Fireworks village, also known as Govan Colliery Houses, was a company village in Scotland belonging to the Dixon family who ran the Govan Iron Works and Govan Colliery. The inhabitants were chiefly coal miners and their families who worked in the Govan Colliery. The company also built a Methodist church and a school. At the time, its location was a short distance outside the City of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, the largest town in Scotland; no trace now remains in the 21st century, with the site occupied by the now inner-city neighbourhood of Govanhill (the village was roughly located at Bankhall Street at the Govanhill Picture House.)

History

The Govan Colliery, also known as the Little Govan Colliery, was worked from at least the 18th Century, William Dixon having started there as colliery manager in the 1770s. The colliery and later the iron works remained in the control of the Dixon family from then until 1873 when it became a limited company, William Dixon Ltd., and was no longer a family firm. Between 1783 and 1785 the Govan Waggonway was built between the colliery and the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

to the north.George Dott, ''Early Scottish Wagonways'', St Margaret's Technical Press Limited, London, 1947 In 1811, Dixons built a waggonway linking the colliery with the

Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal The Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, later known as the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, was a canal in the west of Scotland, running between Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone which later became a railway. Despite the name, the canal w ...

Port Eglinton A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more Wharf, wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can a ...

, the

terminus. The canal was opened in 1810. In 1820, Dixons bought the lands of Govanhill and the colliery. In 1830, an Act of Parliament authorized the construction of the Polloc and Govan Railway(sic) which was completed in 1840. It extended the old tramway past Port Eglinton to Windmill Quay on the Clyde in one direction and to Rutherglen in the other direction. The line now forms part of the West Coast Main Line. In the 1860s the first tenements were built, which later formed the Burgh of Govanhill. The houses belonging to Fireworks were gradually demolished. In 1906, Garden Square, the last of the old Fireworks Village, was demolished.

Geography

The village lay about south of Glasgow City Chambers, just to the north of the junction of the turnpike between Glasgow and

Carmunnock Carmunnock ( gd, Cathair Mhanach) is a conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural reso ...

via Cathcart (now Cathcart Road) and the Rutherglen to Paisley road (now Allison Street). What is now Bankhall Street lies in the middle of the old village, which consisted of Hosie's Land and Garden Square to the west of the turnpike and Engine Row, the Back Close, Carter Row, the Cuddy Row and Graham Square to the east. There was an outlier to the north called School Square (lying between Calder Street and Govanhill Street on the West side of the main road) after the Govan Colliery School, also built by Dixons, which lay even further North.Smart, p18?

Amenities

* Methodist church * School * Reading room with copies of national newspapers

References

{{Reflist * Lewis, Samuel (1846). "A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland" * Glasgow University Archive Service. "Records of the Poloc and Govan Railway and the Clydeside Junction Railway, Scotland" * Smart, Aileen (2002). "Villages of Glasgow, Vol 2", * MacLehose,James (1886) "Memoirs and portraits of one hundred Glasgow men" Former populated places in Scotland History of Glasgow Mining communities in Scotland Govanhill and Crosshill