The information in this page is largely taken from a small book entitled "History of Langbank" published privately by Bridget Mackenzie (no relation!) in 1981. It is the only major source of historical information about the village.
Langbank from East near West Ferry.
Langbank is situated on the
A8 less than 1 mile from the end of the M8, to the west of Glasgow(15
miles/24km) and lying between Paisley and Greenock in the West of Scotland.
It has good communications by road and rail and is only 10 minutes from
Glasgow International Airport. It is on the banks of the Clyde, opposite
Dumbarton Rock.
(Location
map)
The earliest known settlements in Langbank are the Crannogs which can just be seen as a pile of stones in the mud of the river. They are said to belong to the late Iron or early Bronze Age, i.e. from the same time as the Roman occupation, and are of Celtic origin. The crannog dwellers were of the Drumnonii tribe who were mainly farmers with the crannog being a fortified house in the river. Some artefacts were found when the Langbank crannog opposite the church was excavated in 1901/2.
The Romans must have been in the area but there is little evidence locally. They built the Antonine Wall which stretched from the R. Forth, on the east of Scotland, to the R. Clyde near Bishopton which lies just a few miles to the east of Langbank.There is a footpath in Ferryhill Woods to the east of the village which crosses a burn by a small stone causeway that is said to be Roman.
There is then a gap until the 12th century when the great estates were given out by Walter FitzAlan, High Steward of Scotland and founder of the Stewart royal family. The local estate of Finlaystone, to the west of the village, was one of these and had probably a partially fortified tower-house which has been replaced by the present house. A similar one is seen as part of Newark castle at Port Glasgow a few miles to the west. See Surrounding Area for more information about Finlaystone. There is little direct information about the village over the centuries but there is of the estates.
West Ferry, about half a mile to the east of the present village, was the site of an important ferry crossing from Dumbarton and is of uncertain vintage but it is known to have been used by King James IV in the late 15th century to visit his mistress in Kilmalcolm! An inn in this area was eventually pulled down in the 1960s. In the 1760s it is known that there was a turnpike road from Glasgow to Greenock along the Old Greenock Road behind the village and a map from 1793 has "Long Bank" written alongside it. In 1793 a new turnpike along the coast was started and would account for other new roads in the area but the main start to Langbank as a village was the coming of the railway in about 1850. Prior to this there were scattered farms but no centre although there was a school set up in 1815.
There were no churches in Langbank until the mid
1800s, people going either to Kilmalcolm or Erskine. In 1867 the United Free
Church was opened in what is now the Langbank Parish Church on the Main Road
and in 1867 the Church of Scotland was started in what is now known as East
Halls and recently converted into flats. The two churches eventually merged
in 1933.
The present village, apart from the houses, has one shop, one church, one primary school, one pub with restaurant, one community hall(the old school) and a part time doctors surgery! In 1998 a roundabout was constructed on the A8 at the eastern entrance to the village due to the number of accidents which have happened, some fatal, on this stretch of trunk road by the village.
St Vincents Centre which had been a seminary and latterly a retreat or holiday centre for the underprivileged has been redeveloped into luxury houses.
This section is being developed at the present time
In the immediate surrounding area there are a
couple of estates, Drums and Finlaystone, and Gleddoch House Hotel and
Country Estate.
Drums
This estate belongs to Sir William Lithgow having been in the family since
1884. The present Drums House is from the 18th century but probably is on the
site of an older building.
Finlaystone
To-day Finlaystone belongs to MacMillan familly and is the clan centre for
the Clan MacMillan.It is run by George and Jane MacMillan with other members
of the family living on the estate. It was looked after previously by General
Sir Gordon and Lady MacMillan who had inherited it from her mother. The
history of the estate can be traced back to the 12th century.
Gleddoch
This is now a prestigious hotel but the history is complicated with at least
four houses having had the name! It seems to date from 1793 when it was
closer to the village. The present one dates from 1926 when it was built by
Sir James Lithgow and where he lived until his death in 1950s. After his
widow moved out a few years later it was used for guests for Scott-Lithgow
shipyards until it became a hotel in the 1970s. The old main house part of
the hotel was gutted by fire in 2004 but is being rebuilt (Dec '05).
At the present time the following are the only
other known Langbanks:
As they say if you know differently, please let
me know!