THE Gourock Ropeworks in Port Glasgow once employed more than 1,000 people and quite a number would retire every year.

A very special retirement took place when the mill closed for the festive holidays in 1950.

It was the shutting down of a huge beam engine which had powered machinery for 75 years.

William McVeigh had been in charge of it for almost 40 years before retiring the previous year.

He is pictured when invited back to stop the engine for the last time.

Greenock Telegraph:

Its massive flywheel, which was 27ft in diameter, had been a familiar sight to generations of Port Glasgow residents walking down Clune Brae.

Built by the Glasgow firm of Turnbull, Grant and Jackson, the engine was installed in 1875 and considered at the time to be the most modern of its type.

In the early days it powered practically every piece of machinery in the mill. Its importance diminished over the years as one department after another turned to using electric motors.

Only a small proportion of the engine’s potential power was utilised latterly but it may have had a longer life but for the discovery of metal fatigue.

Broken up in March, 1951, the engine provided nearly 300 tons of scrap. Its flywheel alone weighed 80 tons.

The move to all-electric led to the mill consuming more electricity than any single works in the area.