X is for Extraordinary

In any alphabet, ‘X’ is always the awkward letter. So, a few ‘tales from the riverbank’ that don’t quite fit under any other heading … 

Wide As The Clyde

James Henry Roger (1839-1913) was a well-known figure in late 1800s Glasgow - a founding member of Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club, wine merchant, owner and founder of Rogano’s restaurant, partial funder of the West Boathouse and a man on a mission to eradicate meanders. Roger believed the bends in the Clyde, particularly the tight turn at Fleshers Haugh on Glasgow Green, was inhibiting the growth of rowing in Glasgow. Long, narrow rowing boats are difficult to steer and rowers prefer straight lines. To accommodate this (so Roger claimed), Clyde boats were built slightly shorter than other boats of the time, giving the home teams an unfair advantage and making visiting clubs reluctant to attend regattas on the Clyde.

In a letter to the North British Daily Mail in October 1899, he put forward his case for ‘Straightening the Clyde’ by diverting the river through the eastern end of Glasgow Green and infilling the old river channel. This would create a mile-long, straight racing course, which, he claimed, would benefit more than just the rowers - the increased scour in the river would help maintain the banks downstream; the old bed of the river would be partly infilled and landscaped to create safe bathing and skating ponds; and a series of more convenient crossing points, boulevards and gardens would be built. He commissioned artist (and director of the Theatre Royal) William Glover to create a birds-eye view of his proposed scheme, (now in Glasgow Museums Collection).

The scheme was backed by Bailie Chisholm (later Lord Provost) who proposed it to Glasgow Corporation in the mid-1890s. Others were less enamoured, citing the expense and risk involved. There was also resistance from landowners along the riverbanks, including The Corporation. Rogers stated: “‘When I suggested this scheme to the ‘People’s Tribune’, the late Bailie James Martin, many years ago, he said, ‘Na na, the East-Enders are not going to give away half their Green to the South-Siders’.”

When Roger died in 1913, he left a substantial estate valued at £40k (around 5 million). A sizeable chunk of that fortune was left to Glasgow Corporation on the condition that they initiated his scheme within 5 years of his death. The Corporation never took him up on the offer and the river remains resolutely bendy.

Rowers eventually got their poker straight racing course at Strathclyde Park in 1975 with the creation of the artificial Strathclyde Loch. The loch was created by diverting the River Clyde and flooding the low lying area to the east. The original course of the river follows the eastern side of the loch.

Many will not be aware that as they glide over the surface of the loch, they are rowing over the flooded remains of the old mining village of Bothwellhaugh. Largely abandoned by the 1960s, the village was sacrificed along with Bothwellhaugh Roman fort and bathhouse (later rebuilt further east).

Napoleon’s Prize Money

In 1856, the Glasgow Regatta Club secretary, James Banks McNeil, asked various foreign royals for donations to the contest’s prize-money fund. The French emperor, Napoleon III, generously sent £50, which was spent on the ‘Emperor’s Cup’, and the event’s title was upgraded to ‘Glasgow Royal Regatta.’ As with anything involving old rivals, outrage and ‘trolling’ aren’t new. Edinburgh mocked Glasgow, ‘crouching … to beg’; the English clubs sneered at the ‘mere boating concern running small gigs’, ‘false pretences’, the ‘muddy river’, and the Lord Provost was ‘very displeased [at such] impertinence’. The Club hastily donated to French charities, but the council still withheld their prize funding for several years. Glasgow’s civic pride and national image was all-important.