Let Glasgow flourish, but do not let her forget the example of the curlers to whom she owes so much of her success, and who owed so much of their success to the curling by which they lightened the burdens of civic and commercial care. [1.]

The remaining pond

I was taking a walk through the woods on the south side of the White Cart in Pollok Park. I’d just got hold of a new camera and wanted an explore. Crossing over the Pollok Toon (aka Pollok Toun and Pooktoun) Bridge, I took the path up towards the golf course, and then jumping over a stile on the left, crossed a field down to the woods by the river.

Through the woods, there was some pretty treacherous and swampy undergrowth with a fair number of cowpats. In the distance, there was an obviously man-made area that was about the size of a bowling green. The sunlight was hitting the tall grass and with the water flooding the site, the scene looked quite strange, obviously man-made and yet almost ethereal as the sun lit up the wet grasses amidst the gloom of the surrounding trees.

The site itself was bordered by another set of smaller dark brown, gangly beech trees across three of the sides of the square. They looked tortured as they reached out towards the light. With closer inspection you could see that their equal spacing and linear planting was once a formal hedge row.

Turning back towards the base of the hills and trees, there was a concrete base from a square building. Covered with undergrowth, slate tiles were also scattered around the site. Under the canopy, there was another feature – a deep circular stone structure, filled with rubble, that was about 2 meters in diameter.

All this mystery was the site of a curling pond belonging to Pollok Curling Club, with its accompanying clubhouse. From an earlier age, an icehouse was built nearby to serve the 18C grand building of Pollok House.

This article explores the reasons for building a curling pond in such a hidden area, the way curling grew across the south of Glasgow, and the tensions just playing as simple a game as curling might have caused.

Before the Pollok Curling Club [2.]

The History of Curling [3.] has been written up before. In the often-meandering style of history books written in the Victorian era, Curling historians recorded that Pollokshaws Curling Club was one of the first clubs in what they termed the modern era of Curling, although the suggested date of their formation varies between 1801 and 1808 [4.].

Before any man-made pond came into existence, curling would take place on frozen ponds and rivers, and the White Cart was one such place. In front of what was then the newly built Pollok House are two weirs built in 1757, the largest was built to power the sawmill before being used to generate electricity for Pollok House.

The weir downstream, just beside what’s now the car park, artificially raised the level of the river in front of the House, adding to an improved and fashionable rural landscape from Pollok House for the 3rd Baronet. Whether by accident or by design, when the conditions were cold enough to freeze, the raised watercourse would allow level playing on the river.

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club Annual for 1898-99 recalled that in 1836 such a match took place on the river between players from Govan and Eastwood Parishes. [5.]

By 1844, the club was playing in what would become the Cowglen Curling Pond. It had an accompanying clubhouse and was located close to what is now the 1st hole of Cowglen Golf Course. The present course itself was not built until 1906.

Two years later in 1850 The Glasgow Gazette confirmed that the Pollokshaws Curling Club may well have existed for quite some time and had developed a well-earned reputation:

The club would play at other locations where the ice was playable, in 1865 they played against a team from North Woodside at the Flag Quarry Loch or Hart’s Muir or Moor in Giffnock [6.]. Hart’s Muir wasn’t an actual place, but maps and the Scotland Places website show that Wellwalls, a farm in Giffnock, was occupied by James Hart at the time.

By 1869, Eastwood Pond formally opened in January, it was just 5 minutes from Giffnock Station with hourly buses from Pollokshaws.

The split

By 1879 an acrimonious disagreement took place between two teams of the Pollokshaws Club at a match played at the Giffnock Curling Pond. The dispute arose over which team would order and pay for a meal for the poor of Pollokshaws burgh. [8.] [9.]

The case ended up in Paisley Court with the judge ruling in favour of the match winners who were instructed to pay for the costs of the meal. The subsequent court expenses cost more than the meal.

