Port Glasgow - fabulous refit!

Two of Port Glasgow's oldest buildings have been given an overhaul and the result is fabulous!

Situated on King Street, the former town hall and Masonic Lodge reopened in May 2025 after being totally refurbished.

They have become Port Glasgow Community Hub and I'm sure will be an excellent resource for the town.

The little "garden" at the back has been retained as well as the wonderful old stone wall.

The buildings originally date from around 1760 and were the first Port Glasgow town hall and Masonic Lodge.  John Wesley preached in this building in 1774.  You can read more about their history and see photographs of how they used to look in a previous post here.

Ladyburn Aspiration

This beautiful sculpture can be seen just outside the Ladyburn Business Centre (Riverside Business Park) at the east end of Greenock.  It is called "Aspiration" (2008) and is by Scottish sculptor Keith McCarter.  His work can be found all over Britain and abroad (click on link for bio.)

What does it represent?  I've always thought that it was like a nib from a fountain pen because of its position right outside what used to be Ladyburn Primary School.  Others have different opinions.  Perhaps we are just meant to put our own meaning on the work.

It is situated in a little seated area outside the business parks on East Hamilton Street, Greenock.

More information on Ladyburn Business Centre, Greenock.  There's also a great cafe nearby - The Cottage.

More local sculptures -

Ginger the Horse, Greenock
Egeria, Greenock
Prospect & Trust, Greenock
Men of the Clyde, Greenock
Endeavour, Port Glasgow
Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow

Death at the cotton mill

A cotton mill once stood on Drumfrochar Road in Greenock.

In 1841 Ludovic Grant was the manager of the cotton mill powered by water from the Shaws Water Scheme.  He and his wife, Ann Colquhoun, lived at Prospect Hill on  Ann Street. 

A dreadful accident took place at the mill on 3 May 1841.  It was reported in several newspapers -

“A most distressing accident, attended with loss of life, has just occurred here, at the large cotton mill on the Shaws water.  As Mr Ludovic Grant, the excellent manager of the work, was showing the great wheel, and interior of the wheel-house, to Mr Muir, of the saw-mill, Glasgow, they observed two small pieces of stone falling from the upper part of the wall, and while stooping to lift them, the whole eastern side wall of the wheel-house gave way, and buried the party, together with about half a dozen of the workmen, in the ruins.  At first it was believed that the whole would have been killed, but Mr Muir escaped in a most miraculous manner, as did several of the workmen, leaving Mr Grant and two masons covered with the rubbish.  After the lapse of an hour or more, the lifeless corpses of Mr Grant, together with that of one of the workmen, were dug out dreadfully disfigured.  The third was taken out all but dead, and three of the others were severely injured, but not dangerously.  The event, which has not yet been properly accounted for, has thrown a deep gloom over the whole community, as all were interested in the welfare and prosperity of the work.  Mr Grant and his friends had not been five minutes in the wheel-house when the accident happened.” 

Ludovic Grant was buried in the Duncan Street Cemetery in Greenock.  His widow, Ann’s sister, Mary Ramage came to Greenock from Edinburgh to comfort her sister.  Ann moved to Edinburgh to be near her sister and in November 1842 she married Alexander James, solicitor in Edinburgh.

Shaw's Water Scheme was officially opened on 16 April 1827.  Devised by Robert Thom, it provided a badly needed supply of fresh water for industry and for the increasing population of Greenock.  Many mills started up, taking advantage of the new scheme.  One of these was the Cotton Mill which was at the south end of Ann Street on Drumfrochar Road.  In fact if you go to Google Earth and look at the area, you can still see the outline of a building in that exact area.