Photographs July 2010...

BBC Scotland's L.A.B and Culture Café Broadcast...

Last month, BBC Scotland's L.A.B (Learn at BBC Scotland) visited 7 and a half John Wood Street and Ferguson's Shipyard in order to give the Comet Rebuilt team the BBC experience of creating an audio package for the L.A.B website. Most of the interviews were also used for a radio broadcast on the Comet Rebuilt Project as part of the BBC's Culture Café . The broadcast featured some of the workers talking about their memories of the Comet from when it sat in Port Glasgow's Civic Square, and also featured them discussing their current experience with the restoration. Kay Clark the heritage co-ordinator here at 7 and a half John Wood street was also interviewed; along with the Senior Productions manager from Ferguson's Shipyard - Raymond Brown. Hopefully what they had to say sheds some more light on the Comet Rebuilt Project and outlines what the project is trying to achieve. A recording of the Culture Café broadcast can be heard below.

However, it should be highlighted that most of what was used in the broadcast can also be found on the BBC L.A.B website (link also below) along with additional interviews conducted by the Comet Rebuilt team themselves. This collection of interviews has been put over a slideshow of photographs that were taken by myself while the interview process was underway at Ferguson's Shipyard. The video, or slideshow with audio rather, also features a couple of interviews with members of the public who were keen to express their opinions on the Comet restoration. These interviews took place in the busy Port Glasgow Town Centre - not far from the Comet space in the Civic Square where the Comet used to lie.

BBC L.A.B
(Culture Café recording coming soon.)

Buckie...

Recently, some of the staff from 7 and a half John Wood Street went on a trip to Buckie in the North East of Scotland to talk to some of the workers who were involved with building the Comet replica hull back in 1962.

It is a little known fact around Port Glasgow that the hull of the Comet replica was actually built in George Thompson's shipyard in Buckie and only transported down to Lithgow's yard in Port Glasgow once it was finished.

We allowed some of the workers involved with the building of the Comet replica hull to tell their story on camera in order to see how they got involved with not only the Comet replica, but also the shipbuilding industry as a whole.

The interview mainly focuses on the men from Buckie reminiscing about their experiences with the Comet replica and discussing their methods and techniques with Colin, who is in charge of the current operation.

However, they also went on to discuss the decline of the shipbuilding industry in Buckie - a discussion we were able to conclude the interview with by drawing parallels and similarities with the situation concerning shipbuilding in Inverclyde; driving home the unfortuneate truth that shipbuilding is indeed a dying trade and a tradition lost.

A 2 part 20 minute edit of the interview can be viewed below.