My mind's so addled at the moment I could happily go with that explanation.

Really, I am feeling distinctly wandered at the moment and too deeply immersed - a bit of the "not able to see the wood for the trees" syndrome - and the remark's not intended in a sarcastic manner, which I noticed it could be.

As you say, provided the tide is not over the weir level, then the given gate arrangement should see a dominant effect from the upriver stream and always tend to be closed without needing operator intervention. Story... End of.

Well, provided I don't point out that the river's flow rate varies with the seasons, and the pressure on the gates is anything but constant, being a differential pressure generated by the difference in height between the waters on the river and tidal sides of the weir, and the tidal side of the weir rises and falls endlessly with each tide. I should see he -> gets less caffeine, shouldn't I?

Going back to Clydesmill power station, I think it was two years ago, I just remembered that I went for a wander around the site of the modern turbine station, in the forlorn hope that there might have been some sort of memento left lying unnoticed somewhere and just waiting to be picked up.

There wasn't anything though, The ground had been pretty well chewed up by the equipment used, and the few piles of rubbish left behind all proved to be no more that rubble. I couldn't (or didn't want to chance) access Ground Zero, the central area of the station itself as it had been taken over by Tinkers, who were living on it and had closed the remaining fences and gates so that their animals (horses and dogs) could run free. No idea if they are still there, never wandered that far along since, but the later aerial shots look clear of any occupation, so they might have been "moved along".

It is still as clear as mud to me.   Perhaps the missing link is the actual site of the lock as Apollo and I may be assuming it to be where the present weir is.  Can you tell us what the current NGR or lat lon is?

Ignore the previous message!!

Having just looked at the OS map of the area the lock is of the conventional design.  The river at the GG weir flows NW which is against the lock gates which would therefore be held closed by the river's flow.  Case concluded I think.

Yes, dredging up the period OS map makes all the difference.

I still don't understand for sure where I got the impression that the thing (the lock) was on the south bank of the river, and not the north (or Glasgow Green) side, but the image was so definite I didn't even think to double check on a map. I think this is a good example of "learning from mistakes".

I do remember it came up elsewhere, about a year, maybe even two, or so ago, and that was when I picked up the idea. It came with a relatively vivid description as the originator didn't have a clue about maps, and was recounting stuff from books etc. At the risk of making yet another assumption, I can only guess that whatever was being quoted or remembered was made from a viewpoint looking downriver, placing the lock on the reporter's right, but without clarifying the direction.

I made the same assumption ie that it was on the south side.  All makes sense when you realise it is on the north bank.

I think a word of thanks for the the Captain's patience while the rest of the world came to its senses is in order - I know some would have thrown their toys out of the pram and stormed off! Sometimes when a lone voice shouts "The sky is falling!" it pays to look , they just might be right.

That an valid point made about the lock and the navigable stretch to Rutherglen. While I only came across the boatyard info, and its method of sectional construction, it would be most interesting to learn just what other industries or businesses were dependent on its existence to the same extent.

I've never taken deliberate note of any of these when reading any accounts of the area (and they may not even be referred to) but I will be keeping an eye out for such references in the future whenever I happen to have a book or account in my hand that relates to the communities along that stretch of the river in case any relevant subject are mentioned, and the same goes for any accounts of the river, since I wouldn't have paid any particular to such mentions in the past.

Not new since it relates to the Seath boatyard we have discovered above already, but explains why I generally burst into fits of laughter or tears whenever some "innovator" comes up with the idea of using the Clyde for transport - and also because it's something that all fail to do in spectacularly impressive manner as all their schemes disappear up their own backsides (because they forget the simple, but necessary principle of integrating them to make them desirable, and not novelties)...

Photograph of Clutha No. 5 under way in harbour, Glasgow. The Cluthas were river buses that used to operate on the River Clyde in Glasgow. In 1884 Thomas Seath, the Rutherglen shipbuilder, constructed 6 small screw steamers for the Clyde Trust. They could carry between 235 and 350 passengers, and ran from Victoria Bridge to Whiteinch in the west of Glasgow. There were 12 in service by 1896 and they carried two and a half million passengers annually. They were overwhelmed by the opening of the underground system in 1897, and introduction of electric trams, and were withdrawn in 1903.

Another shipbuilder found...

NISBET, JAMES, first Presbyterian missionary to the Indians in the northwest, founder of the settlement at Prince Albert, Sask. ; b. 8 Sept. 1823 in the parish of Gorbals, Glasgow, Scotland; d. 30 Sept. 1874 at Kildonan, Man.

      James Nisbet was the son of Thomas Nisbet, a master shipbuilder of Rutherglen on the Clyde, who brought his family to Canada West in 1844 and settled at Oakville on the shore of Lake Ontario.

There was a large cotton works on the banks of the Clyde at Dalmarnock - haven't tracked the name down though. This, unfortunately, was the caption on a dead photo link of the works.

There was also the famous, or infamous to the locals, Whites Chemicals plant at Shawfield. A massive plant, a big source of employment in Rutherglen which all were happy to take the shilling from, then condemn as an evil place and a source of pollution after it closed.

Here is the point where the lock was - but from the 1892 survey, you can see features of the lock. Maybe cluthas brought folk from Govan and Whiteinch up the river to the Green for a picnic.



image courtesy of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland