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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Clyde
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The river which has been the heart of Scotland's industry. It rises in the Lowther Hills, in the extreme south of the Strathclyde region, and flows north past New Lanark. There, in the Falls of Clyde, it drops 75m/250ft in 6km/4m – providing crucial energy for cotton mills in the 18–19C and hydroelectric power today. Continuing northwest through Glasgow the river reaches the area known as Clydeside, with many miles of shipbuilding yards, a source of great prosperity in the past but increasingly uneconomic in the late 20C. The length of the Clyde is calculated as 170km/106m from the source of its main headwater, the Daer, to Dumbarton; it there becomes the Firth of Clyde, which stretches about 105km/65m (first west and then south) to the rocky island of Ailsa Craig which is considered its outer limit.
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