The two teams fell out and eventually, two separate clubs were formed. Confusingly, the winners carried on as Pollokshaws and played their games at Giffnock and the losers, who were officially formed as Eastwood on November 25, 1879, carried on playing at Cowglen [10.]. This was the club that would eventually become Pollok Curling Club.

The new Eastwood club was keen to keep in with the Stirling-Maxwell family. After the death of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell in 1878, the young John Stirling-Maxwell, who had just finished his schooling at Eton, was invited to be the Pollok Club’s patron in 1883, unfortunately, he didn’t reply. Four years later, the committee repeated the invitation and this time he accepted. He served as President and Patron from 1896 to 1899.

The two clubs, Eastwood and Pollokshaws improved their relations and would often play across the same parish. In an attempt at unity, the Eastwood Club made an approach in December 1889 for members of the Pollokshaws Club to join as ordinary members and to curl on the Cowglen Pond, however despite this ‘very neighbourly action’, there was no reply.

By 1895, the club finally changed its name from Eastwood to Pollok Curling Club. The name change had a dual purpose: firstly, to reflect where most of their activities were taking place, and secondly, to make a new start from the ill-feeling still being felt from the split a generation before.

So Pollokshaws played in Giffnock and Eastwood played in Pollokshaws?

Amongst all the factories of Pollokshaws, another privately owned skating pond was constructed on Cogan Street and was available for matches as early as 1879 [11.]. The Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette in 1886 reported a match on the new curling rink and the next week another game took place despite severe snowstorms.

“An enthusiastic game was played on Thursday on the Cogan Street Skating Pond between several of the members of the Pollokshaws Curling Club. There was one rink, four men a-side, and notwithstanding the severe snowstorms the ice was in a fair condition.” [12.]

Curling was growing fast in the late 19C. newspapers such as the Glasgow Evening Post [13.] would carry regular condition reports for all the curling and skating ponds across Glasgow on their front page.

Despite the attentions of non-players taking advantage of the ice, curling was said to be open to all. Landowners were playing alongside the labourers who prepared the ice. The Herald in 1844 described ‘a republican simplicity’ where ‘the only distinction recognised is that of skill and ability’.

By 1867, The Glasgow Herald [14.] reported that curling had reached the workers of Pollokshaws where a match took place on the private Pollokshaws Curling Pond between teams from the Auldfield and Auldhouse textile and dye factories.

An advert in the Evening Citizen for the Giffnock Pond’s opening came in 1869 with a warning: ‘all persons found sliding upon the ice or trespassing the fields adjoining will be prosecuted‘. [15.]

Cowglen also had an issue with the pond sluice gates being tampered with by persons unknown. It caused the club so much concern that 2 guineas were offered in 1887 in reward for evidence leading to the conviction of the guilty parties.

Another problem the club faced was the presence of the locals taking advantage of the ice before the members could play their matches. This was so much of a problem that by 1896 the Pond Committee were: “authorised to take whatever steps they thought necessary to protect the ice from Skaters, Sliders, etc…”

The Pollok Club’s hunt for a new pond

Cowglen also had its own practical problems, it required manpower to create the ice, so whenever there was the prospect of ice, a team from the club would be delegated to dam up the site to create a suitable playing surface.

Whatever their final reasons, the membership felt that Cowglen wasn’t felt to be the ideal location for the club’s curling, and by 1901 the Pond Committee was tasked to find a new home.

The first choice was towards the far west of the estate at Hippingstone. While the site was located on a flat plain and the site was regularly flooded so it had the potential for a level site with plentiful water, it proved to be unsuitable due to subsidence in the area.

After more investigation, the woods on the south banks of the river on the western boundary of the Sheep Park [16.] were identified. The chosen area beside some old north-facing woods and the existing 18C icehouse would have already been known to be a cold place in winter.

The Stirling-Maxwells agreed, and estate labourers started building in October 1906. The rink – the same one I stumbled on the remnants of last year – with accompanying paths and bordering hedges was completed in less than three months.

