West Boathouse on Glasgow Green used by Rangers Founding Fathers being developed with £1.37m funding

Nacho Novo

Nacho Novo

Well-Known Member
Glasgow Live: "Historic West Boathouse on Glasgow Green to be redeveloped with £1.37m funding"

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/historic-west-boathouse-glasgow-green-14730548

The story of Rangers on Clyde Amateur Rowing Club's website:

"For a long time, Clyde ARC had no idea that there was a possible link to Rangers FC. Instead the club was aware only of a brief and uncategorised link to Celtic Football Club, as the minutes from 1905 (tbc) note a donation from the Parkhead club to Clyde ARC of £5. In those days, this was a lot of money however the minutes do not note for what purpose this was donated or what provoked such generosity.

The link to Rangers FC, the “other” Glaswegian football club, (unless you like Firhill), was only recently uncovered by Gary Ralston in his research for his book: The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872.

Since time immemorial, in a vein similar to the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic, our nearest and dearest rowing rivals – Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club, understood that members of their club had founded Rangers FC. This was thought to be evidenced by the Clydesdale (1865-1900) minutes which indicated that rowers from Clydesdale had been engaging in the new sport of association football, to the detriment of their rowing commitments. However, on inspection of the minutes, Ralston found that unfortunately none of the 4 accepted founders of Rangers FC (Moses and Peter Mc’Neil, William McBeath and Peter Campbell) are listed within the Clydesdale membership lists during that period. 1865-1900.

Furthermore the history of Rangers, by John Allan, is similarly vague, again noting that the founders had been rowers, rather than that they were members of any specific club.

Instead Ralston’s research indicated that it was in fact members of Clyde ARC who were responsible for the founding of Rangers FC. This is evidenced through the 5th “founding member” of Rangers: Tom Vallance.

Vallance was quite the athlete and competed in various sports with success during his early life. Ralston’s research uncovered an article from the Scottish Athletic Journal in 1885, profiling Vallance and mentioning his membership of Clyde Amateur Rowing Club.

It is quite possible that not all of the founding members were members of the same rowing club, however another interesting indicator that it was members of Clyde ARC and not Clydesdale ARC, who founded Rangers FC, is found within the symbol of Clyde – the Clyde Star. The six pointed, light blue star is the official symbol of Clyde ARC and appears on the club flag, club badge, club rowing kit and is referenced in the club constitution. The first known picture of the Rangers squad shows the 1877 team, resplendent in white shirts, with a light blue, six pointed star on the left breast. According to Ralston, the presence of the star was an interesting puzzle to many Rangers enthusiasts. On uncovering the link between Vallance and Clyde ARC, and the official symbol of Clyde ARC, the mystery is arguably solved.

A final note on this saga, is something that is forgotten in both clubs’ keenness to lay claim to such a link. Sadly the founders of Rangers FC chose to leave the sport of rowing for the greener grass of association football. Whichever club these boys hailed from, the world of rowing could not keep them."

A great story on the early beginnings of Rangers. Would very much like to see Rangers get involved with the redevelopment in some way, I'm sure the club could donate something to the rowing club and keep the traditions going. @The Moonlighter
 
We used to get taken from Crookie to the boathouse for rowing circa 1970, also used to go on a Saturday morning of my own free will so I must've enjoyed it. I'd forgotten all about that 'til this popped up.
Good news though.
 
Hurleyreyes said:
Agreed about the club getting involved in some way.
Also be nice to have a plaque or something there.

I know it may become a target for vandals but you can't base decisions on what the scum will do.
Click to expand...

We have a plaque at Fleshers Haugh where Rangers played their first game, but agreed, the club should really take this opportunity to strengthen our links with Clyde Amateur Rowing Club, have a plaque or something similar to go on show in the boathouse for everbody to see. I wonder if the rowing club could perhaps organise a few races down the Clyde with supporters who also share the same interest in rowing? Would be fantastic for both organisations.

http://www.thegallantpioneers.co.uk/The-Founders-Plaque-at-Fleshers-Haugh.html
 
I used to row there in the early to mid-sixties. Remember reading about Clyde ARC in the Gallent Pioneers. Excellent that we have such a wide and varied history.
 
