The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club on Butterbiggins Road

From the late 1890s until about 1928, a small patch of ground just off Butterbiggins Road, near what we now call Eglinton Toll, was used to play one of the oldest games in the world – quoits – and was home to one of Glasgow’s most successful teams at the time, the St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club.

Quoits, pronounced ‘kites’ in many parts of Scotland, was a hugely popular game at this time, not just in Glasgow but across the country. There were around 40 clubs in Glasgow and about 200 clubs in Scotland affiliated to the Scottish Quoiting Association, with an average of 80 members each.

In those days, when heavy industry was prevalent in Glasgow, the game was very popular with working-class men, many of whom had moved to Glasgow from small towns and rural areas and had brought their enthusiasm for the game with them.

It was inexpensive to participate, could be played almost anywhere, and there was often a chance to win money. For instance, the winner of the 1913 Scottish Championship took home £100, a prize worth several thousand pounds now.

Games drew large crowds, eager to see their favourite player succeed, and to socialise, drink and gamble on the result. Due to its popularity, quoiting also attracted considerable press attention, often as much, if not more than other sports.

Away from the spotlight at the very top of the game, the sport was enjoyed by thousands of ordinary players. In 1901, the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News reported that – “Possibly the game may lead occasionally to the consumption of a great deal of beer, but he who is an enthusiast at quoits must surely be moderate if he is to play his best game.”

The St. Andrew’s Club took their name from an earlier name for Eglinton Toll, St Andrew’s Cross, so-called because of the saltire shaped intersection which was created there when Victoria Road was constructed in 1862 to connect Queen’s Park with Eglinton Street and the city.

The name Eglinton Toll was also in use in this period, possibly to distinguish other buildings from the triangular shaped gushet-building that stands between Eglinton Street and Pollokshaws Road, which to this day still has the name St. Andrew’s Cross engraved prominently on the outside wall.

In 1946 a barrier was erected between Pollokshaws Road and Victoria Road to ease the flow of traffic and the possibility of being able to travel in multiple directions was lost. The name St. Andrew’s Cross persisted for a few years and was still used on maps in the 1950s. Gradually however, the alternative name Eglinton Toll became more prominent and more commonly used.

One school of thought suggests that quoits originated in ancient Greece and was closely related to discus throwing. Arguably, a version of the sport that became known as quoits could have been played at the first Olympic Games, around 1453 BC, when the athlete who threw the disc or ring furthest was declared champion. Another theory is that the quoits developed from the game of horseshoe throwing, where the object was to pitch a horseshoe around a ring.

Henry V of England was known to have disliked quoits, probably because it distracted men from the business of sword fighting or archery. It was said ‘he as cordially hated the game as the devil did holy water’.

Mary I of England, Mary Tudor, was known to be a keen quoiter but her tutor Roger Ascham, author of ‘Toxophilus: The Art of Archery’ discouraged her, believing the sport to be ‘too vulgar for scholars’.

By the mid-nineteenth century the game had evolved into throwing the quoit – a heavy steel ring weighing at least 11 pounds, often much more – at a pin, often called a ‘hob’ or a ‘mott’ which was is in the middle of a clay or sand pit 18 yards away, sometimes 21 yards away.

According to J. M Walker, in ‘Rounders, Quoits, Bowls, Skittles and Curling’ (1892), there was considerable strength and skill involved in throwing a quoit – ‘In pitching it, the player should endeavour to put on a slight spin with his wrist, so that the missile may pass smoothly and at an angle of about 30 degrees horizontally through the air, the great aim being to make the quoit pitch, so as to ring or encircle the hob pin, or failing that to get as near as possible. Strength in the arms and shoulders, and quickness of sight, with a capacity for measuring distance, and dexterity of wrist are indispensable requisites for this game.’

While it is impossible to say exactly where or when people started to play quoits in Glasgow, there is evidence that it was already a popular and well-established sport in some quarters of the city, as far back as the 1840s. It was almost certainly a popular sport in small towns and rural areas for many decades prior to this time. No doubt the advent of the railways in the 1840s enabled players from far flung places like Paisley and Ayrshire to travel more easily to Glasgow and for Glaswegian players to compete outside the city.

There are newspaper reports in the Glasgow Herald and other newspapers in 1844 of a match played at Weir’s Curling and Quoiting Green in Tradeston near present-day Kinning Street for the princely sum of 100 sovereigns, more than £10,000 in today’s money, between David Weir of Glasgow and a Mr Smith from Mauchine in Ayrshire. David Weir, the proprietor of the Green, was a farmer from Mauchline originally, but his talent for quoits earned him a quoiting green in Glasgow and some degree of fame.

The game took place over five days in the middle of winter and attracted national attention. Eddowes’s Shrewsbury Journal reported that –

‘On no match at quoits ever played in Glasgow was there so much betting, or half the amount of excitement as to the result. In Liverpool, where heavy bets were pending, the result was anxiously looked for’.

‘This game, in the month of December – usually devoted to the sport of curling – was somewhat out of season; but the weather was highly favourable, and the spectators were numerous. The betting at first was even, but after the first day’s play Smith was the favourite, and slight odds were offered and freely taken. Latterly however, three to one was offered on Smith with no takes. The games were frequently so prolonged that, although the players commended each day at eleven o’clock, it was quite dark before they finished, and an artificial light was not allowed. In the dark, Smith, although alleged by his supporters to be short-sighted, had always the best of the play; and on Wednesday night displayed more skill, and played far more successfully, than he had done during the day.’

Weir’s Green also played host to a benefit match later that year, featuring ‘the most celebrated players from around Scotland’ to raise funds for the widow of a player killed by a quoit in Port Dundas, so it is reasonable to assume there was also a quoiting ground located there.

That same year, elsewhere in Tradeston, on Centre Street, a Mr John Norris became proprietor of Tradeston New Washing Green and Quoit Ground. Watchmen patrolled the ground day and night, to protect property left by clients and quoit playing was permitted within the grounds at ‘a very low charge’. The price for season tickets was described as ‘moderate’.

There was a ground in Shettleston belonging to Mr Paton, another on Garscube Road, sometimes referred to as the Springfield Grounds, belonging to a Mr Melaugh and other clubs in Pollokshields and Pollokshaws.

