A NEW project telling the story of the Titan Crane on the Clyde has been awarded a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

A NEW project telling the story of the Titan Crane on the Clyde has been awarded a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

Schools and community groups across the West of Scotland will be able to learn the story of the world's first giant cantilever crane and how it helped build the world's biggest liners and battleships last century.

Today the Titan Crane is all that remains of John Brown's shipyards, famous for building the Queens, including the last, the QE2 launched in 1967.

Two years ago the Titan was restored as a visitor heritage centre by Clydebank Re-built, the town's urban regeneration company, as part of a wider redevelopment programme which includes the former shipyard site.

Visitors can now take the new fast lift 150ft up to the jib platform at the top of the Titan and go into the wheelhouse, where they can see the original crane workings and a small exhibition.

As part of the Lottery Fund grant, teachers will produce a schools heritage pack for visits and projects on the Titan.

A part-time heritage officer will develop an education programme for schools and community groups and a mobile exhibition on the Titan will take the story of the crane across central Scotland.

Eleanor McAllister, managing director of Clydebank Re-built, said: "We are absolutely delighted the Heritage Lottery Fund is supporting our first education programme at the Titan.

"This will enable us to keep the heritage of the crane and the former shipyards alive by reaching out to schools and community groups who would not normally be able to participate."

The award is the first of its kind to an urban regeneration company in Scotland.

Colin McLean, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Scotland, said: "Last year we started a drive to encourage more applications from deprived areas and as part of that our development team has been working with the six urban regeneration companies. We are delighted projects are now beginning to come through.

"The Titan crane education project is an exciting start. This landmark represents the once thriving industrial heritage of shipbuilding on the Clyde.

"That heritage will now be opened up to new audiences."

Any school or community group interested in the Titan education programme should contact Clare McGinley at Clydebank Re-built on 0141 951 3420.