Clydeview Park. A Renfrew Walk. Public Services in 2024.

                                                 ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN.

As a means of getting out the house in good weather and going for walks I re-visited some of  my nearby public parks ( near being within six miles or so from the west end of Glasgow and/ or Paisley.) One walk I always enjoy is to get the ferry across the River Clyde from Yoker to Renfrew. I then walk along the waterfront upstream to Braehead Shopping Centre. A new swing bridge is currently being built over the river nearby so it's anyone's guess as to whether this ferry will still keep running after it is opened for traffic and pedestrians in a few months time. Better to visit the last ferry operating on the River Clyde in the next two months just in case it disappears although I hope that is not the case. 

 

A view close to the ferry. Fear not, this is not the current ferry but an older version. A large metal ferry crossed the river here for decades, study enough to act as an ice breaker during severe winters on the river. This isn't it.

 

New housing on the Yoker side of the river next to the new swing bridge. This used to be a large rectangle of waste ground, lying fallow and abandoned for decades, but covered in wildflowers like clover, tansy, valerian and dog roses, swarming with bees and insects in spring and summer. I did notice however that during the various covid 19 lockdowns, probably to keep the economy going with outdoor construction workers exempt from any indoor restrictions that most of these waste ground areas disappeared under new housing projects. This was one of the last ones left in this area. I must admit I like waste ground as it's often a haven for wildlife but with an ever increasing human population out-competing everything else for space we need more housing. Humans, buildings, their animals, and crops raised for food for humans and their domesticated animals covers a huge percentage of earth's total pie chart of fertile productive land now compared to the minuscule percentage of dwindling stocks of wild creatures left alive in 2024... and their meagre slice of land to live in gets smaller each year. Just last year I captured what it used to look like here as I had a feeling this rectangle of open land the size of a city park would soon be gone forever.

https://blueskyscotland.blogspot.com/2023/02/ 

 

Fortunately, this enjoyable walk still exists on the Renfrew side of the River Clyde as housing has already been built here decades ago on what was once waste ground. Renfrew at one time had a great amount of heavy industry, factories and shipbuilding and you can still see an echo of that here as the path contours around the edge of several large former docks.

 

 

So plenty of interest on this easy flat route to Braehead.

After a mile or so of abandoned docks on both banks you arrive at Clydeview Park, constructed in 2005 and one of the first public parks to be built in the West of Scotland for many decades. The only other one I can think of being Festival Park near Govan on the site of the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988.

This is what it used to look like after 5 years. Grass and reeds and what I would judge as perfect cover for wildlife. Not too tangled or overgrown but enough to hide in. And spot food in front of you in the water.... for various birds, mammals, and flying insects

 A pond and fountain at either end kept the water circulating around its own sealed system, and a connecting stream meandered through this small park, trickling happily over boulders and tiny waterfalls. For youngsters today it must be hard to imagine how good it was at the very beginning when they view what it looks like now.

 It was an absolute delight to walk through it and I thought then 'this is a great example of what humans can do to make the world a better place. For humans and nature.'

I noticed during covid however, with few gardeners allowed in it, that it had become very overgrown and with councils cut to the bone over the last 15 years of austerity that situation has only deteriorated further. 

This is what the stream section looks like now in late July 2024. It also appeared dry. Very little water in it. Maybe a shallow puddle here and here. Or just hard mud.  I have other photos of it but as they all look similar to this no point including them. There might be wildlife in here but no way of knowing. Also, due to a lack of rainfall over the past few months all the public park ponds are looking tired and half empty so hopefully a few days of predicted heavy rain over the coming week will help. The two fountains, any time I've been here, have been switched off for years.

  I know it's a policy now to let some public park grasslands grow longer for wildlife but this entire park looks like this. Heavily overgrown. Whereas in the early years, with short grass meadows, it was a sea of clover stuffed with bees from one end to the other. About ten bees every step across it and loads of other insects as well....this time I counted very few. So I do not think it is better for wildlife. I may be wrong. Having visited several other parks in the last few weeks out of curiosity I think it's more to do with cutbacks and saving money with green washing just a convenient excuse for a lack of maintenance. And with Labour  claiming the UK is apparently skint after 15 years of dire austerity and maybe another 10 or 15 years of austerity measures to come what future awaits our already hollowed out public services and parks?. It never seems to be austerity for the elite though. Indeed recessions, covid 19, or mass failure only increases the opportunity to thrive. Magic money trees only grow in abundance on the well watered and often mown sunlit uplands then spreads sideways or uphill further into already bulging wallets. Very rarely do any seeds sprout on the bottom rungs...sitting in the shadow lands far below. 

