-river traffic is served by numerous small ferries, and by two vehicular ferries with elevating decks.”
James Hamilton Muir in "Glasgow in 1901"
Comment by Hollie Hides
I went to Glasvegas on the Renfrew Ferry one time. I bought a vintage 1940s dress especially for it and, when I got there, ended up on stage for a competition for best dressed person and I won – got a bottle of champagne!
From: Hollie Hides
Comment by Angus Fridge
I can barely remember the Clyde ferry myself but 'The Wee Ferry' brought the experience to life for me as a child - and still does. Here's a link to the song for anyone who is interested: http://www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=15060
There’s luxury liners and steamers galore That sail the world ower fae Scotland’s fair shore But if it’s a free sail you want then you must Get on a wee ferry run by the Clyde Trust
They’re no’ very handsome, for streamlines they lack They’re the same at the front as they are at the back But if you’re in Govan and want Meadowside Just take a wee ferry that crosses the Clyde
Magic!
From: Angus Fridge
Question by Glasgow Museums
Can you imagine taking your car by ferry across the Clyde? Would you prefer that to the Clyde tunnel? (Could you hold your breath that long?)
Eyewitness by Bill Black
If you didn’t have a car you didn’t use it, you went on the wee ferries. We used the ferries to get to work. We called the Renfrew ferry ‘the HMS Back and Fur-it’
From: Bill Black
Eyewitness by Alex Robertson
My father served his time as an apprentice patternmaker in Alexander Stephens Shipyard in Govan. He was born in 1907 and left school aged 14. As we lived in Maryhill, the easiest way to get to work was to cycle down to the river and get on the Govan ferry. All the working men did it if they had to cross the river for work. Nowadays we call that journey to work the commute which would have amused him very much. You have to remember that cars were a luxury then and working men didn’t have them until a bit later. When they did get them they treated them very carefully. We didn’t have one until after WW11 and Dad rented a lock-up to keep it in. It was only used on Sundays to go for a `run’ out to Balloch and the area around Loch Lomond. For getting around Glasgow we used the trams and then the buses
From: Alex Robertson
Eye Witness by George Brown
As boys in Govanhill we used to get a 'hudgie' off the back of a cairt (hang off the rear of a horse and cart) down to Gorbals Cross. there were quite a number of ferries in those days, we would board the first one we came to, and cross the river, then walk to the next and cross the river again, ferry travel was free, and we cross and recross the river as far as Govan before returning the way we started one other little past time was to go to the riverside and go through the midgie bins located beside berthed ships. being avid stamp collecters we were collecting envelopes with foreign stamps
From: George Brown
Eye Witness by Robbie
Dark cold nights crossing the river on these wee boats - slippy slipways to black oily water - and that Clyde smell - oil, steam, coal, water, steel. It was a better city then. Pride and honesty prevailed.
From: Robbie