The early years

Membership of the Pollok Club had grown by 1904 with 54 playing members. The club was tied closely with local freemasons, local politicians and the Church of Scotland and they displayed the utmost of early 20c respectability and hospitality, they liked the big occasion and played a full part in the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

They would attend bonspiels and host grand dinners toasting the great and the good from Royalty downwards; they also kept to ancient curling tradition by holding what were called Courts where they would welcome new members and invited local chaplains to be honorary post holders.

The connection between the House and the players local connections with politicians and society is hard to ignore. In 1907 a local newspaper marked the occasion:

“The new pond of the Pollok Curling Club was formally opened yesterday. It is conveniently situated within the policies [17.] of Pollok, a short distance from Pollok House. The first two stones were thrown by Lady Stirling Maxwell for whom Sir John Stirling-Maxwell acted as skip. Cake and wine having been served, Provost Macdougall proposed the health of Lady Stirling Maxwell, and this was heartily pledged.

Thereafter Mr J Campbell Murray, Haggs Castle, President, in the name of the Club, presented Lady Stirling Maxwell with a beautiful silver inkstand as a memento of the occasion. Play was then begun, a match taking place between sides representing Sir John and Mr Murray. Sir John won by a majority of 41 to 25.” [18.]

Playing both ends

Unfortunately, the pond wasn’t as playable as the club might have hoped. Mild winters meant playing was unpredictable and limited with dark nights, fog, thin or rough ice. Even on good days and with good ice, play would have only been playable during the short winter daylight or with lamps in the evening.

Not that far away more impressive rink started construction. Crossmyloof already had an open-air curling pond played by the Glasgow Lilybank Club [19.], but then in 1907 the indoor ice rink at Crossmyloof opened.

With two indoor curling rinks, as well as ice-skating and ice-hockey areas, it was described as pristine. What they also had was year-long, with all-day opening and lighting to allow play from morning until the evening. The club Pollok Curling Club took advantage of the new facilities as soon as 1908 and would play regular matches and tournaments in the new venue.

Even so, play would continue in the estate when the ice permitted. In 1911, a small clubhouse was donated by the Stirling-Maxwells and erected between the pond and the icehouse. As well as shelter, it provided a practical location to store stones and brooms as well as allowing players to change or clean muddy boots to play on the ice.

The clubhouse opening ceremony was worthy enough to invite reporters and the occasion was marked in The Scotsman and Barrhead News, who reported the Provost giving Miss Anne Stirling-Maxwell, the daughter of Sir Stirling-Maxwell, a gold key to commemorate the occasion [20.]. Again, it was a highly respectable occasion, with Ladies and Gentlemen present.

In the 1920s permanent lamps were installed to allow evening play, something ponds in more urban locations already had through gas lights. Even so, the path back to Pollok House along the riverbank would still need portable lamps so players could make their way back safely in the dark.

Further tournaments took place in 1933, and in 1935 two hours play was achieved on smooth ice before the surface started to melt. Further tournaments were held in 1941 and 1951.

Despite numerous attempts to deal with weeds who loved the moist conditions and open light in the summer, the playing surface became more difficult, and together with recurring drainage problems the pond became unplayable.

Attempts at revival

As the years passed, club members kept dear memories of the rink. In 1982 the committee was tasked with creating a fundraising plan and costed plans were created to revive the pond. To make the scheme more viable membership would be available beyond the Pollok Club to the wider Glasgow curling membership.

Over £18,000 was raised through grants and personal donations, however just before work commenced the contractor went into liquidation and no new contractor could be found to undertake the work.

The club continued to play at Crossmyloof despite frequent disputes with the owners over the playing conditions. In 1986 Crossmyloof became unplayable with a dangerous roof and the loss of seven playing sheets. Play then transferred to a new rink at Finnieston.

The club continues and has meetings within the Pollok Golf Club’s clubhouse with the Pollok Curling Cup on display in the clubhouse’s trophy cabinet.

Revisiting the site

I returned to the site in mid-October, the mid-morning sun was barely coming over the hill of Pollok Golf Course just to the south.

