An ambition to commemorate the key role the shipbuilding industry played in the history of a town some 50 miles inland from the sea has been revealed as community leaders announced plans to acquire part of one of the last vessels built there.

Selby councillor Steve Shaw Wright said it was hoped to bring part of the 85-metre MV Hebridean Isles to the North Yorkshire town 39 years after children there were given the day off school to watch its side-first launch from Cochrane’s shipyard into the River Ouse.

Calmac ferries, which owns the ship built to take 507 passengers, has withdrawn it from service between islands such as Skye, Colonsay and Islay in north-west Scotland ahead of it being scrapped.

According to the North Yorkshire County Record Office there was a “substantial” shipyard on the banks of the Ouse in Selby, before the 1850s.

Cochrane moved there in 1898 and became one the area’s major employers until the yard’s closure in 1992, famously launching all its vessels sideways on, drawing crowds of onlookers.

The best known of Cochrane’s ships was the environmental protest group Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior II, which replaced Rainbow Warrior I, which was bombed in New Zealand’s Auckland harbour in 1985.

Cllr Shaw Wright, who is holding talks with Calmac bosses, said ideally it was hoped to acquire the ship’s bell or the name plate from Cochrane’s which could be displayed in the town hall or some other prominent place, adding to a few reminders of the town’s shipbuilding past.

He said: “There was a real sense of togetherness at the shipyard. If you got a job there you were probably working with your uncle, auntie, brother and cousin.

“The end of service of the Hebridean Isles seems to have grabbed the attention of quite a lot of people in Selby, particularly the sons and grandsons of people who worked there who believe there should be something in the town to mark its shipbuilding heritage and to remember everything that went on at the shipyard.”

Cllr Shaw Wright said it was also hoped to further celebrate the town’s shipbuilding heritage with a display of designs of Cochrane’s ships.

He said: “The gates to the shipyard are still there alongside an artwork in the car park called Sailing Through Time and we’ve got a replica of a stern of a Cochrane’s ship at the front of the council area we’ve got a prow of a Viking ship to indicate Selby’s been involved in shipbuilding for mellenia.

“If we end up with part of the ship we could put it in the community woodland at Bondgate where the mining memorial wheel is.

“The last ships that were built in Selby are now coming to the end of their working life, and because once these ships are gone that’s it, people want to do something to remember the heritage. The shipyard needs more public recognition and then the stories continue on and if we can kick start it with part of the Hebridean I’ll be really pleased.”