Pub landlords were often more than happy to allow the game to be played on vacant ground outside their premises. There was known to be a quoiting ground outside the Black Bull Inn on Argyle Street.

One particular quoiting ground came to prominence in the 1860s, on Greendyke Street next to Glasgow Green, which was already the focus of most sporting activity within the city. Open, public space within the city boundaries was limited and increasingly difficult to find, so the Green attracted players from many different sports, many would-be sportsmen, and occasionally women, eager to test themselves and try something new…

James Banks McNeil, a boatbuilder, swimming instructor and one of the proprietors of the St Andrew’s Baths on Greendyke Street, saw an opportunity and provided space for a dedicated quoiting ground outside the baths, which became known as the St Andrew’s Baths Quoiting Ground.

In June of 1865, the inaugural competition at the new ground attracted Robert Walkinshaw, from Carlops in the Borders, who was then British Champion. He defeated all the best players from Glasgow and then afterwards graciously declared that the new ground ‘…is not surpassed by any other in Scotland, either for practice or match playing’.

The St. Andrew’s Baths closed in the early 1870s and was converted to a clothing warehouse. The closure likely came about because more and more people were moving westwards, and southwards, out of the city, to escape overcrowding and pollution and newer, more modern bathing facilities were being built or would soon be built. Byelaws and regulations also began to restrict what was able to happen on or near the Green, so the quoiters on Greendyke Street would have had to find another place to play.

A connection between those players and the club that would later emerge in Govanhill, called St Andrew’s, is tempting to imagine but unlikely; the shared name is probably just coincidence. Many clubs and organisations were keen to use the name St. Andrew’s to reinforce their Scottish credentials.

The opening of Queen’s Park Recreation Grounds in 1862 began to ease the pressure on Glasgow Green. This new public park would provide the opportunity for popular and emerging sports to be played and enjoyed. One of the earliest known organised events on the grounds was a pony race in 1864. By the end of the decade, many other sports including golf, cricket, bowling, rounders and of course football would gravitate towards this new space which was at the time outside the city boundaries, almost in the country.

Modern association football was in its infancy and Queen’s Park, the oldest football club in Scotland, played all their early matches on the Recreation Grounds before sectioning off part of the estate and building their own stadium, the first Hampden Park.

It soon became impossible to accommodate every fledgling sports club, would-be-athlete, or group of lads just looking for a kick-about on the new Recreation Grounds. Many vacant patches of ground in the rapidly developing southside were transformed into places to play, some temporarily, just for a few hours on a particular day, some permanently, for several years, into proper sports fields.

Prior to building the first Cathkin Park, Queen’s Park’s great rivals, the Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers, played on Victoria Park, on Victoria Road, located somewhere between Calder Street and Allison Street. A long-forgotten team called Crosshill Athletic played their matches on Coplawhill Park, just north of Calder Street. Another team called Glasgow Wanderers played on Eglinton Park, where Inglefield Street and Govanhill Park is today.

Whether quoiters found space in or near Queen’s Park Recreation Grounds at this time is unknown. The area on the north side of Butterbiggins Road was still private land but given the popularity of quoits at the time, especially amongst working men, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that it was being played in the area slightly to the north and east of the park known as Fireworks Village in the Lands of Govanhill, which lay outside the municipality of Glasgow and was home to a significant population of mineworkers, ironworkers and agricultural workers.

Those workers were known to have enjoyed their recreation. There was a reservoir at the junction of Cathcart Road and Aikenhead Road which was designed to provide water to Govan Iron Works, better known as Dixon’s Blazes, just to the north. That reservoir or Dixon’s Pond as it became known, was a favourite swimming, fishing and skating spot for the denizens of Fireworks Village. If they were enjoying those loosely organised pastimes, they were no doubt playing other unregulated games as well.

In 1877, the population of Fireworks Village and the surrounding area had increased sufficiently, earning the district the status of a ‘populous place’, which allowed the Burgh of Govanhill to be formed. Around the same time, the western portion of the Larkfield estate on the north side of Butterbiggins Road was sold. The area was not instantly transformed but a new railway junction was constructed that year, linking the Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilson line, with the Polloc and Govan Railway line, which became known as the Larkfield Junction.

The Scottish Quoiting Association was formed in 1880, with over 60 member clubs from across the country, including 10 clubs from in and around Glasgow, the Gardner Street Club, the Camlachie Club, the Clydesdale Club, based in Kinning Park. Two clubs from Barrhead, the Caledonian Club, the Arthurlie Club and other clubs from Whiteinch, Pollokshields, Pollokshaws and the Govan Manse Club.

There was not yet a registered club near St. Andrew’s Cross but the Larkfield Junction was greatly expanded in the late 1890s, and other manufacturing businesses had set up in the area, including a ropeworks, a cooperage and even an organ builder, so the number of working men in the vicinity of Butterbiggins Road would have increased and inevitably they would look to play sports in their free time, including quoits.

The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club and the ground on Butterbiggins Road, is first mentioned in the press in 1898, in a match against Springside Kilmarnock. The Kilmarnock Club won convincingly on that occasion by 100 shots to 44.

Despite that early defeat, the St. Andrew’s Club would go on to become one of the most successful clubs in Scotland in the early twentieth century, regularly competing in the Glasgow League and regional and national competitions, and notably in the most prestigious individual tournament open to Glasgow, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire players, the Wylie Cup, dubbed ‘Glasgow’s Premier Competition’ and the winner was considered the Champion of Glasgow.

The Wylie Cup competition was organised and hosted by Stanley Club, based on Scotland Street in Kinning Park, from 1901. This prestigious trophy was the gift of Baillie Wylie, an enthusiastic player, who donated this valuable prize in order to promote has favourite sport.

Unfortunately, the Stanley Club disbanded in 1909 and so care of the trophy and the honour of hosting the competition transferred to the St Andrew’s Club at Butterbiggins Road. One of the members of St Andrew’s, whose name only appears in results as J. Dalrymple, won the Wylie Cup at least 5 times between 1903 and 1914.

