Finnieston Crane
Encyclopedia
The Finnieston Crane is a crane
and landmark
in Glasgow
, Scotland
. It is now disused but is retained as a symbol of the city's engineering heritage.
of Carlisle and the cantilever by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
. It is situated at the Stobcross Quay on the north bank of the River Clyde
in Glasgow, and cost a total of £
52,351. It is officially known as the Stobcross Crane (or, to the navigation trust as Clyde Navigation Trustees crane #7), but its proximity to Finnieston
Quay, and the fact that it was intended to replace the previous Finnieston Crane, has led to its being popularly known as the Finnieston Crane. It is a giant-cantilever crane, measuring 50.24metres (165 ft) tall with a 77 metre (253 ft) cantilever jib
. It has a lifting capacity of 175 tons. It can be ascended either by a steel staircase or an electric lift. The actual Finnieston Crane was located a bit further upriver on the site now occupied by the City Inn. It was a 130 ton steam crane built in the 1890s and a sister crane was built in the Princes Dock in front of Govan
Town Hall. A third heavy lift crane, called the Clyde Villa crane was located on Plantation Quay at the berth now occupied by the paddle steamer
Waverley
(the quay was renamed Pacific Quay
in the past few years)
, the crane's primary purpose was the lifting of heavy machinery – mainly Springburn
's then renowned steam locomotive
s – onto ships for export. With the decline of locomotive manufacturing and other heavy engineering in the city during the 1960s, use of the crane continued to decline and it fell completely into disuse in the early 1990s.
Today the crane remains as a landmark, a Category A listed structure, and one of the most identifiable images of Glasgow. During the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival
(sited on the Princes Dock on the opposite bank of the river) a full-size replica locomotive, made from straw by local sculptor George Wyllie
, was suspended from the crane. The crane's image is used extensively in the media, including by BBC Scotland
news
programmes and for the quintessentially Glaswegian crime drama Taggart
. Pre-dating those uses, It has been the Logo of Clydeside Television Productions since 1986. It stands as a symbol to the industrial
heartland that Glasgow and Clydeside were in the early to mid-20th century, and of the downturn of those industries. The docks having long since been filled in to be replaced with the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
and the Clyde Auditorium
. The North Rotunda (part of the defunct Clyde Harbour Tunnel) stands next to the crane.
Remarkably, four out of six that were built on Clydeside remain (though none is operational):
Three of the remaining Clydeside cranes were built by the Glasgow firm of Sir William Arrol & Co.
at their Dalmarnock
Ironworks in Dunn Street and Parkhead
Crane Works in Nuneaton Street. Arrol were the world leaders in building this type of crane. The Finnieston crane was built by Cowans Sheldon of Carlisle on foundations built by Arrol.
The other two cranes on Clydeside were the at William Beardmore and Company
's Naval Construction Works in Dalmuir
and at Fairfield's
Shipyard in Govan
.
The Dalmuir crane was the first one to be built - by the Glasgow Electric Crane & Hoist Company under licence from the German Company, Benrather. The Fairfield Crane was built by Arrol and was the largest crane in the world when erected at Govan in 1911. It was demolished in 2007 to make way for construction of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers at the BAE Systems Surface Ships (ex Fairfield) yard.
The Dalmuir crane was the only true 'hammerhead' crane of the six on Clydeside although the others were often called hammerheads. It was used latterly by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd
of Renfrew
when they occupied part of the former Dalmuir shipyard in the 1960s. The Dalmuir crane was demolished in the 1970s. The Glasgow Electric Crane & Hoist Co was short lived and their works were taken over by Arrol in 1911. Arrol became part of the Tyneside based Clarke Chapman
in the 1970s. The famous Dalmarnock Ironworks was closed and demolished in 1986 but at least seven of their Giant Cantilever Cranes are still in existence.
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
and landmark
Landmark
This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. It is now disused but is retained as a symbol of the city's engineering heritage.
History
The crane was commissioned in 1926 by the Clyde Navigation Trust, the operators of the port and dock facilities in Glasgow. It was completed in 1932 with the tower built by Cowans, Sheldon & CompanyClarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
of Carlisle and the cantilever by the Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
The Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company is a renowned bridge building and structural engineering company based in Darlington, England. It has been involved in many major projects including the Victoria Falls Bridge and the Humber Bridge.-History:...
