During the 19th and 20th Centuries, Govan was the centre of shipbuilding on the River Clyde with "clydebuilt" a shorthand word for robust design quality and workmanship. Since the decline of the shipbuilding industry and their closure 1989, Govan's dry (or Graving) docks have lain derelict. Private developers want to fill them in for high rise housing and retail. A remaining shipyard operator on the Clyde wants to rekindle shipbuilding, reopening them as dry docks again. A local community campaign has been running for the last 5 years to rescue them for industry, heritage, learning and tourism. The grass roots campaign also wants listen to marginalised voices, incorporating existing heritage, wild life, ethnic minority groups who live near by. Let battle commence and may the best vision win!!

During the 19th and 20th Centuries, Govan was the centre of shipbuilding on the River Clyde with "clydebuilt" a shorthand word for robust design quality and workmanship. Workers and their families lived in beautiful sandstone tenements with shops beneath. Philanthropic shipyard owners wives donated parks, health centres and supported the annual Govan Fair. The ships were designed, built, launched and celebrated by local people who defined themselves by their pride in the quality of the ships they produced. During the 20th Century, a policy of deindustrialisation by the UK sent shipbuilding into decline and by the 1980s only two yards remained. The granite built Victorian Dry Docks that had been so vital for the maintenance of Scottish ships, became redundant. Since the decline of the shipbuilding industry and their closure 1989, therefore, Govan's dry (or Graving) docks were sold to private housing developers and have lain derelict. The owners wanted to fill them in for high rise housing and retail: a proposal that was supported by a cash strapped local authority who saw the potential of rate paying home owners as an income stream. These plans were submitted to the Councils planning department in December 2018 but, mercifully, objections from the Scottish Environmental Protection Authority (SEPA) and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) supported objections from local activists and the plans for high rise flats were rejected. SEPA pointed out that due to climate change and rising water levels, the docks were situated on a flood plain and any housing built there would be in danger of flooding. HES were appalled at the lack of respect for this important A listed heritage monument During 2017/18, an alternative proposal emerged from one of the remaining independent shipyard operators on the Clyde who wants to rekindle shipbuilding, reopening them as dry docks again. This proposal was supported by the local community campaign that has been running for the last 5 years to rescue the docks for industry, heritage, learning and tourism. The exciting part of our story is the way grass roots campaigers have worked together with the industrialists, artists, academics and international groupings of cultural workers, politicians and key players in the European River Cities network to not only campaign for the preservation of the docks but also to create a viable, sustainable and deliverable partnership vision for their future. Starting as a campaign called Clyde Docks Preservation Initiative (https://clydedocks.wordpress.com) which attracted over 8000 signatures on an on line petition, the activists teamed up with the University of the West of Scotland, cultural charity, Fablevision, and members of the River Cities network first of all in Gdansk, Poland, where a similar story of activism has unfolded under the world famous banner of the workers Solidarity Movement and its famous leader, Lech Walesa. Artists worked together in both cities using participatory, engaged interventionist arts practice that engaged with local residents and listened to marginalised voices. Gradually, new ideas for alternative planning aspirations for both Govan's Graving Docks and Gdansk's shipyard area began to emerge: ideas that incorporate existing heritage, wild life, ethnic minority groups who live near by and also respect the memory of the workers (including women who have been largely written out of both histories). (https://waterfrontheritagenetwork.wordpress.com) During 2017, therefore, funded by Creative Scotland, artists and local people in Govan and Gdansk were able to learn each others stories and also reach out through the River Cities Network to other European cities with similar stories and histories. By 2018, a new project called Memory of Water had emerged: a six cities collaboration between Govan, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Levadia, Limerick and Ostend. All six cities are working with artists and activists, architects, planners, politicians and academics with a view to exploring further the issues, problems and barriers to the sensitive heritage development of our post industrial waterfront heritage zones (https://www.memoryofwater.eu). Collectively we are discovering the overwhelming problems of land ownership and the power of local voices, artistic interventionism and activism in challenging the default assumption that gentrification, homogenisation and the destruction of our precious heritage, memories and ethnic communities who have moved onto the derelict riverfront. Together we are discovering that individually, in our own cities, we imagine our situation to be unique but collectively we are discovering our voice through European Solidarity. Our European project called Memory of Water includes artist's learning and sharing, local people learning and sharing with ideas and findings feeding into politicians and policy makers. We will conclude our work in the summer of 2020 and in the meantime, our residencies, our urban laboratories, our digital dialogues and our sharing is gathering momentum. Meanwhile, back in Govan, the activists are forming a new entity called the Govan Docks Regeneration Trust (https://govandocks.wordpress.com). The plan is that this new entity will involve a powerful grouping of key players from industry, planning, academia, and national bodies in support of the more exciting, sustainable and heritage sensitive visions coming from local people. The trust is looking to utilise new Scottish Government legislation that gives communities not only the right to buy abandoned land but also to enforce sale if the owner is not able to demonstrate best use and community benefit. The challenge now is for the Govan Docks Regeneration Trust members to capture their vision and share it in a format that will be acceptable to planning departments and the Scottish Government. Watch this space!

European Heritage, whether tangible or intangible cultural heritage, is diverse and unique to each country within the European Union. There are commonalities and shared values however, which we have discovered through our story so far. Each of our countries (Scotland, Poland, Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Belgium) has a rich industrial history which has respected workers rights and has been inspired by the Solidarity movement. Each of us has a common history of welcoming refugees, asylum seekers and travellers and we are all able to share a similar tale to that of the plight of the show people of Govan who, when Glasgow turned its back on the polluted river, were allowed to settle there but now that the land values have increased are being threatened with eviction. We have also found many similarities in the treatment of women and ethnic minorities. In both Govan and Gdansk, for example, the important role of women has been erased from the official histories of both the Solidarity movement in Gdansk where Lech Walesa is the heroic male icon and the story of the workers sit in and Red Clydeside where Jimmy Reid is the the emblem of the activism. Through our joint discoveries and uncovering of the hidden histories of women, we have found that in both Govan and Gdansk, while the male heroes made the speeches, the women did the organising. All of us believe in listening to the voices of local people, respecting their memories and achievements, respecting and integrating "new" citizens whether immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees and the role of integrating our heritages (both tangible and intangible) and Memory of Water tells these stories as individual voices and as a collective movement.