Many of the members of St. Andrew’s could have been iron workers employed at the nearby Dixon’s Blazes or locomotive builders, working for the North British Railway Company at the Queen’s Park Yard, tram workers employed at the recently opened Coplawhill depot, workers from the nearby St Andrew’s Cross Electricity Station or even miners working in one of several local collieries.

Quoits were available commercially but amongst the ranks of enthusiastic players, there would have been skilled metal workers, capable of crafting a metal ring, suitable for playing quoits and well-matched to the hand of the individual. Also, many former footballers, keen to continue competing, and to supplement their wages, took up quoits after retiring from football.

In 1912, the Scottish Referee reported that:

‘…the game is the oldest of our sports and has undoubtedly the most skilful. Not only that, but it requires stamina to last a match playing sometimes for six hours at a stretch with quoits weighing anything up to twenty-four pounds. This is perhaps the reason why some of our well-known professional footballers have taken so well to the game.

Many of them play regularly, one notable personality being A. Brown, late of Tottenham Hotspur and Middlesbrough, who, while playing football, was capped for Scotland against England in seasons 1902 and 1904. He plays second to Matthew Park in the Glenbuck Club and had much to do with the defeat of East Calder in the Scottish Cup a week ago. The Glenbuck team also includes Tom Bone, the champion of Britain, and pitching enthusiasts have a treat in store list have a treat in store when Glenbuck visit Glasgow on 6 July to oppose St Andrew’s in the semi-final round of the Scottish Association Cup.’

The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club was known to still be active in 1927, but within a year the club would probably have had to disband or relocate when the Larkfield estate was taken over by Glasgow Corporation, the chosen site for a new bus depot which was, when it opened two years later, the largest of its type in Glasgow.

What became of the club after this time is unclear; the exploits of other clubs continued to be reported on in the press throughout the 1930s but no reliable reports or even results for the St Andrew’s Club have yet been discovered.

There was, unexpectedly, a brief mention of a club called St. Andrew’s in the press in 1937 playing a match against the Parkhead Forge team but whether this club had any connection to the one based in Govanhill is impossible to know for certain.

Traditional quoiting is very much a minority sport now, but there are accessible, safer variations of the game still played around the country and abroad. The old game, sometimes called the long game, enjoyed its greatest moments in the industrial era, in the days of large workforces, when many men were engaged together in manual labour, and strength and skills like dexterity, and hand-eye coordination, were highly valued.

Social and cultural changes since those days have seen the sport suffer a near-terminal decline. The Scottish Quoiting Association has been disbanded for many years, but a handful of clubs survived until the 1990s, including the Tarbothie Club from Shotts, near Glasgow.

Now there is just one solitary club left in Scotland, the Dunnotar Quoiting Club from Stonehaven in the northeast of the country, still competing with clubs from England and Wales, and who are valiantly striving to keep the old game alive.

Published: 7th February 2023

About the author: Bruce Downie
Bruce has been a board member of South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust since 2019, and chair since 2021. He is the author of ‘Loved and Lost: Govanhill’s Built Heritage’ first published by Govanhill Baths in 2019. Then in 2021, he wrote ‘99 Calder Street: A History of Govanhill Baths and Washhouse‘. A second, revised and expanded edition of ‘Loved and Lost: Govanhill’s Built Heritage’ was published in 2022. Bruce also runs a walking tour company called Historic Walking Tours of Glasgow.

Setptember 2023 update: you can now listen to an audio version of the blog read by Bruce Downie here on our new podcast show Southside Chronicles on Glad Radio!

Sources:

British Newspaper Archive
National Library of Scotland, Maps
‘Rounders, Quoits, Bowls, Skittles and Curling’ by J. M. Walker (G. Bell, 1892)

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Bruce Downie immerses himself in some of the oldest known references to Polmadie, and explores the history of the ancient hospital. Get lost in a world of medieval references and travel through Polmadie’s history via kings, popes, pigs and recycling.

In the 19^th century, Polmadie, just east of what we now know as Govanhill, was one of the busiest industrial areas of Glasgow. Notable businesses located there included Dübs and Company – later called the North British Locomotive Company who made steam trains that were sent all over the world – and Alley and McLellan, engineers who built steamships and the renowned Sentinel steam waggon, spelled with two g’s.

There has long been debate about the meaning of the name Polmadie’. The most commonly accepted interpretation is provided in Colonel James Robertson’s ‘Gaelic Topography of Scotland’ (1869) that Polmadie is derived from two Gaelic words, ‘Pol’ for pool and ‘maddah’ for wolf, translating as ‘the wolf’s pool’ or ‘the pool haunted by wolves’.

Today, Polmadie is still largely an industrial area of Glasgow, home to the Alstom train depot, one of the largest train depots in Scotland, where Virgin Trains and other operators stable and repair their carriages. It is also home to the Viridor Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre, previously the Polmadie Refuse Works (which opened in 1958).

However, Polmadie and in particular the site of the Viridor Recycling Centre, on Polmadie Road near the junction with Calder Street, was the likely location of the Ancient Hospital of Saint John the Apostle, or the Hospitti Sanct Johannis de Polmadde in Cliddesdale as it would have been known in official documents. Built in the thirteenth century or possibly even earlier, this hospital was for the relief of pensioners, poor men and women, and possibly as a place of rest for pilgrims and travellers.

Establishing exactly when the hospital was created is impossible. Some historians have speculated that it was built in the twelfth century, during the reign of David I (1124-1153) because of the interest he took in the area, giving the Lands of Govan to the Church of Glasgow and granting Rutherglen the status of a royal burgh but a connection to the hospital cannot be proven.  According to the ‘Origines Parochiales Scotia’, published in 1851, the hospital was known to be in existence during the reign of Alexander III (1249 to 1286) because of a charter granted to the hospital by Robert the First in 1316. In that charter, the ‘Registerum Episcopatus Glasguenis’

‘Be it known that we confirm to the Master, brothers and sisters of the hospital of Polmadie, near Ruglen, all the rights and privileges they were accustomed to have in the time of my predecessor, King Alexander, and we have forbid that anyone should presume to oppress or annoy the said Master, brothers or sister against this our confirmation.’

The Mastership or ‘de custodia’ of the hospital was a coveted position but perhaps not as influential as some hoped. The remote location may have suited the residents but may also have been frustrating to men of ambitious temperament, eager to advance their careers.

“Oot o’ the world and into Polmadie”

An old phrase ‘oot o’ the world and into Polmadie’ may indicate just how far the hospital was from court or civic life but Polmadie has always been an outlier of sorts, a kind of no man’s land because it has always been divided by the boundary between Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire and between the parishes of Govan and Cathcart.

In fact, in the 19^th century, when modern municipal burghs were being established and new boundary lines were being drawn part of the area could not be easily classified, and was thus known for a while, at least informally, as No Man’s Land.

Despite being defeated at Bannockburn just a few years earlier, in 1319 Edward II still harboured ambitions of conquering Scotland, much like his father before him. From the relative safety of York, he ineffectually nominated several English priests to Glasgow prebends, including Guliemus de Houk as Master of the Hospital in Polmadie, but Guliemus was unlikely to have ever served in that position.

That same year, Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow, a friend of King Robert, constituted Patrick Floker as ‘Master and Guardian of the Home’ with the power of ‘restraining the excesses and correcting the faults of the brothers and sisters therein or of removing them for their delinquency’.

In order to attend to his duties in Polmadie he was given dispensation for non-residence at his church on his lands in Kilbryde, provided that he took care that it was not left ‘destitute of the due celebration of divine duties.’

A sixteenth century link between Polmadie and Crosshill or earlier?

Floker would have been able to rely on revenues from the Lands of Polmadie which, tradition suggests, included what we know today as Crosshill. Proof that Polmadie and Crosshill were indeed linked only comes to light two hundred years later during the Reformation when land was secularised.

In 1564, the land was feued to Sir John Stuart of Minto, Knight, a Provost of Glasgow, by Robert, Bishop of Caithness, Provost of the Collegiate Church of Dumbarton, with the consent of Mathew, Earl of Lennox, the patron. The feu charter reads ‘All and singulars the five merk land of Polmadie and Crosshill’, a clear indication that the two places had been linked for some time, leading many historians to suggest and believe that Crosshill had been part of the outfield lands of the hospital.

The name of Crosshill probably comes from a cross that stood at the top of the hill, probably marking the southern boundary of the hospital’s lands. According to the Statistical Accounts of Scotland from 1845, – ‘the cross erected at the top of Crosshill was made of hard stone, ten feet high and three and a half feet broad, ornamented with various figures. The most remarkable has that of our saviour riding upon an ass. This religious monument fell, the sacrifice to the fury of a mob during the civil wars’, that is, during the seventeenth century.

Even so, these revenues were not quite sufficient for Floker to maintain divine services in Kilbryde and provide for the pensioners in Polmadie, so in 1320, the Bishop of Glasgow granted him part of the Lands of Little Govan, laying between the hospital and the western boundary of those lands, probably taking in some parts of present-day Govanhill.

Strains, strife & power struggles over the hospital in the medieval period

In 1333, the Earl of Lennox, granted the Master ‘a charter of exemption’, freedom from all kinds of services, burdens, and extractions both as regards their own house (the hospital) and the Church of Strathblane. In 1334, Adam, son of Alan, Burgess of Dumbarton lent the Hospital a sum of money ‘in their necessity’.

On the 18^th of May, 1347, Margaret, wife and Queen to David II, ‘by grant of her Lord the King, made on her behalf from the Bishop of Glasgow, William de Kirkintulloch, Master of the Hospital.’

On May 10^th, 1391, a precept from Bishop Glendoning of Glasgow directed the Master, brothers and sisters to receive Gillian de Vaux and ‘grant her all the rights due to a sister and portioner of their house during her lifetime.’

In 1403, the Earl of Lennox appointed William de Cunnyngham, Vicar of Dundonald as Master of the Hospital, but the Bishop of Glasgow opposed this appointment, claiming that Cunnyngham ‘had intruded himself into the administration of the Poor’s House of Polmadie’. The bishop laid claim to ‘the right of presentation’ and threatened Cunnyngham with excommunication if he dared to take up the post.

This tension between the Church and the Lennoxes continued until a summit in 1424, held in the west chapel of Edinburgh Castle where Duncan, Earl of Lennox, surrendered to Bishop William Lauder, any and all supposed rights he and his progenitors had to the hospital.

The beginning of the end for Hospital of St John the Apostle in Polmadie

In 1427, Bishop Cameron, with the consent of the chapter, erected the Hospital and the Church of Strathblane into a prebend of Glasgow Cathedral, basically ensuring that the Bishop retained the patronage. This was confirmed by a Papal Bull, signed by Pope Martin V, two years later, in 1429.

The Bishop then appointed a clerk ‘cantu bene et notabiliter instructus’ to manage Polmadie and Strathblane. The clerk was instructed or ordained to raise the money to pay a vicar in the Church in Strathblane and to teach and instruct four chorister boys in singing, giving them 16 merks annually for sustenance.

This arrangement was almost certainly the beginning of the end for the Hospital at Polmadie. The final blow came around 1453, when the Lands of Polmadie, including Crosshill, (those parts of Crosshill in Govan parish anyway) and the Church of Strathblane were without any apparent objection from Bishop Muirhead of Glasgow, disjoined from the hospital and handed over the Collegiate Church of Saint Mary in Dumbarton, which had recently been founded by Isabella, Countess of Lennox.

Nothing now remained to the Ancient Hospital of its original endowments, and we can only conjecture that without sufficient financial support it fell into decline and eventually closed. That decline may have been accelerated by the building of a new hospital in 1470, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, established with similar aims, of which only one part remains, known today as the Provand’s Lordship, near Glasgow Cathedral.

Nothing remains of the hospital at Polmadie, but the best evidence for its location comes from a number of sources. Joan Blaeu’s map of 1654, shows a house near a place called Pomadi, which may have been the original hospital building, long fallen into disuse, but could equally have been a small settlement because other villages are indicated in the same way.

More conclusive proof comes from a well-documented and tragic incident which took place in 1685, in the village of Old Polmadie, believed to have been built around the ruins of the hospital, in which three Covenantors were apprehended and executed for their beliefs. The Covenantors were buried in the churchyard of Old Cathcart Parish Church and are known to this day as The Polmadie Martyrs.

