Gourock rocks

In the 1830s the roads of Demerara were paved with stones from Gourock! 

The stones came in the form of ballast, a necessity for sailing ships for stability.  A newspaper article from 1833 describes how this came about – “Formerly the vessels sailing from Greenock to Demerara were obliged to take ballast of a useless description on board, but since the introduction of Macadamising the West Indies, the road metal forms the ballast of the vessels, and the shipowners, instead of paying for ballast, have now freight paid for taking it out”.  

Demerara (now part of Guyana) was a popular destination for Greenock ships, bringing back coffee and sugar to the town.  Demerara sugar gets its name from here.

Macadamising refers to a system developed by John LoudonMcAdam (1756-1836), an Ayrshire man who developed the system of using crushed stones to build roads.  Read more about the method here.  “Road metal” just means the broken stones.

The quarries at Gourock were the financial winners in this enterprise.  The news article continues – “The quarryman at Gourock is the contractor for supplying the metal.  The contract has proved a kind of windfall for the inhabitants of Gourock, as 1s 6d per ton is given by the contractor for breaking and gathering the stones; and some of the little boys who are expert at the business, can earn 1s 6d per day.  The stones are taken from the heaps of rubbish lying on the seashore and at the quarry”. 

Quarry Quay, Gourock

I wonder if any of those roads are still in existence?