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River Clyde's Seven previous Islands

PostPosted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 1:12 pm
by jock78
An early dutch map of the UK shows seven former islands on the Clyde below Govan which have been lost when the river was deepened, and possibly at earlier dates.
They were named, Water Inch, Whyte Inch, Buck Inch, King's Inch, Ron, Newshot and Bad Inch.
We still have the name Whiteinch and I suppose, Inchinnen refers to one also .
I do know that the River was trained into a narrower channel in order to provide deep water access to Glasgow, but it is possible that the narrowing had been carried out piecemeal over several centuries.

Lately I have been researching how this had been done on the Thames, and I found that piled river works had been built progressively out into the river over centuries, often deliberately drawing up old hulks at high tide, then filling them with rubbish to form temporary wharfage. I suspect this was done by individual landowners and only possible to be carried out comprehensively when there was a common river authority- Clyde Navigation Trust?

The final result is that both the depth of the river was doubled, and the tidal range also increased markedly.

(I will try and attach the old plan but have trouble with attachments on this site)

Re: River Clyde's Seven previous Islands

PostPosted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 10:08 pm
by HollowHorn

Re: River Clyde's Seven previous Islands

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:10 am
by jock78
This is only conjecture as far as i Know about the Clyde's early river works.
I do know however that on the Hudson in New York Manhattan, two old ships hulks had been found behind modern river frontage. Later another one was found in clearing the aftermath of the 9/11 site.

The problem in knowing what is behind modern river banks is that it is only revealed when new developments on the frontage requires a comprehensive archaeological investigation.

I know this has happened in the past 25 years in London where old ships or bits of ships have been found. In former times it was not possible to drive substantial piles before the development of steam power so using ald ships hulls was just about the only means possible in building out river banks. They could be hauled up to shore on a high spring tide, secured, and filled with what was readily available, giving the site owner a convenient wharf.

John
Old hulks as wharf.docx

Re: River Clyde's Seven previous Islands

PostPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 2:15 pm
by Alycidon
An interesting modern version of this was used at Dawlish where the coastal railway was washed away last winter, as a temporary breakwater, standard ISO containers filled with rubble were used while the sea wall was rebuilt behind

Re: River Clyde's Seven previous Islands

PostPosted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 7:06 am
by jock78
Hi Alycidon,
By a coincidence, I actually attended a talk by the contractor on this work at the ICE railway group -In effect this was the concept of 'gabions' taken to extremes!
I am, (was) a civil engineer- to know about this work in detail, can I assume you are from that background also?

John