Old Photograph Fairfield Shipyard Govan Scotland

Old photograph of Fairfield Shipyard in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited was a Scottish 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 Second World War. It also built many transatlantic liners, including record breaking ships for the Cunard Line and Canadian Pacific, such as the Blue Riband winning sisters RMS Campania and RMS Lucania. At the other end of the scale Fairfields built fast cross channel mail steamers and ferries for locations around the world. These included ships for the Bosphorus crossing in Istanbul and some of the early ships used by Thomas Cook for developing tourism on the River Nile.

Charles Randolph, who began trading as a millwright, founded the business as Randolph & Elliott by building engines and machinery in the Tradeston district of Glasgow in 1834. John Elder joined the business in 1852 and it then diversified into shipbuilding as Randolph, Elder and Company, acquiring the Govan Old Shipyard in 1858. The first ship was built in 1861. The business moved to a new yard at the former Fairfield Farm at the Govan riverside in 1868, changing its name to the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, after the old farm, in 1886, at which time it was owned by Sir William Pearce.

In 1968 the company was made part of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, which failed in 1971. As part of the recovery deal, Fairfields was formed into Govan Shipbuilders in 1972, which was itself later nationalised and subsumed into British Shipbuilders in 1977. On the breakup of British Shipbuilders under denationalisation in 1988, the former Fairfield yard was sold to the Norwegian Kværner group and renamed Kvaerner Govan. The yard passed to BAE Systems Marine in 1999 and is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships. Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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