Lansdowne Parish Church on Glasgow’s Great Western Road is a landmark – it’s beautifully thin spire is visible from all over the west of the city. Built in 1863, unfortunately the church has had to close it’s doors due to dry rot and decay, though there’s a strong local campaign to save it – as part of this, a bunch of Glasgow photographers were invited along to take pictures in the normally-closed building.
Royal Ordnance Factory Bishopton
The Royal Ordnance Factories were built during the rearmament phase of the 1930’s, just in time for WWII – Bishopton was by far the largest, employing over 20,000 workers at it’s peak in three almost-self-contained factories within one perimeter fence. Factory III closed down almost immediately after the war, but factories I and II continued production of cordite, picrite (an anti-flashing and stabilising agent), RDX, white phosphorus, ball powder (gunpowder) and various other explosives and propellants up until the year 2000.
I spent three days exploring ROF Bishopton, taking hundreds of pictures – even the edited highlights run to 270 pictures, so this is just a brief summary of this absolutely massive (2.5 x 1.5 miles) site. I’ll do it in order of my explorations.
Bishopton had over 20 miles of standard-gauge rail lines – these were used with the ROF’s own fleet of diesel locos to move raw materials and finished propellant. This is one engine shed for the diesel engines:
