E is for Elements
Damage to the Gorbals riverbank caused by a weir failure in the 1970s. Photo by John Eadie
Rowing is an outdoor sport, and as such, rowers are exposed to a variety of elements that can affect their performance. Too much rain causes the river to run in a spate, and the fast-moving currents can be dangerous. Too much wind can cause waves and choppy water (even on a river), making it difficult for rowers to maintain their balance and rhythm. Strong winds can also slow down boats. Too much fog and mist, and you risk hitting obstacles. In Glasgow, extreme heat is less of a danger(!), but there is a real risk of hypothermia in the winter.
The water is, of course, the most crucial concern for rowers. No Clyde, no rowing. Seventy metres downstream from the West Boathouse is the Clyde Tidal Weir, completed in 1901 to designs by City Surveyor A. B. McDonald and the fabulously monikered engineer Francis Goold Moroney Stoney. Constructed to protect the wharves, quays and bridge piers downriver, it is the second of its kind on this spot on the river, replacing a weir and lock system (1852-79). Three earlier weirs had existed downstream, the first constructed at the new Jamaica Street Bridge in 1772. Three enormous sluice gates, weighing 25 tons apiece, regulate water flow and maintain a constant depth upriver of around 4.5m.
As well as protecting the banks, the tidal weir enables rowing 'up the watter', creating a flat, non-tidal surface. The river in its natural state is around 1.5-2m lower, though levels can rise rapidly in a spate, and there were several catastrophic floods throughout the 1700s - washing away the Huthesontown Bridge in 1795. A flood in 1941 damaged the weir to the extent that it had to be substantially rebuilt, reopening in 1943. With the weir out of action, the resulting subsidence along the river's south bank meant many buildings along Adelphi Street had to be demolished.
Industries upriver, particularly water-hungry textiles and the new water works at Dalmarnock, relied on a predictable water supply abstracted directly from the river. Balancing their needs alongside maintaining navigation upriver for small vessels became a long-running issue, with both sides aggressively lobbying the Corporation officials. Textile works (dye works, printworks and bleachworks) lined the river. One of the earliest, Barrowfield Dyeworks, was established in 1785 by George Mackintosh, a well-known local dyer, and David Dale, founder of New Lanark cotton mills, introduced the Turkey Red dyeing process to Britain. Turkey Red was a process of dying cotton a bright red colour. The colour produced was much less susceptible to fading and highly prized. Macintosh and Dale invited Pierre Jacques Papillon, a French dyer, to guide them through the complex dyeing process and the three partners established a new works on a site to the east of Rutherglen Bridge. In 1802, Mackintosh, Dale and Papillon sold the Dalmarnock Works to Henry Monteith, who turned the mill into a bandana factory.
Moroney's sluice gates for the tidal weir, photographed in 1895 for 'The Engineer'
The fixed weir and lock were removed in 1879. Pollution and sewage lingered longer in the shallower water along the Green, causing an 'odoriferous' stench, and the banks upstream began to erode and silt up the river further downstream. For the rowing community, the effects were devastating - the removal of the weir impacted the racing line, which was now too narrow to permit racing boats abreast. The Glasgow Evening Post's aquatics correspondent's review of the rowing year in 1884 noted, 'removal of the weir cast a wet blanket over both rowing and swimming in the river. Only during alternate weeks could rowers obtain a suitable stretch of water, and as for swimming, the filthy state of the water and the removal of the weir made a dip impossible.'
Newspapers of the 1880s and 1890s are littered with pleas to reinstate the weir, and there were real concerns that its absence could 'end rowing on the Clyde'. Factory owners upstream were equally vocal. A solution (finally) arrived in Stoney's ingenious design for sluice gates that could be raised and pivoted horizontally to allow boats to pass below. A complex build, the project took six years to complete.
In 2017, the north sluice gate failed, and Glasgow got an abrupt lesson in the importance of the weir. Within three days, a large section of the south bank walkway had subsided, and there was further damage upriver at Shawfield. These were tense moments for the West Boathouse - pre-restoration, the building's foundations were already in a parlous state, and there were worries that it, too, would succumb to subsidence. Luckily, Mcdonald's timber frame had enough flexibility to weather the storm, and it emerged unscathed.