The water from a spring in the hillside was still filling the pond, while a drain to channel excess water into the White Cart was either damaged or not working effectively. The drains are still present and can be seen at various points emptying from the banks of the river into the Cart.

With a hill just to the south, it was clear that the site would certainly be cold in winter, and any ice, snow, or frost would be the last to thaw under any apricity or the warmth of the winter sun.

Looking around the site, I tried to imagine what it must have been like at the start of the Pond’s life. The location is quite private, there would have been little room for spectators watching from the paths at the side.

While other side of the river was still private land and on the edge of Pollok House’s private grounds – which had been opened up to public access in 1911 by Sir John Stirling-Maxwell – any passers-by on the footpath on the other side of the river would only have been able hear the roar of the stones on the ice and chatter amongst the players from some distance through what was then a young tree plantation.

Getting nearby to the pond for a closer look would have been quite impractical. It certainly wouldn’t have been as much in view or publicly accessible as the old site at Cowglen, the skating pond amongst the factories in Colgan Street, or the new ice rink at Crossmyloof.

At home and using the Google Maps measuring tool, the pond was 47m (150ft) by 43m (140ft) with the total area including paths and bushes measuring 49m (160ft) by 53m (175 ft) and so just slightly shorter than the length of a modern curling rink. To help you visualise, it’s almost identical to Springhill Gardens in Shawlands, which has also been identified as the former site of another curling rink.

Visiting the site

Pollok House occasionally hosts an interesting and very knowledgeable guided tour called ‘A Story of Water and Ice’ which includes the rink as well as some other hidden histories of the park including the lost village of Pollok Toon. If they continue after Glasgow Life takes over the management after the lease to the National Trust for Scotland ends and as Pollok House undergoes its refurbishment programme in 2024-2027, the tour is highly recommended.

As a side note, the site while falling into neglect, still attracts interest from specialists looking at the biodiversity in the park. In 2016 the Glasgow Local Biodiversity Action Plan designated the pond as a swamp. [21.]

For those who prefer exploring on their own or as a group, accessing the site can be quite challenging and may involve climbing over fences or navigating old stiles and gates, as well as tackling very uneven and muddy ground on the approach. There are slopes, trees with low-hanging branches, and fallen tree trunks everywhere. Even in the middle of a dry spell, most of the site is difficult. If you are walking your dog, you would really need to keep them on a leash. The local highland cattle may also take an interest in you.

by Stephen Fyfe

Published 13th March 2024

—

References

1. The History of Curling, John Kerr, 1890, Glasgow, p183

2. Three particular websites have been invaluable in researching this article. Pollok Curling Club (https://pollokcc.weebly.com/) includes a treasure trove of timelines as well as some historical accounts of the club in their online archives. Alongside newspaper archives, the second is the website Historical Curling Places (https://sites.google.com/view/historicalcurlingplaces/home?authuser=0) which has plotted the location together with contemporary evidence of the locations of thousands of curling ponds across the UK.

3. The third is History of Curling: Scotland’s Ain Game and Fifty Years of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, John Kerr, 1890, p174 (Internet Archive) https://archive.org/details/historyofcurling00kerruoft/mode/2up

4. Pollokshaws Curlers Society formed in 1808 and were said to play on a site in Afton Terrace (Pollokshaws Road) Pollokshaws A brief history. Jack Gibson, 1980; Essay on Curling, and Artificial Pond Making By J. Cairnie, 1883, p141; Fowler’s Commercial Directory Of The Principal Towns And Villages In The Upper Ward For Renfrewshire, 1836, p233)

5. Royal Caledonian Curling Club Annual for 1898-99 (Google Docs link) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1omB9kBYPrqUZtE4uB5KbzExIczhEJcOPEerB4HQWar0/edit?usp=sharing

6. Hart’s Muir would become the first location of Eastwood Golf Course, a 9-hole then 18-hole course located to the west of Fenwick Road between Orchard Park Drive and Burnfield Road which opened in 1891 (Evening Times 28 September 1891)

7. The owner James McHaffie had farm steadings across the area including Robslee, Giffnock, and Orchard as well as one of the Giffnock quarries. Renfrewshire OS Name Books, 1856-1857, OS1/26/5/53

8. Pollokshaws was a Burgh of Renfrewshire, with its own councillors, Provost and their own Pollokshaws Fair holidays which included horse racing on the site of Cowglen Golf Course where one of the holes is known as the Race Course Hole.

