Glasgow Engine Works

Travels by train around Glasgow visiting former engine works sites.

Alley and MacLellan - Sentinel Works

Most famous as makers of the Sentinel Steam Waggon, production of which moved to a purpose built works in Shrewsbury from 1915. (I previously visited the former Shrewsbury works, more details here) The Glasgow works went on to produce all manner of industrial machinery. More details about Alley and MacLellan and their products can be found on the Graces Guide website.

Below - One of the Glasgow built Sentinel Steam Waggons in Glasgow's Riverside Museum.

These days the works is in quite dilapidated condition but part of the site is used for a car boot sale every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday so I visited on a Wednesday so that I could look around the site.

The site is a 0.8 mile walk from the nearest station at Crosshill which is a short ride from Glasgow Central.

Google Maps

1913 Map

Below - The former works offices, sadly derelict and not accessible. The building looks very 1930s but was actually built around 1904, a forerunner of the style and construction techniques of buildings that would become commonplace decades later.

Below - Entrance to the works off Jessie Street.

Below - Weighbridge still in situ at the former gateway to the works yard.

Below - Rear of the office building.

Below - Where the works backs on to what was Polmadie Mineral Depot and is now Alstom's Polmadie train depot there is evidence of the rail connection to the works.

Below - These rails were probably used by a crane in the works yard.

Below - Inside the former works building.

Dubs & Co / North British - Queens Park Locomotive Works

Just west of the former Sentinel works was the Queens Park Locomotive Works of Dubs & Co. In 1903 a merger between Dubs, Sharp Stewart and Neilson Reid formed the locomotive making giant North British that would make Glasgow the biggest maker of locomotives in the United Kingdom. North British would go on to be the largest engine maker in Europe and second only to American firm Baldwin in the world.

Industrial buildings still occupy the site of the works but after comparing maps these buildings do not seem to follow the footprint of the former engine works, I had wondered if they might have been old buildings that had been re-clad. Just the perimeter wall of the site survives of the old works, though at one point there are bricked up windows that would presumably have been part of the works offices. I didn't visit the site on this occasion, going next instead to Springburn and the former heart of the North British firm, their head offices.

Neilson Reid & Co / North British - Hyde Park Works

Above - North British 21753, SAR 1535 "Susan" in South Africa. Much of North British's production was for export.

1935 Map

Google Maps

Neilson Reid's Hyde Park works was situated on the north side of Flemington Street in Springburn, a short walk from Springburn station. The works was just across the railway line from Sharp Stewart's Atlas works so when the three firms merged it was decided to build the new administration building for North British opposite the Hyde Park works. The works itself has been demolished, Glasgow Kelvin College has been built on the site, but the administration building survives.

Below - The huge administration building from the North British Locomotive Company.

Below - The initials of the company and a locomotive above the doors.

Below - Blue plaque on the building.

Below - The NBLCo initials in the gates.

Below - The Glasgow Kelvin College buildings on the site of the Hyde Park Works. The bays of the old works are marked out in the paving.

Below - View of the admin building from the east across the site of the Craigpark Telegraph and Electric Cable Works.

Below - The building from Adamswell Street.

Sharp, Stewart & Co / North British - Atlas Works

The Atlas Industrial Estate occupies the former Atlas Works site across the railway from the former Hyde Park Works site, I didn't visit this site as there doesn't seem to be any trace of the former works looking at satellite images. 

Below - Sharp Stewart built many of the B Class engines still in use on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

Caledonian Railway / LMS / British Rail Engineering Ltd - St Rollox Locomotive Works

Google Maps

A short walk south of the Hyde Park works was the St Rollow works of the Caledonian Railway. It passed through the various changes in railway ownership through the London Midland & Scottish Railway, British Railways and British Rail Engineering Ltd. After privatisation the works has been through a few private owners. The works has been downsized a few times with buildings on the north of the site demolished and redeveloped with a Tescos superstore. Buildings to the south of the site are in other industrial uses.

Below - The BREL gates still in situ on the former office building.

Below - Blue plaque on the former works office building.

Below - The former works office building on Springburn Road.

Below - Rear of the office building seen from the Tescos site.

Below - A column from the demolished part of the works retained in the Tescos site as it has the names of workers from the early 1900s engraved on it.