Commentator said:
We used to get taken from Crookie to the boathouse for rowing circa 1970, also used to go on a Saturday morning of my own free will so I must've enjoyed it. I'd forgotten all about that 'til this popped up.
Good news though.
Click to expand...

Same here, 1962-65. But Crookston Castle used the facilities as part of Glasgow Schools Rowing Club (GSRC) rather than Clyde ARC. Although I, and many others, also joined Clyde ARC so we could row outwith GSRC allocated times. Love the connection with Rangers, though.
 
I had seen the photo of the team with the 6 pointed star, but I didn’t know it’s connection. That’s brilliant work by Gary.(as per.)
 
Lone Star said:
Same here, 1962-65. But Crookston Castle used the facilities as part of Glasgow Schools Rowing Club (GSRC) rather than Clyde ARC. Although I, and many others, also joined Clyde ARC so we could row outwith GSRC allocated times. Love the connection with Rangers, though.
Click to expand...
LS, if I went on a Saturday morning would that have been outside the allocated times? Just wondering if I joined Clyde ARC, too. My memory is bloody awful.
 
rinosprayer said:
The older I get the more appreciative I am of our strong links to the city and our shared history. We are the very fabric of Glasgow. We are the people indeed.

Good news for the boathouse and certainly something I'd like to see the club contribute to.
Click to expand...
I concur with your excellent observation. :D
 
Commentator said:
We used to get taken from Crookie to the boathouse for rowing circa 1970, also used to go on a Saturday morning of my own free will so I must've enjoyed it. I'd forgotten all about that 'til this popped up.
Good news though.
Click to expand...

Our school, John st, also used it.
One of our teachers, mr gidney was a rowing blue at Oxbridge
 
Good to see there's surprisingly a good number of Rangers fans interested in rowing on here, maybe my comment about having an open day for fans to take part in going down the Clyde might not be so far fetched after all.
 
Commentator said:
LS, if I went on a Saturday morning would that have been outside the allocated times? Just wondering if I joined Clyde ARC, too. My memory is bloody awful.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. My recollection is that each school had times allocated during the school week when they could go and get, if not exclusive access, then only a small number of other schools there at the same time. Weekends were a bit more of a free-for-all, but Clyde ARC membership got you a little bit of preferential treatment. If you were reasonably competent you were also were allowed to use Clyde’s single sculls, which GSRC wouldn’t have got.

To be fair, though, Mr Moncrieff, who was in charge of Crookston rowing when I was there, encouraged most of us to join Clyde in order to support Clyde ARC itself as the club was going through a lean time at that point, with Clydesdale a much stronger club. So that may still have been the attitude a few years later when you were involved.
 
Rangers Founders Fathers in their traditional rowing tops http://lochaberrsc.co.uk/page6.html

Rangers first ever team photo with the Clyde ARC stars on their jerseys.
1zl4nxh.jpg
 
Lone Star said:
Not necessarily. My recollection is that each school had times allocated during the school week when they could go and get, if not exclusive access, then only a small number of other schools there at the same time. Weekends were a bit more of a free-for-all, but Clyde ARC membership got you a little bit of preferential treatment. If you were reasonably competent you were also were allowed to use Clyde’s single sculls, which GSRC wouldn’t have got.

To be fair, though, Mr Moncrieff, who was in charge of Crookston rowing when I was there, encouraged most of us to join Clyde in order to support Clyde ARC itself as the club was going through a lean time at that point, with Clydesdale a much stronger club. So that may still have been the attitude a few years later when you were involved.
Click to expand...

Can't remember a Moncrieff, I do remember that a Gym teacher left and the replacement was a little strange, think his name was Gardiner, maybe he was English? The other great thing about the rowing on a Saturday morning was afterwards going into a place on Clyde St. near the suspension bridge for tea and rolls on square sausage, think it was the seamen's mission?
 
