Clyde Ironworks

The Clyde Iron Works was a Scottish-based ironworking plant which operated from 1786 to 1978.

Clyde Iron occupied a large site near the Carmyle and Tollcross areas of Glasgow. The plant was built by William Cadell (1737–1819) and Thomas Edington (1742–1811) who were associated with the Carron Iron Works in Falkirk as well as other ventures. The inventor David Mushet worked there for a period. Carronades were produced at the works during the Napoleonic Wars period.

Clyde Iron was the location of a key development in the Industrial Revolution in Scotland when James Beaumont Neilson successfully introduced the hot blast furnace in 1828, reducing the volume and carbon content of coal needed in the furnaces to produce the iron, which in turn meant that Scottish metal became cheaper to produce using local coal.

From the 1860s the works was served by a major railway after the Whifflet Line between Glasgow and Coatbridge was constructed directly to the south of the site. Ironstone was obtained from Monklands and coal from local pits across Lanarkshire such as in Carmyle and Cambuslang via connecting industrial railway lines, until the supply from those sources was eventually exhausted. LocalMiners Row cottages were also built for workers near to the iron works and the pits.

In 1931 Clyde Iron was overtaken by Colvilles and extensively modernised; shortly afterwards in 1939 the works was integrated with the nearby Clydebridge Steelworks (producing both the hot metal and the finished steel). New furnaces were installed in 1948.

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