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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Old Photograph Covenanter’s Grave Dunsyre Scotland

Old photograph of the Covenanter’s grave near Dunsyre in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. This gravestone marks the resting place of a covenanter who had fled into the hills, trying to return home to Ayrshire after the battle of Rullion Green in Penicuik in 1666. Gravely wounded, he made it as far the house of a shepherd, Adam Sanderson, the ruins of which are still visible just south of the bridge over the Medwyn Water. Realising he was soon to die, he asked Sanderson to bury him within sight of the Ayrshire hills. Sanderson found him dead the next morning. At great risk to himself, Sanderson buried the covenanter near the summit of Black Law, from where the Ayrshire hills can indeed be seen on a clear day. 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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Old Photograph School Inverallochy Scotland

Old photograph of the school in Inverallochy located four miles East of Fraserburgh, Scotland. Inverallochy School was established in 1841 as a 36 × 20 feet building that seated 88 scholars. Increased attendance demanded further funding in 1866 to seat 130 scholars and 240 in 1872. It finally reopened in 1965 after a substantial extension to include eight new classrooms, general purpose room, a school meal scullery, an assembly hall, gymnasium and art room. The eight old classrooms were turned into homecraft rooms with housewifery area, science rooms and library. 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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Old Photograph School Clyne Scotland

Old photograph of the school in Clyne in Sutherland, Scotland. The origin of the name of this parish comes from the Gaelic word Cluain, meaning a meadow. The chief historical event of importance which took place in this parish, was the change in the occupation of the parish by removal of the small tenants from the interior to the coast. 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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Old Photograph Biplane Keth Scotland

Old photograph of a Biplane in a field outside Keith, Moray, Scotland.



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

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