Good news it's getting some much needed TLC. I pass it all the time and love the connection to our cub.
 
Commentator said:
Can't remember a Moncrieff, I do remember that a Gym teacher left and the replacement was a little strange, think his name was Gardiner, maybe he was English? The other great thing about the rowing on a Saturday morning was afterwards going into a place on Clyde St. near the suspension bridge for tea and rolls on square sausage, think it was the seamen's mission?
Click to expand...

In my time Mr Moncrieff was Head of History Dept. and a superb teacher. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was promoted and went to another school shortly after I left. He was supported in taking Rowing by a Mr Hannah, also a good guy, who left to emigrate to Canada, probably in 1964
 
See this “Founding Fathers” stuff it seems a bit similar to calling Ibrox “Ibrox”. It’s the Gallant Pioneers for me.
 
That's despicable.

It's an old plaque that's in a memorial garden next to Fleshers Haugh, i'm not sure who placed it there or when.

Probably not surprising but Celtic have one there also that states they were formed near to Glasgow Green, all a bit strange.

Our Founders plaque which was unveiled by the Granddaughter of Peter McNeil back in September 2009 is inside the Glasgow Green Football Centre.

11gruk9.jpg
 
The Moonlighter said:
That's despicable.

It's an old plaque that's in a memorial garden next to Fleshers Haugh, i'm not sure who placed it there or when.

Probably not surprising but Celtic have one there also that states they were formed near to Glasgow Green, all a bit strange.

Our Founders plaque which was unveiled by the Granddaughter of Peter McNeil back in September 2009 is inside the Glasgow Green Football Centre.

11gruk9.jpg
Click to expand...

Is there nothing the club can do to get a new plaque seeing as this one has been broken by vandals?
 
"The first known picture of the Rangers squad shows the 1877 team, resplendent in white shirts, with a light blue, six pointed star on the left breast. According to Ralston, the presence of the star was an interesting puzzle to many Rangers enthusiasts. On uncovering the link between Vallance and Clyde ARC, and the official symbol of Clyde ARC, the mystery is arguably solved."

Not having that.

There is no proof that the shirts worn in the picture have anything to do with the rowing club (personally i think the shirts were worn just for the picture to look smart).

The thing that annoys me is the assumption that the star in the photo is blue, no one knows its colour.

I'm not a fan of the club using the star for anything.
 
dubwiser said:
"The first known picture of the Rangers squad shows the 1877 team, resplendent in white shirts, with a light blue, six pointed star on the left breast. According to Ralston, the presence of the star was an interesting puzzle to many Rangers enthusiasts. On uncovering the link between Vallance and Clyde ARC, and the official symbol of Clyde ARC, the mystery is arguably solved."

Not having that.

There is no proof that the shirts worn in the picture have anything to do with the rowing club (personally i think the shirts were worn just for the picture to look smart).

The thing that annoys me is the assumption that the star in the photo is blue, no one knows its colour.

I'm not a fan of the club using the star for anything.
Click to expand...
Which Club?
 
I used to row there/ train there whilst at School and I was not aware of the Rangers links.

When I say "row", i was never that good but it was good to pootle about on the clyde in the days before you got breeze blocks dropped on your head from bridges by the local 19th Century Terrorist bastards.
 
gersmad said:
East End is full of bears
Click to expand...

I was born and bred in the Calton and spent many hours playing football and cricket on the stretch of grass that is right next to the old boathouse. During the summer on Saturday afternoons my pals and I also used to watch the rowing competitions. I always knew about Rangers connection with the Glasgow Green but I had always associated it with the Fleshers Haugh section of the park which is located further up the river to the east and could be classed as part of Bridgeton. It put a wee smile on my face this morning to learn that the Calton played a big part in our club's origins. As 'gersmad' says, the east end is full of Bears. There were plenty of them in the Calton when I was growing up there.
 