In 1755, the Roy Military Survey, the first systematic map of Scotland, shows a number of buildings in Polmadie, a clear indication that there had been a village in that location for a number of years.

In 1793, according to The Statistical Account of Scotland, there were ‘vestiges of religious houses’ in the grounds of the farm-house in the village, much older than the farm itself, which were assumed to be part of the ancient hospital or of its outbuildings.

According to the census, in 1851, there were fifty miner’s families living in Polmadie and over two-thirds of them were Irish. There were two main streets in the village one called Young’s Row and the other called Paterson’s Row.

The ‘vestiges of religious houses’ and the village itself had been built over by the late nineteenth century and replaced by tenements, schools, churches and shops, part of a much larger thriving area, but the farmhouse itself remained in place until around 1914, downgraded to a piggery, surrounded and eventually overwhelmed by industry.

Thankfully, its appearance on modern maps, on the site currently occupied by the Viridor Recycling Centre, provides us with the most likely location of the ancient hospital.

By Bruce Downie

Published: 19th August 2021

Image sources:

1. The Viridor Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre, Polmadie Road (photo by Bruce Downie)

2. Polmadi in ‘Praefectura Renfroana, vulgo, dicta Baronia. The Baronie of Renfrow’ From Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654; reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland

3. Polmadie in The Roy Military Survey, 1747-1755; accessed via National Library of Scotland maps online; reproduced by kind permission of the British Library

4. Polmadie area in Ordnance Survey, 1858; reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland

5. Polmadie in Ordnance Survey, 1910; reproduced by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland

6. The Viridor Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre, Polmadie Road (photo by Bruce Downie)

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My great aunt Mary died when I was a baby. I don’t recall meeting her. She was my father’s maternal aunt. My mother told me when I was older that she was a nurse during World War One and showed me a family album with her photo in nurse’s uniform.

When my parents died, I inherited the album. I went to look at it in 2015, as I knew there was a photo of Mary’s brother, Thomas, who was killed 100 years ago at the battle of Loos, and I wrote about him.

Sometime later, I was looking at the National Archives website and saw that nurses’ records had now been digitised. I ordered a copy of the records not knowing what I would receive. It turned out to be forty plus pages. These were not in any order and took me some time to sort. Although there are some missing, they still give a remarkably clear idea of her work as a nurse from when she enrolled in the Territorial Forces Nursing Service in 1909 until she finally retired from it (renamed Territorial Army Nursing Service in 1921) in 1933.

I had noticed in her records that although most correspondence was sent to the family home in Queen Mary Avenue, Crosshill, the occasional item was sent to the Headquarters of an organisation called the Glasgow and West of Scotland Co-Operation of Trained Nurses in Sardinia Terrace. Sardinia Terrace, I found, is not far from here, it is the  top end of Cecil Street. I later attended Hillhead Primary School, and for seven years must have – unbeknownst to me – have been very close to where my great-aunt was located.

As part of the Hidden Histories team, I made a visit to the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre. In addition to the suffrage material we had asked to see, various other material relating to women’s work had been put aside for us. One of these was the 1933 Annual Report of the Nurses’ organisation-and it showed by great-aunt’s name on it! Since then I have been trying to find out more, both about where my great-aunt served and about the organisations she belonged to.

This is a timeline of her life. It includes archival details, such as the list of equipment required for overseas nurses, and her arrival at the hospital when it was a few “partially constructed buildings in a sea of mud:”

25^th December 1877             

Born 3 Nellfield Place Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, and registered in 1878.

1891 CENSUS                       

Still with parents in Old Machar.

1901 CENSUS

With parents at 37 Finlay Drive  Dennistoun, Glasgow.

1902-1906

Trained at Western Infirmary.

July 1906

Mary became a member of the Co-operation of Trained Nurses in Sardinia Terrace. This is the first time her name appears in the list of nurses in the Society. Mrs Elder, Govan philanthropist, was previously president of the co-operation.

12^th March 1909       

Enrolled in Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) as Staff Nurse. The TFNS was established by R. B. Haldane (March 1908) following the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act (1907). It was to provide nursing staff for the twenty-three territorial force general hospitals planned for the United Kingdom in the event of war. Hospitals were allocated a staff of ninety-one trained nurses and included two matrons, sisters, and staff nurses, supervised by a Principal Matron.

November 1909

A bazaar raises over £4000 for the Co-Operation.

1911 CENSUS

Location unknown.

21^st December 1914  

Mobilised. Stationed at Scottish Military Hospital No 3 (Stobhill)

26^th September 1915

Mary’s brother is missed presumed killed at the Battle of Loos.

21^st December 1915  

Still at Stobhill. Report on Mary by Matron Jean Chapman:

“Miss Mary M Geddes was mobilized on the 21^st December 1914 and has served under me for twelve months. Her ward work has been very satisfactory. She has taken an interest in instructing and training the orderlies and has got good work from them. She is capable, punctual and her influence generally is very good. I think she is well suited for the position she holds at present.”

Captain John Gracie (Medical Officer at Stobhill) writes that she is “fit for active service.” Report is signed also by Principal Matron Helen Gregory Smith.

21^st December 1916  

Still at Stobhill. Report on Mary by Matron Alicia Hope Kerr (originally from Leith):

“She is a good nurse, punctual, energetic, capable in her work and kind to her patients. Miss Geddes has acted Sister with satisfaction.”

4^th April 1917

Mary signs Army Form W 3548 agreeing to serve overseas.

12^st December 1917  

Still at Stobhill Report on Mary by Matron Alicia Hope Kerr:

“A good surgical nurse and has had experience in eyes, nose and throats and skin wards. She is punctual, energetic, reliable, and very kind to her patients. Miss Geddes is considered suitable for foreign service.”

15^th December 1917 

Captain R Barclay Ness (RAMC) formally certifies that Mary is in “a fit state of health to undertake nursing duties in a military hospital abroad.”

NURSES’ OVERSEAS ACTIVE SERVICE EQUIPMENT

The following articles are to be provided by all members when proceeding on active service abroad.

Uniform only is to be taken; no plain clothes are required.

An allowance of £8. 5s. for active service equipment, and £7. 10s. for camp kit will be given to each member.