Below - Works buildings seen from Springburn Road.

 I went to the Tesco car park as at one time the railway sidings in to the works could be seen from the Tesco car park, however the rail access was quite overgrown. The previous owners of the works had closed it down and the site had had a recent change of ownership so the hope is there will be a revival of the works.

North British Railway / LMS / British Rail Engineering Ltd - Cowlairs Works

Also worth a mention in the same area but completely demolished is the Cowlairs Works of the North British Railway. It underwent the same series of railway ownership as St Rollox following the railway grouping of 1923. BREL closed the site in 1968 and concentrated work in the area on the St Rollox works. The Carlisle Street Business Park and Cowlairs Industrial Estate have been built on the former works site. The works can be seen on the above old map to the west of the Hyde Park works. I didn't visit the site since there is nothing to see of the old works and instead returned to Springburn station,

Roman Chichester

A visit to Roman remains at Chichester and Fishbourne

Noviomagus Reginorum / Chichester

Prior to the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD there was no significant settlement at the site currently occupied by Chichester. It soon became a significant staging post of the invasion and and important Roman city. Many remnants of Roman times remain in and around Chichester.

Below - Map of medieval Chichester showing the walls whose origins date to the establishment of a city here under the Roman occupation. The common Roman feature of North / South and East / West roads crossing at the heart of the city can be seen.

Open Street Map

Below - One of the most significant pieces of Roman infrastructure are the walls around Chichester that mostly survive to this day, though they have been altered several times over the centuries. This is the wall at the South Gate Car Park which being the closest piece of wall to the railway station is where I began a clockwise walk around the walls. The south gate would have been on South Street to the right of the shot.

Below - A well preserved stretch of wall on the south side of the city.

Below - Information board next to the wall where it meets the A286.

A bit of wall is missing along the A286 and the wall is picked up again at North Walls just off the Westgate Roundabout. West Gate itself would have been across West Street and does not survive.

Below - At North Walls a stretch of wall can be walked along the top of the wall.

Below - The walls crossing Chapel Street, one of only a couple of gates in the wall but would have been added much later.

Below - Another information board (click to enlarge).

Below - Looking across Jubilee Gardens, sight of a medieval castle, the mound of the motte of the motte and bailey castle can be seen.

Below - Information board at the above point.

Below - Site of a gate at Priory Road, the steps up the surviving wall can be seen.

Below - Top of the wall at East Walls.

Below - The site of East Gate over East Street.

A bit of wall is missing around the south east corner, the wall is picked up again at the Market Avenue car park.

Below - The walls at the back of the Market Avenue car park with the other surviving gate cutting through to Cawley Priory car park.

Below - The wall seen from the inside at the Cawley Priory car park.

This section of wall ends at Theatre Lane which brings me back to where I started at the site of the South Gate.

Another significant Roman remnant is the former bath house that is preserved in the Novium Museum built over it.

Below - Remains of the bath house in the floor of the Novium Museum.

Also to the east of the former walls the park at the Litten occupies the site of an amphitheatre. A mosaic survives in Chichester Cathedral, however there was an event on at the Cathedral at the time of my visit.

Just a couple of miles west of Chichester's former South Gate is the Fishbourne Roman Palace. It was known that there were Roman remains were situated here following housing development in the area around 1805. Remains of the grand palace, particularly it's fine collection of mosaics, were uncovered in 1960 when a new water main was being installed in the area. The villa dates back to 75AD and was thought to have been the residence of a pro-Roman local chieftain who aided the Roman conquest of Britain. The site was key to the Roman invasion of Britain with goods landed in a harbour nearby and granaries built in the area around the time of the 43AD invasion. I got the train from Chichester to Fishbourne and it is a short walk from Fishbourne station to the museum.

More information about the museum established at the site can be found on the Sussex Archaeological Society website.

Below - A model of the palace at the entrance to the museum. The remnants on display are mostly from the north wing of the building to the left.

Below - A piece of hypocaust.

Below - The mosaics uncovered in the excavation of the site.

Below - When some of the murals were lifted for refurbishment they revealed earlier mosaics underneath. These have been installed in rooms where mosaics haven't been found.

Below - Remains of a bath.

Below - Site of the main entrance to the complex.

Below - Modern colonnade of the museum building alongside the original colonnade of the north wing of the villa.