9. Pollokshaws Burgh was incorporated into Glasgow in 1912 although they did resist suggesting that the burgh would be in a better position to take over the running of the city.

10. The Eastwood club was also reported as hosting a match against Cathcart in 1881 on one of the two ponds within the grounds of the Broom Mansion (now occupied by the Belmont School).

11. Glasgow Herald, 4 December 1879, p1

12. Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette, 6 February 1886

13. Glasgow Evening Post, 12 February 1889 and 6 January 1891

14. January 21, 1867

15. Glasgow Herald, 24 February 1865; Evening Citizen, 23 December 1869

16. Also known as Sheep-pecks or Shapaks on some old maps, the Sheep park extended from behind the current Pollokshaws Railway Station up to the woods almost in the centre of the estate, the current woods nearer the station were still to be planted. The cottages beside the bowling club are still known as the Sheep Farm.

17. Estate boundaries. The Pollok estate was private. Walls, fences and gates are still present alongside the river pathway.

18. Unknown publication, 29 December 1906

19. Before Crossmyloof, Lilybank Curling Club played at Mr Murphy’s Field on Pollokshaws Road (Glasgow Herald, 14 November 1870); the Historical Curling Places website suggests that the field is now known better as Springhill Gardens opposite Queen’s Park between Strathbungo and Crossmyloof.

20. After Sir John’s death, Anne donated Pollok House along with its art collections, gardens, and the estate to the City of Glasgow in 1966.

21. ‘Glasgow Local Biodiversity Action Plan, Pollok Country Park Management Plan 2016 – 2019’, p31 (Glasgow City Council, PDF document) https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=31514&p=0

All contemporary photographs of the site © Stephen Fyfe, 2023

The post Curling on the Pollok Estate appeared first on SGHET.

Places have their own private and public life and can feel haunted in multiple ways: some because they’ve changed but remain familiar; others because they spark vivid personal memories difficult to express in words, embodying fragments of times past that we can’t – for better or for worse – return to.

They help define us – where we were then or are now, sometimes both – and convey how our predecessors lived. In our own lifetimes huge changes happen, but what often strikes us most is that jolt that comes when faced with sudden, drastic change in what we’ve only recently left behind us or have a meaningful connection to.

This could soon be the case with the (temporarily closed since 2020) Shawfield Stadium, which sits north east of Polmadie near the banks of the Clyde, as a planning application to demolish it and redevelop the site for residential and other uses has been lodged with South Lanarkshire Council by its owners.

Although just outside Glasgow’s present day borders, its history is entwined with that of the city. For a brief period from 1975-1996 it was even incorporated into Glasgow’s municipal district control within the larger Strathclyde Regional Council framework, after Rutherglen lost its own local council. Then in 1996, as part of Rutherglen, it was reallocated to South Lanarkshire council.

In line with its shared and shifting history, if we start to look even closer, we’ll discover not just connections to urban leisure in times past, but ghosts of multiple sorts still making their presence felt here, including ones that have survived from even further back than 1936 when the re-designed stadium opened…

The inner-city industrial landscape

By the 1930s, although the shipyards started to boom toward the decade’s end as the world re-armed in the run up to World War Two, Glasgow’s industrial might was already in decline. The tract of land on the east side of the Gorbals however – just grazing north eastern Govanhill to the south and stretching east into the fringes of Rutherglen – was still one of the most intensely industrialised areas of the city at the time.

