The Clyde Timber Ponds

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Unable to resist the lure of this settled weather and the promise of a full moon rising I nipped out late last night and found myself down by the rotting, wooden piles of the old timber ponds on the Clyde. Two tug-boats plied their way upriver towards the city & somewhere behind me a gang of neds laughed round a bonfire & fed it with wood.

                                                                  The timber ponds extend along the estuary mudflats from Kelburn in Port Glasgow to Langbank, a distance of around three miles and are the remains of wooden enclosures or ‘ponds’ erected in the early 18th century to store and season timber imported from Europe and North America for Greenock's Ship building industry. Timber including pitch pine, yellow pine and oak were in great demand by the local shipbuilders in Port Glasgow.

The ponds fell into disuse in the early 19th century. They were a source of income to the local landowners who rented out the shoreline for this purpose.

The wooden poles date from the 18th century when shipbuilding on the Clyde began in earnest in turn triggering a huge demand for timber. The timber was imported from North America in specially designed vessels fitted with bow doors. The imported wood was discharged into the Clyde and stored in the timber ponds until needed for ship construction. The seawater environment both seasoned and preserved the logs. This timber trade declined due to a combination of (a) dredging of the Clyde which provided a deep water access to Glasgow and (b) switch from wooden to iron ship construction. Last wooden ship was built on the Clyde in 1859.

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