1 Trunk not to exceed 30 x 24 x 12 inches
1 Hold-all
1 Cushion with washing covers.
1 Rug
1 Pair gum boots
1 Small candle lantern
1 Small oil-stove and kettle
1 Flat-iron
1 Looking glass
1 Roll-up, containing knife, fork, dessert-spoon, and teaspoon
1 Cup and saucer
1 Tea-pot or infuser
1 Secure tent strap

Instruments
2 Pairs scissors
2 Pairs forceps
2 Clinical thermometers

Camp Kit
1 Portable camp bedstead
1 Bag for ditto
1 Pillow
1 Waterproof sheet, 7ft. by 4ft. 6in.
1 Tripod washstand with proofed basin, bag, and bath
1 Folding chair
1 Waterproof bucket
1 Valise or kit bag to hold the above-mentioned articles with owner’s name painted upon it.

STAFF NURSES’ TIMETABLE

6 a.m. Called
6. 30 a.m. Prayers
6. 35 a.m. Breakfast
7 a.m. Wards
9 a.m. Light lunch and dress
9. 30 a.m. Wards
12. 30 p.m. Lunch
1 p.m. Wards
4 or 5 p.m. Tea
4. 30 or 5. 30 p.m. Wards
8 p.m. Dinner
10. 30 p.m. Bedrooms
11 p.m. Lights out

Times off
Three hours every day, from
9. 30 to 12. 30 or
2 to 5
5 to 8
Half a day every week from 2 to 10
A whole day every month from 6 p.m. previous day to 10 p.m. following day.

Staff nurses on night duty
Hours from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
A night off once a month
Two months consecutive duty

20^th January 1918    

Mary joins 73 General Hospital and starts her journey to Trouville at Talbot Road Railway Station (later Blackpool North) and then crosses the channel on the HMT Courtfield.

This was a “Base Hospital.” They were part of the casualty evacuation chain, further back from the front line than the Casualty Clearing Stations. In France and Flanders, the British hospitals were generally located near the coast, often in pre-war buildings such as seaside hotels. They were close to a railway line, in order for casualties to arrive (some also came by canal barge); and were near a port where men could be evacuated for longer-term treatment in Britain.

24^th January 1918    

According to the hospital War Diary:

“After many delays and much discomfort, owing to overcrowding and shortage of rations, the Transport reached le Havre at 7am on 24^th January.”

After their journey from Blackpool to le Havre, the Units marched to a rest camp. On the 25^th, a paddle steamer took them to Trouville, where a band from the adjacent Convalescent Camp welcomed them. At that stage, the camp consisted of “partially constructed buildings in a sea of mud.” In addition “the nurses’ quarters were not nearly ready for occupation, none of the Ward Blocks were completed, there were no paths, and the site was littered with builders’ debris.” Everyone including officers had to help turn the site into the largest yet constructed, with 2,500 beds. Luckily, they were on a ridge above the sea with a “wonderful view of the valley.”

23^rd February 1918  

Twenty-two more nurses and nursing VADs arrive. A VAD was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachments with some basic training in nursing. The VADs carried out a range of voluntary positions including nursing, transport duties, and the organization of rest stations, working parties and auxiliary hospitals. Women were taught first aid, home nursing and hygiene by approved medical practitioners. They also took classes in cookery. Men were trained in first aid in-the-field and stretcher bearing. Talented VADs could take specialist classes to become a masseuse or use an x-ray machine. Famous VADs include Vera Brittain and Agatha Christie.

Start March 1918     

Work on plumbing and improving “very backward” electric light is ongoing but proves difficult due to heavy snowstorms and frost.

7^th March 1918         

First convoy of 399 patients arrives: “mostly stretcher cases.” On a daily basis, recovering patients are sent to Convalescent Depot No 14. On 26^th March for example, 458 patients are discharged from No 73. The hospital War Diary notes that patients had to be clothed first. In the three weeks in March that the hospital was operational it treated 3805 patients.

3^rd April 1918

40 RAMC reinforcements arrive.

During April  1918

By the end of April, the hospital had 67 General Surgery VADS out of an establishment of 124.

28th May 1918

Report on Mary from Matron Kathleen A Smith, 73 General Hospital in Trouville notes that Mary performed special duties in the field of surgical nursing and that she had acted as Sister in charge of a ward. Smith writes:

“A very good practical nurse but rather slow.”

Spring 1918

German Army breakthrough causes serious concern in Trouville.

June 1918

Concerns about possible attacks by hostile aircraft. Two wards per block were sandbagged and protective trenches dug. Hospital has “population of 3000.”

June –July 1918                   

American Hospital train takes patients to and from Trouville.

August 1918

Large number of admissions to hospital “a full train averaging 425 every third day.” Post Office built “very badly needed.”

15^th September 1918

Ophthalmic centre opened. It was a converted Nissen hut with waiting room, test room with two dark rooms, operating room, and work area for the optician.

October 1918

Hospital “severely taxed.” Many patients coming direct from front line rather than through usual chain of command. Over 1400 in this category, including 91 dangerously ill (20 being penetrating chest wounds). Hospital received additional staffing of Canadian nurses & doctors. The influenza outbreak also hit the hospital. “The nursing was very heavy.” Of the 4998 patients admitted during October; 4957 are discharged.

10^th October 1918                 

123 staff working at 73 General Hospital.

23^rd November 1918 

73 General Hospital visited by Princess Mary. This is the first post-war visit to France by a member of the Royal Family. Princess Mary herself trained as a VAD. She visited the “Eye Department.” My great-aunt’s annual evaluation in January 1919  states “she is especially fitted for ophthalmic nursing” so it would be nice to think that she was working there at the time of the Princess’s visit.

January 1919

Patients gradually being sent back to UK, as hospital winds down. Recovered patients kept amused by daily visits to the cinema, whist drives, and concerts.

21^st January 1919

Mary still at 73 General Hospital. Matron Kathleen A. Smith says:

“Her general professional ability is good, and she is especially fitted for ophthalmic nursing, her administrative capacity is very fair. Her power of initiative and ability to instruct others is good. With the exception of a rather abrupt manner of speech her vocal communications are good. Miss Geddes acted in charge of the ophthalmic block for a short time and gave satisfaction. She is fitted for promotion to Ward Sister.”

