Castlehead - Shipping and Shipbuilding

Shipping and Shipbuilding

Castlehead in its heyday had several major players in the shipping industry. If that seems surprising today, bear in mind that until two thirds of the way through the twentieth century the Clyde was one of the world’s busiest ports. Every shipping line worthy of the name had offices in Glasgow and there were scores of ship managers and brokers to handle the business of the smaller fry. It was a lucrative business, and Castlehead’s moguls did not miss the opportunity.

The Greenlees at Netherton (26 Main Road) were related to the J. & P. Coats dynasty and their own family fortune was based on Rule and Greenlees, large-scale manufacturers of cotton and gingham clothing in the East End of Glasgow. It was a natural progression for major importers of textiles from the Far East to run their own ships and they set up the Netherton Shipping Company.

By 1900, Robert Allison had expanded from timber brokerage to timber importing and ship brokerage. His nephew, Arthur, followed him into shipping and by the early 1900s was a partner in Allison, Fullarton Shipping, of 90 Mitchell Street, Glasgow.

Castlehead even had its own shipbuilder, William Bow, of Bow, McLachlan and Company, one of five Paisley shipbuilders in the early twentieth century. His Abbotsinch yard specialised in tugs and was one of the pioneers of “kit boats”, pre-fabricated in the upriver yard and reassembled as and where required. The yard closed in 1932 but was re-opened during the Second World War by P. W. MacLellan to fabricate landing craft for the D-Day invasion.

Bow was an enthusiastic supporter of day-release schemes under which his apprentices attended courses at Paisley Technical College (now the University of the West of Scotland). In 1928 he gifted his house, Dunscore, to the college as a residence for the Principal and moved along Main Road to Priory Park.