The Clyde shipyards had worked flat out during the Second World War and general opinion after the war was they could now take up their rightful place as leaders of the British and world shipbuilding industry.

The period immediately after the war saw a reduction in warship orders but this was balanced out by an increase in merchant shipbuilding. However, by the end of the 1950s, British yards began to see a decline in all orders, an increase in foreign competition and a reduction in spending by the Royal Navy.

Aerial view of the Port Glasgow shipyards in 1954
© Newsquest (Herald & Times) / Licensed via www.scran.ac.uk

Lithgow Shipyard feature at Port Glasgow view of Shipyard 1957
© The Scotsman Publications Ltd / Licensed via www.scran.ac.uk

More problems were to come during the 1960s as Clydeside yards suffered frequent strikes as a result of poor industrial relations and foreign shipyards received huge subsidies from their governments which enabled them to win orders that might have gone to Scottish yards.

These factors all impacted heavily on the competitiveness of the Clyde shipyards and closures soon followed.

Derelict building at Lithgows shipyard, 2005

View-of-old Lithgows-and-Scotts yards, 2005

Site of Scotts shipyards, 2005