Last edited:
Nacho Novo said:
Glasgow Live: "Historic West Boathouse on Glasgow Green to be redeveloped with £1.37m funding"

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/historic-west-boathouse-glasgow-green-14730548

The story of Rangers on Clyde Amateur Rowing Club's website:

"For a long time, Clyde ARC had no idea that there was a possible link to Rangers FC. Instead the club was aware only of a brief and uncategorised link to Celtic Football Club, as the minutes from 1905 (tbc) note a donation from the Parkhead club to Clyde ARC of £5. In those days, this was a lot of money however the minutes do not note for what purpose this was donated or what provoked such generosity.

The link to Rangers FC, the “other” Glaswegian football club, (unless you like Firhill), was only recently uncovered by Gary Ralston in his research for his book: The Gallant Pioneers: Rangers 1872.

Since time immemorial, in a vein similar to the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic, our nearest and dearest rowing rivals – Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club, understood that members of their club had founded Rangers FC. This was thought to be evidenced by the Clydesdale (1865-1900) minutes which indicated that rowers from Clydesdale had been engaging in the new sport of association football, to the detriment of their rowing commitments. However, on inspection of the minutes, Ralston found that unfortunately none of the 4 accepted founders of Rangers FC (Moses and Peter Mc’Neil, William McBeath and Peter Campbell) are listed within the Clydesdale membership lists during that period. 1865-1900.

Furthermore the history of Rangers, by John Allan, is similarly vague, again noting that the founders had been rowers, rather than that they were members of any specific club.

Instead Ralston’s research indicated that it was in fact members of Clyde ARC who were responsible for the founding of Rangers FC. This is evidenced through the 5th “founding member” of Rangers: Tom Vallance.

Vallance was quite the athlete and competed in various sports with success during his early life. Ralston’s research uncovered an article from the Scottish Athletic Journal in 1885, profiling Vallance and mentioning his membership of Clyde Amateur Rowing Club.

It is quite possible that not all of the founding members were members of the same rowing club, however another interesting indicator that it was members of Clyde ARC and not Clydesdale ARC, who founded Rangers FC, is found within the symbol of Clyde – the Clyde Star. The six pointed, light blue star is the official symbol of Clyde ARC and appears on the club flag, club badge, club rowing kit and is referenced in the club constitution. The first known picture of the Rangers squad shows the 1877 team, resplendent in white shirts, with a light blue, six pointed star on the left breast. According to Ralston, the presence of the star was an interesting puzzle to many Rangers enthusiasts. On uncovering the link between Vallance and Clyde ARC, and the official symbol of Clyde ARC, the mystery is arguably solved.

A final note on this saga, is something that is forgotten in both clubs’ keenness to lay claim to such a link. Sadly the founders of Rangers FC chose to leave the sport of rowing for the greener grass of association football. Whichever club these boys hailed from, the world of rowing could not keep them."

A great story on the early beginnings of Rangers. Would very much like to see Rangers get involved with the redevelopment in some way, I'm sure the club could donate something to the rowing club and keep the traditions going. @The Moonlighter
Click to expand...

In 1905, £5 was worth £510.30 in todays terms.

Maybe this vast sum was to pay for graffiti to be removed from the rowing club walls, that would be for labour costs only, the whitewash would have come from one of the tanker loads in The Piggery stock.

That Glasgow Live used to be a 19th Century Terrorist propaganda front, they'd have you believe they built Glasgow in a non navvyish sort of way. Fck knows how we'd ever have got on without them.
 
Emailed The Scottish Sun the story there since we don't talk to The Daily Record. Automated reply saying it will take 72 hours for a reply. Want to catch the culprits who done it, should be security cameras all over Glasgow Green.
 
Nacho Novo said:
Emailed The Scottish Sun the story there since we don't talk to The Daily Record. Automated reply saying it will take 72 hours for a reply. Want to catch the culprits who done it, should be security cameras all over Glasgow Green.
Click to expand...

No reply ever came. Just typical.
 
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