Something very noticeable currently however is the difference/ contrast  between my last post set in Levengrove Park in Dumbarton, who received a substantial grant to do it up a few years ago and the Glasgow Parks I visited recently where former flower beds of glorious colour and full of nectar rich blooms are now abandoned weed zones covered in brambles and non flowering weeds successfully smothering out any few blooms left alive. ( I will be posting on that later with before and after photos as compelling evidence....that it is not for nature purposes.) Glasgow however has dozens of parks to look after for the money pot available... Dumbarton only one. But it is a well looked after gem.

 That's not to say it's not an enjoyable walk. It is. With plenty of wildflowers doing what nature does best in spring and summer.... growing freely on waste ground along the river bank (although this looks like a seed pack mixture from some enterprising local. Just don't expect to see flowers growing inside the park much anymore.) The reason for highlighting this is that the locals obviously think they might loose this 20 year old park altogether, judging by the facebook page they have set up. And judging by the amount of non maintenance and rampant bramble growth I've seen in several Glasgow Parks recently in previously well maintained flower borders, teeming with flying insects every summer, they might well be right. For local families. local children, and mothers with prams this is the only green space around to visit in this area. Robertson Park being too far away for normal walking distance on the other side of Renfrew and also reached through heavy traffic.

 I did spot this little moorhen and chicks  in one of the ponds but the water did not look fresh due to lack of rain and circulation issues with the fountains off or knackered for good.

The other pond looked equally neglected and stagnant so hopefully heavy rain will refresh it.

The R34 airship. It seems really unlikely/ inconceivable  now to modern thinking that airship travel was once considered the future and only way to get around countries and cross oceans in the late 1800s and early 1900s but this forgotten age and fever dream of international flight was once considered the only way to rule the skies... before airplanes arrived. And the R34 was built in Renfrew.

Info board here. The popular and award winning video game Bioshock Infinite depicts in spectacular detail the driving concept and conceit of this golden age taken to extremes with an entire floating city of huge balloons drifting over the USA, which can also be fully enjoyed as an online film to watch on You Tube. Cinematic play-through in HD... a no commentary version is best.  Probably the nearest a modern audience will ever get to experience that vanished age of optimism, industrial revolution enterprise and steam driven gadgets brought to life. And a good story that matches any film ever made, in visual splendour, scope, and imaginative sheer ambition...  A 'Gone with the Wind' classic of 3D open world effects

 The rest of the walk is also pleasant. Butterfly bush here.

Barclay Curle Crane.

Braehead Shopping Centre. I only went in here for the toilet then got the No 26 bus back to the ferry then walked home. An enjoyable outing. The 26 bus route also goes into Glasgow city centre from Paisley/ Braehead.

Chicken balti and rice to finish.

One thing I'd also like to mention is Craghopper trousers. I've been wearing them outdoors and hopping around Scotland for 40 years or more on the hills and urban areas. They always had zipped deep front pockets you could put car keys, money, wallet, credit cards in and know they would stay there even if the zip was left open accidentally. A recent trip to Go Outdoors was a total letdown as all the trousers I tried had tiny zipped front pockets a quarter of the old depth. Even one credit card might fall out of them with pocket unziiped. Weirdly, the back zipped pockets were still full hand depth. Totally useless as you would obviously sit on and probably break anything put inside. Who designs this rubbish? They were perfect before.  Why change them?

Likewise boots from Go Outdoors. Cheap ones.... i.e. less than £60 ... either not waterproof ( made of fabric instead of leather) or the soles fall off after a few months of light use ( probably swapped the glue for green friendly substitute) or ill fitting. Luckily Alan got me boots and full depth zipped trousers from a charity shop he was in for a fraction of the price Go outdoors wanted. Go outdoors used to be a reliable store for hill walkers. For some things... not now. Boots and trousers. No.

I also bought a bag of peat free compost in the spring. Planted two brand new packets of 60 seeds in trays, like I always do and only 2 out of 60 seeds came up. I also bought two full grown plants and put them in tubs of peat free compost. Both died a short time later despite being very healthy putting them in. Within a week. Turns out on inspection... peat free compost, when watered, dries as hard as concrete so maybe the roots can't thrive in it. I've not tried other brands. No point if it's a plant killer better than stuff used to get rid of stubborn weeds. I'm all for green alternatives... if they work.