20^th March 1919       

No 37 Casualty Clearing Station commences move from Busigny, Northern France, to Deutz-Koln, Germany.

3^rd April 1919

Along with seven others, Mary now “on strength” at the Station.

2^nd June 1919

Visit to Deutz Cologne by Matron in chief Maud McCarthy.

3^rd April 1919

Mary now temporarily attached to Queen Alexandra Imperial Army Nursing Service and posted to 37 Casualty Clearing Station, Deutz, Cologne.

21^st July 1919

Mary temporarily assigned to Hospital Train No.14 for 4 days.

22^nd August 1919      

Mary returns to UK (Folkestone).

3^rd September 1919  

Mary demobilised.

November 1919

Mary registers with the newly created General Nursing Council for Scotland.

31^st March 1920

Proforma letter of thanks and given permission to retain TFMS Badge.

1920   

Approximate date of Mary’s photo. The considered opinion of Health Board Archivist Alistair Tough.

4^th January 1923      

Promotion to Sister in TANS confirmed as of 6 November 1922 confirmed.

9^th January 1929

Mary writes to Matron in Chief asking for her medals.

31^st January 1933

Mary resigns from TANS on account of age (she is now 55 years of age).

1933

Mary is still a member of the Co-operation of trained nurses, now located in Belhaven Terrace, Hyndland.

27^th February 1959

Mary dies in family home, Queen Mary Avenue, Crosshill.

By Ian McCracken, Archivist at Govan High School

Sources

• British Base Hospitals in France.
• British Medical Journal (BMJ).
• General Nursing Council for Scotland Applications 1919.
• HB6/4/55
• Campbell, H.F. Woolfenden. “A Record of Gunshot Wounds of the Knee-Joint: Treatment in a Base Hospital.” The Lancet (Volume 190, Issue 4902) 11 August 1917, Pages 185-194.
• Lyn McDonald’s Roses of No Man’s Land.
• “Report of the Surgeon-General of the Army”
• Royal Army Nursing Corps.
• Scarlet Finders website.
• TFNS application forms can still be found in service records.
• VAD Red Cross: Auxiliary Hospitals.
• War Diary of No 73 General Hospital, National Archives.

[SGHET would like to thank Ian McCracken for also donating to us a copy of a presentation he was due to give in Glasgow in 2020 which was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and other related video and audio oral history materials which are forthcoming. These have (and will be) placed in our Digital Archive. If you have any enquiries about these materials, or would like to access them, please get in touch with us. They will also be avaliable in our online archive once that is launched.]

This article is also part of a series of material we are publishing to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Crosshill in 1871 as an independent police burgh before being annexed to the city of Glasgow in 1891. See #Crosshill150 on social media.

The post The True Story of a First World War Nurse from Crosshill appeared first on SGHET.

History teacher and new SGHET board member Thomas Oldham digs into the archaeological excavation at First Hampden Park and what the Archaeology Scotland volunteers are hoping to find at the old site of the world’s first international football stadium …

So, it’s day one here at First Hampden. The tension is palpable and the excitement bubbling, ahead of what is expected to be a special and historic moment for Scottish football. The away team are wearing yellow and have arrived early – though their captain appears to be running a little late – that’s Kieran (not Trippier), from Archaeology Scotland…

Kieran is a friendly and enthusiastic guy, and even has time to have a wee blether with me as we walk through the tunnel (of verdant green) towards his team (of volunteers…OK, OK, I’ll stop now)… Annoyingly he has already started answering my deep philosophical questions – he knows what idiots like me think of archaeology and is already infecting me with his enthusiasm. My inhibitions are not at all connected to the fact I’m English.

Is this the site of a fantastical early drubbing of England by Scotland (5-1) in 1882? I used to think that the English clearly built the first purpose built international football stadium somewhere in England and that we, the English, invented the passing game that we know today…but anyone here will tell you (correctly) that it was the other way around.

Quite what evidence they are hoping to find of the 5-1 drubbing I’m not sure, copious amounts of yeast from spilled celebratory pints? Huge chunks of chewed tobacco spat from  nervous English mouths? Maybe a cup?! Maybe there’s bleedin’ treasure down there! Who knows?

I am currently sitting in my loftily placed media box high in the North stand (i.e. my flat on Kingsley Avenue). As I look down, the team are now standing around in a circle (beautifully planted by volunteer gardeners David and Tahitia McCabe) and are discussing tactics and having a wee stretch. The topic of temperature drifts in the wind – it is uncharacteristically warm for a home game!

So, to ‘pitch’ out the week’s dig to you, the work will involve two plots in the beautiful Kingsley Gardens, an ultrasound scanning of the Hampden Bowls bowling green, and a dig in the trees in Queen’s Park recreation ground between the railway and skate park.

The bowling green ultrasound aims to seek out the centre spot and maybe some old pitch lines like penalty areas. The recreational ground dig aims to find evidence of the grandstand. And the rose garden dig hopes to find remains of the clubhouse.

We have maps, know roughly where all this was (before the sleepy Cathcart circle line rudely blasted its way across Southside), know what happened here, and therefore why it is such a significant site. So, why dig here? I ask.

Being an oft-harsh critic, a historian, and a history teacher who spends their life desperately drawing out explanation, explication, and justification from begrudging, opinionated teenagers, I really, really want to know why we (humanity) bother with things like this. Hopefully we will start to find some answers from this enthusiastic and open-minded bunch of (mostly volunteer – much respect!) archaeologists. It can’t just be an opportunistic moment to get coverage for the bowling club, via a tournament programme filler during Scotland’s first international tournament in a generation, can it?

As we walk and talk, Kieran excitedly says he doesn’t even know what size this pitch was, or how big the penalty areas were. No wonder Scotland won 5-1, aware of England’s ‘prowess’, they probably just put the penalty spot 30 yards up the pitch!

A little later on I catch up with the team deep in the woods of the recreation ground. I finally ask Kieran why they are here and what they hope to find. While politely ‘understanding’ my scepticism of digging for things we know about and have a clear map of, his enthusiasm for the dig is palpable and catching.