. It is situated at the Stobcross Quay on the north bank of the River Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
in Glasgow, and cost a total of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
52,351. It is officially known as the Stobcross Crane (or, to the navigation trust as Clyde Navigation Trustees crane #7), but its proximity to Finnieston
Finnieston
Finnieston is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated on the North bank of the River Clyde and between the city's West End and the city centre. It is home to the SECC, where many musical concerts and important conferences are held...
Quay, and the fact that it was intended to replace the previous Finnieston Crane, has led to its being popularly known as the Finnieston Crane. It is a giant-cantilever crane, measuring 50.24metres (165 ft) tall with a 77 metre (253 ft) cantilever jib
Cantilever
A cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
. It has a lifting capacity of 175 tons. It can be ascended either by a steel staircase or an electric lift. The actual Finnieston Crane was located a bit further upriver on the site now occupied by the City Inn. It was a 130 ton steam crane built in the 1890s and a sister crane was built in the Princes Dock in front of Govan
Govan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
Town Hall. A third heavy lift crane, called the Clyde Villa crane was located on Plantation Quay at the berth now occupied by the paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
Waverley
PS Waverley
PS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger carrying paddle steamer in the world. Built in 1946, she sailed from Craigendoran on the Firth of Clyde to Arrochar on Loch Long until 1973...
(the quay was renamed Pacific Quay
Pacific Quay
Pacific Quay is an area south of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. It is located at the former Plantation Quay and Princes' Dock Basin. The Princes' Dock Basin was the largest on the River Clyde when it was opened in 1900. It ceased to be used in the 1970s as the volume of Shipping using the...
in the past few years)
Purpose
Connected to a spur of the Stobcross RailwayStobcross Railway
Stobcross Railways is a rail line originally created to provide freight rail access to the new Queens Dock and the expanding west end of Glasgow. Upon creation of the Glasgow City and District Railway, Stobcross became a commuter line.-Sources:* ....
, the crane's primary purpose was the lifting of heavy machinery – mainly Springburn
Springburn
Springburn is an inner city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, home to various working and middle-class households.Springburn developed from a small rural hamlet at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its industrial expansion began with the establishment of a chemical...
's then renowned steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s – onto ships for export. With the decline of locomotive manufacturing and other heavy engineering in the city during the 1960s, use of the crane continued to decline and it fell completely into disuse in the early 1990s.
Today the crane remains as a landmark, a Category A listed structure, and one of the most identifiable images of Glasgow. During the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival
Glasgow Garden Festival
The Glasgow Garden Festival was the third of the United Kingdom's five National Garden Festivals, and the only one to take place in Scotland.It was held in Glasgow between 26 April and 26 September 1988...
(sited on the Princes Dock on the opposite bank of the river) a full-size replica locomotive, made from straw by local sculptor George Wyllie
George Wyllie
George Wyllie MBE is a Scottish artist who resides in Gourock. He worked as a customs officer before taking up art. He describes himself as a "scul?tor"....
, was suspended from the crane. The crane's image is used extensively in the media, including by BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
programmes and for the quintessentially Glaswegian crime drama Taggart
Taggart
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network...
. Pre-dating those uses, It has been the Logo of Clydeside Television Productions since 1986. It stands as a symbol to the industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
heartland that Glasgow and Clydeside were in the early to mid-20th century, and of the downturn of those industries. The docks having long since been filled in to be replaced with the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre , located on the north bank of the River Clyde, in Glasgow, is Scotland's largest exhibition centre....
and the Clyde Auditorium
Clyde Auditorium
The Clyde Auditorium, familiarly known as "The Armadillo", is an iconic concert venue in Glasgow, Scotland. The building sits on the site of the now infilled Queen's Dock on the River Clyde, adjacent to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre....
. The North Rotunda (part of the defunct Clyde Harbour Tunnel) stands next to the crane.
