First Hampden Park dig part 2: discoveries and speculations

First Hampden Park dig part 2: discoveries and speculations

History teacher and new SGHET board member Thomas Oldham reports from the second half of the 7-day archaeological excavation at the site of First Hampden Park in Crosshill and reveals where they got to with exploring and mapping the world’s first modern football stadium …

Firstly, apologies for the delay in getting out report number 2. After the excitement of the first day, day two of the dig in Queen’s Park Recs. came to a quick halt after asbestos was found. From painful personal experience I can confirm that this is not stuff that we need to look any further into. It is horrible, should have been banned long before it was.

With the first pit’s findings inconclusive, attention then shifted to the geophysics work on the bowling green and Kingsley Gardens. And this is where my quip about ‘why dig?’ in my previous report comes home to roost…

Despite having a map seemingly showing us exactly where the pitch was, the digital mapping suggests it was actually a wee bit north and east. Or maybe other physical landmarks have also shifted a little? Either way, things were starting to show that everything is/was not quite as it seems in the archives. And this is why we dig!

With the new geophysics data in hand, the Kingsley Gardens dig began in earnest. Three plots were staked out and the turf was lifted (meanwhile the gardeners politely peeped to check their flowerbeds were untouched). Over time, all three sites revealed something quite flummoxing – a single plain of broken halves of bricks. Again, this is why we dig!

My instant instinct was that this was evidence of an early ‘astroturf’ – a pitch design to allow water to drain quickly through the turf and also maintain a good level surface.

Kieran and others from Archaeology Scotland had their own hypothesis – these bricks may actually have been the foundations of the stadium perimeter. After a lot of chat, digging and reflection on the wider history of the site they realised that this layer was probably the foundation of tennis courts that had been on the site.

Whatever is found in a dig can always be interpreted in a number of ways to support different hypotheses or versions of history, but therein is the joy of archaeology and history – however scientific and factual all the information laid in front of us is, something is always left to the imagination, or still has a question mark next to it.

We are invited to dream and wonder, and however recent the history under Kingsley Gardens, our imaginations were still wandering freely.

On Sunday 13th June 2021, on the site of the First Hampden Park, we were once again left to speculate, to theorise and to dream. Who knows what future investigations will reveal and confirm!

While football might not be coming home in its most visceral and physical form in 2021, we Scots / Glaswegians / Southsiders / Crosshill folk can remain safe in the knowledge that the game’s roots are snugly tucked up under some roses and neatly trimmed grass in the Southside of Glasgow.

As we at SGHET are a living, breathing and perpetually curious local heritage organisation I’d like to invite anyone with memories, knowledge or photos of Kingsley Gardens and First Hampden Bowling Club to share in the comments or get in touch with us directly.

Speculation and imagination are fun but knowledge and personal memories or stories are also great and we’d love to build on the various glimpses into and windows on the past that this archaeological dig has opened up.

By Tom Oldham

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Images by Tom Oldham (SGHET) and Kieran Manchip (Adopt-a-Monument Project Officer, Archaeology Scotland)

Read Part One: First Hampden Park Archaeological Dig

Find out more about about the First Hampden Park archaeology project at: https://hampdencollection.com/4326-2/

Follow Adopt-a-Monument and Hampdeners on Twitter

Discover more about the footballing history of First Hampden, Second Hampden and more on guided walks at https://glasgowfootballtour.com/walking-tour

Crosshill at 150

This article is also part of a series of local history and heritage coverage we’re publishing to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the founding of Crosshill in 1871 as an independent police burgh before eventually being annexed to the city of Glasgow in 1891. See #Crosshill150 on social media,