Significantly, no green oak appears on the former burgh coat of arms which features the three chalices of the Shaw Stewarts, a sailing ship in full sail and two herring above the motto God Speed Greenock.Įarly history: baronies and kirks The Old West Kirk of 1591, much altered over the years, was moved in 1928 to a new location, again close to the Firth of Clyde. The name is also recalled in a local song ( The Green Oak Tree). It reappeared in 1992 as the new shopping centre's name: The Oak Mall, which uses a green tree as its logo. Nonetheless the image has frequently been used as an emblem or logo, carved on public buildings, used on banners and badges, and was once emblazoned on the local Co-operative Society emblem. No reliable source has been found referencing green oaks, however, and so this has been generally dismissed as imaginative Anglophone folk etymology. The spelling Greenoak was found in two factory accounts dating back to 1717, and a legend developed of a green oak tree at the edge of the Clyde at William Street being used by fishermen to tie up their boats. Old Presbyterial records used Grenok, a common spelling until it was changed to Greenock around 1700. It was printed in early Acts of Parliament as Grinok, Greenhok, Grinock, Greenhoke, Greinnock, and later as Greinok. The name of the town has had various spellings over time. Johnston (1934) notes that "some Gaels call the seaport Ghónait", and that a possible derivation may be greannach, meaning "rough, gravelly". Smith in (1921) described the alternative derivation from Common Brittonic * Graenag, a "gravelly" or "sandy place", as more appropriate, accurately describing the original foreshore. The Scottish Gaelic place-name Grianaig is relatively common, with another (Greenock) near Callander in Menteith (formerly in Perthshire) and yet another at Muirkirk in Kyle, now in East Ayrshire. Watson wrote that "Greenock is well known in Gaelic as Grianáig, dative of grianág, a sunny knoll". It lies on the south bank of the Clyde at the " Tail of the Bank" where the River Clyde deepens into the Firth of Clyde. The 2011 UK Census showed that Greenock had a population of 44,248, a decrease from the 46,861 recorded in the 2001 UK Census. It forms part of a contiguous urban area with Gourock to the west and Port Glasgow to the east. Greenock ( / ˈ ɡ r iː n ə k/ ⓘ Scots: Greenock Scottish Gaelic: Grianaig, pronounced ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.
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