Other cantilever cranes
The crane was one of only around 60 giant cantilever cranes ever built worldwide. Now less than 15 remain in existence.Remarkably, four out of six that were built on Clydeside remain (though none is operational):
- The Finnieston Crane at Stobcross Quay
- The crane at Barclay CurleBarclay Curle-History:The company was founded by Robert Barclay at Stobcross in Glasgow, Scotland during 1818. In 1862, the company built a large engineering works at Stobcross in Glasgow. In 1876, the company moved their yard down the river to Whiteinch. It was incorporated in 1884 as Barclay Curle...
's former North British Engine Works in WhiteinchWhiteinchWhiteinch is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde between the Partick and Scotstoun areas of the city... - The craneTitan ClydebankTitan Clydebank is a high cantilever crane that was built in 1907 in Clydebank, Scotland. It was designed to be used in the lifting of heavy equipment, such as engines and boilers, during the fitting-out of battleships and ocean liners at the John Brown & Company shipyard, then the biggest...
at the former John Brown and Company Shipyard at Clydebank - The crane in James Watt Dock at GreenockGreenockGreenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...
.
Three of the remaining Clydeside cranes were built by the Glasgow firm of Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co.
Sir William Arrol & Co. was a leading Scottish civil engineering business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.-Early history:...
at their Dalmarnock
Dalmarnock
Dalmarnock is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde. It is bounded by the Clyde to the south and east, Parkhead to the north, and Bridgeton at Dunn Street to the north west...
Ironworks in Dunn Street and Parkhead
Parkhead
Parkhead is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road and Westmuir Street. Duke Street and Springfield Road also meet there, to form a turreted Edwardian five-way junction at Parkhead Cross...
Crane Works in Nuneaton Street. Arrol were the world leaders in building this type of crane. The Finnieston crane was built by Cowans Sheldon of Carlisle on foundations built by Arrol.
The other two cranes on Clydeside were the at William Beardmore and Company
William Beardmore and Company
William Beardmore and Company was a Scottish engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active between about 1890 and 1930 and at its peak employed about 40,000 people...
's Naval Construction Works in Dalmuir
Dalmuir
Dalmuir is an area on the western side of Clydebank, in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.-Location:It is neighboured by the village of Old Kilpatrick, the Mountblow and Parkhall areas of Clydebank, as well as the town centre...
and at Fairfield's
Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a British shipbuilding company in the Govan area on the Clyde in Glasgow. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Navy and other navies through the First World War and the...
Shipyard in Govan
Govan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
.
The Dalmuir crane was the first one to be built - by the Glasgow Electric Crane & Hoist Company under licence from the German Company, Benrather. The Fairfield Crane was built by Arrol and was the largest crane in the world when erected at Govan in 1911. It was demolished in 2007 to make way for construction of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers at the BAE Systems Surface Ships (ex Fairfield) yard.
The Dalmuir crane was the only true 'hammerhead' crane of the six on Clydeside although the others were often called hammerheads. It was used latterly by Babcock & Wilcox Ltd
Doosan Babcock
Doosan Babcock, is part of Doosan Power Systems Ltd a UK-based subsidiary of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction. DPS is a power sector utility boiler OEM and after market services company, offering specialist services and technologies to clients in the nuclear power generation, fossil-fired...
of Renfrew
Renfrew
-Local government:The town of Renfrew gave its name to a number of local government areas used at various times:*Renfrew a town to the west of Glasgow*Renfrewshire, the present unitary local council area in which Renfrew is situatated....
when they occupied part of the former Dalmuir shipyard in the 1960s. The Dalmuir crane was demolished in the 1970s. The Glasgow Electric Crane & Hoist Co was short lived and their works were taken over by Arrol in 1911. Arrol became part of the Tyneside based Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
in the 1970s. The famous Dalmarnock Ironworks was closed and demolished in 1986 but at least seven of their Giant Cantilever Cranes are still in existence.
External links
- Photographs of the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow
- History of the crane
- The straw locomotive
- Finnieston Quay and Crane
- TheGlasgowStory's page on the crane
- The actual 130 ton Finnieston Steam Crane (bottom left)
- Finnieston Crane AERIAL ART by Michael Murray, Digital Artist
- Finnieston Crane history - Clyde Waterfront Heritage