First and foremost it’s about finding things that relate to the structures he says – it would be really great to find traces of the old clubhouse, that’s the dream! That is, a piece of the foundations from what they think is the same building that now serves as clubhouse to Hampden Bowls (give or take the odd extension).

There is also talk of trying to find a piece of old turnstile – Hampden was the first ground to have had them! Kieran laughs. He’d even be chuffed with a button or two, at which point Detectorists is mentioned and, like that, a ring pull emerges from the top layer (date unkown, probably Irn Bru). Most importantly though it is about deepening that sense of place and the layered history of Southside Glasgow, something that we at SGHET also care a lot about.

Meanwhile, the team have taken the top layer off their plot and are in good spirits. So far, the artefact tray has a piece of a till (!) and a lovely old Glasgow brick from Paterson and Sons (which once stood at 522 Pollokshaws Road). After a wee chat about how to smash a till open and who might have been robbed, the brick leads the conversation. This brick correlates with others used in late 19^th century Glasgow. Is it a remnant of the grandstand? Or a piece of railway construction material? Or just a random old brick? Whatever it’s from, a locally made 19^th century brick seems a fitting first find to start this session of industrial archaeology.

You can find out more about Scottish brickmaking here and more about Archaeology Scotland’s excavations at First Hampden here.

By Thomas Oldham, SGHET Board Member.

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Early Life and Education

Hannah Frank (1908-2008) was an artist and sculptor based in the Southside. She was born in Glasgow and lived in the Gorbals in her formative years, first in Abbotsford Road and later in South Portland Street. She then moved further south, living at 72 Dixon Avenue, Crosshill, where she was part of the vibrant local Jewish community around Govanhill.

Her parents were Jewish migrants from Russia. She attended Abbotsford Road Primary School, Strathbungo Public School on Craigie Street, and Albert Road Academy in Pollokshields, before attending the University of Glasgow from 1926–30, and Glasgow School of Art.

Drawings

She is remembered for her distinctive black and white drawings and her graceful bronze sculptures. She produced these drawings, in an Art Nouveau style, from the age of 17, under the pseudonym Al Aaraaf. (This pseudonym was a reference Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name). Her drawings below are reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley but carry Frank’s unique style.

You can see a 2016 reproduction of one of these images, Girl in a Wood (1928), in the 7 Arches of Cleland Street underpass. The 7 Arches was created by Liz Penden and arts group WAVE Particle. Their artworks also depict local legends Thomas Lipton of Lipton teas and boxer Benny Lynch.

Poetry

Hannah Frank was also a poet, and memorised her early poem ‘Faery,’ which she was always happy to recite. It was published in the Glasgow University magazine, GUM, in February 1927.

Faery

I stayed me there in tall trees’ shade
In Faery. And wild strange music played,
Piercing the air with sweetest strain,
So that I trembled. Dimly lit, a train
Moved from the forest’s depths.

I saw them by the weird moon’s gleam
On horses pass. As the riders of  a dream
They passed – noiseless hoofs and harness swaying.
Fair ladies singing songs, and strange words saying,
As olden stories tell.

In Faery I stood in tall trees’ shade.
Dim were the windings of the glade.
They were gone. I heard music still,
Faintlier, wafted faintlier, till
It died in the forest’s depths’

Sculpture

Her sculptures are mostly figure studies, in plaster, terracotta, or bronze, focussing on female forms. There was an exhibition of her work on what would have been her 110^th birthday at Glasgow University Chapel in 2018-2019, which included her Seated Figure (below) from 1989. Her work has been exhibited on three continents and at the Royal Glasgow Institute, the Royal Academy, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

This artistic legacy and body of work makes her one of Scotland’s most significant artists. She produced sculptures well into her 90s and died aged 100 years old, posthumously receiving Glasgow City Council’s Lord Provost’s award for Art, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow. She is buried in Cathcart Cemetery (who also have website and can be found on Twitter).

You can learn more about Hannah at hannahfrank.org.uk, find some of her prints in the Glasgow Women’s Library archive, buy books about Frank from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, and explore Southside sites connected with her life on our Govanhill and Gorbals heritage trails in South Glasgow Heritage Trails: A Guide (2019).

By Saskia McCracken

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There have been many arguments about the boundaries of Strathbungo over the years, but this is because it has never had any formal designation, and still doesn’t. It has claimed to be in Renfrewshire mostly, Lanarkshire when it suited, in Govan Parish, but claimed by Cathcart.

The east side of Pollokshaws Road was absorbed into Crosshill Police Burgh in 1871, before both Crosshill and Strathbungo were annexed to Glasgow in 1891. So the tenements across the road on the west side, known then as Regent Park Terrace, were in Strathbungo, and the tenements on the east side, called Bute Terrace, were in Crosshill.

You will see this is reflected in the details of the street name signs on the street corners, although many on the east side have the designating text mysteriously covered up – most likely the residents objected to being placed in Crosshill, when they felt more attached to Strathbungo.

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Hampden Bowling Club sits on the 1st Hampden Park. This fact was lost for over 113 years. Yes – Scotland didn’t know where its true home of Scottish Football was. There was no map that people knew of.

People know about the current Hampden and some even know about the second Hampden at Cathkin Park but very few knew there was a ground before both of these.

First Hampden was home to Queens Park FC and the Scotland International Football Team from 1873 to 1884. It hosted the first Scottish Cup Final where Queens Park beat Clydesdale 2-0 in 1873/74 season. It also hosted England 3 times and beating them on this ground 17 – 7 over 3 amazing matches. And most importantly it was where the Glasgow Game was first played.

Whereas the English kicked and rushed, Queens Park and hence Scotland, created a passing and dribbling game that made them the greatest footballing nation at the time. It has now been adopted by the world, where 2 billion people either watch it or play it. And it all started at Hampden Park.

The founders of Queens Park FC are regarded as pioneers of their time: establishing one of the most famous football clubs in the world and also creating the modern game. The restoration of their original ground will continue that heritage through another sport and ensure that future generations know the legend of the first Hampden Park.

The 1st Hampden is historic and was home to Queen’s Park Football Club and the SFA from 1873 to 1884.

You can check out the campaign that is underway to #restore1sthampden over at The Hampden Collection and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

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