This was Oatlands, Polmadie and Shawfield, home to such collosi as William Dixon’s Govan Iron Works (aka Dixon’s Blazes) and J & J White’s Chemical Works amongst many others.

But the workers and other residents locally needed some release from the industrial grind, and while factory owners, municipal bodies and civic and professional clubs provided much of these facilities in the form of parks, swimming baths, football grounds, tennis courts and bowling greens, in the post-war period innovative private enterprise focused on cinemas, from the first projection of moving pictures in 1895 to the arrival of sound in 1927.

By the time of cinema’s golden age of the 1930s picture houses had been joined in urban hubs by greyhound racing tracks, with the oval track and mechanical hare arrangement imported to Britain from the USA in 1926, as palaces of leisure and mass distraction.

While Shawfield was still heavily industrial, there were pockets of non-industrial space, and succumbing to the American trend, the stadium of financially struggling Clyde F.C. since 1898 next to Richmond Park agreed it could be used for greyhound racing while still also holding football matches.

The stadium was slightly altered to incorporate a greyhound track and re-opened to the public on 14th November 1932, eventually being sold outright to Shawfield Greyhound Racing Company Ltd (SGRC) in 1935, with a fully-transformed stadium boasting an American-style oval greyhound racetrack listed as having been completed in 1936.

When Shawfield part-shifted to racing track status in 1932, there were already four National Greyhound Racing Society tracks in Glasgow, plus three other independent tracks in the city, so Shawfield needed to stand out against its competitors. As an entertainment-cum-“sports” venue that was part of the gambling industry we shouldn’t be surprised then – in terms of the track’s defining features as it morphed further under full SGRC control – that the owners went for the style of the moment to lure folk in and add some swagger to proceedings: Art Deco.

This is where the iconic Shawfield Stadium gates come in and what drew your correspondent down there on a dry but typically cloudy July afternoon in 2021. Cyclling through the Gorbals, the contrast with other great enclosure of the area passed en route – the Southern Necropolis – couldn’t be starker.

One is a welcoming and tranquil green space, an oasis of biodiversity, history and sculpture amid the high-rise and mid-rise flats of Hutchesonstown and the warehouse district of Oatlands on its southern flank. The other is disjointed in feel and brutal in parts, a void encircled with hulking corrugated iron exteriors in places, clashing with earlier more delicate parts.

Shawfield is pervaded by a lifeless, unearthly air that permeates beyond the stadium…. people live nearby in sizeable numbers, it’s the streets that are devoid of life apart from traffic. What these enclosures have in common, however, is great entry points.

Gateways to escape: eternal and earthly

The Southern Necropolis gate lodge (1848) was designed by Charles Wilson (1810-1863), an architect with a huge output of work all over Scotland, famed for such other buildings as 1-16 Park Circus and 18-21 Park Terrace in Glasgow, Strathbungo Free Church, Glasgow Academy, and Lews Castle in Stornoway. The architect of the Shawfield Stadium gates is likely to have been John Easton, whose catalogued output is minimal.

His design oversight can only be inferred, as Easton is named as the Stadium’s architect in the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, so we assume he must have also fashioned the gates. Information surrounding the design history of the site is so scant though that a degree of conjecture is necessary. Closer inspection of the site however, turns up other affirmative clues.

The first thing that strikes you about the gates is the stepped arch or pyramidic ziggurat design – a style originating in Mesopotamia (largely within what is now Iraq) which was re-ignited in the Art Deco era, enlivening everything from New York skyscapers to suburban fireplaces. It was seen everywhere, including in the proliferation of shops, garages and dancehalls built in the era.

The ziggurat also defined the totalisator board (or ‘toteboard’) inside the stadium. It was perfecly suited to the passtime’s central engine, betting, constantly drawing the gambler’s eye to their possible win or lose scenario. Only two things mattered here: the dogs on the track (though not their health or happiness) and the money.

The ziggurat toteboard became a feature of other 1930s-built racing tracks, a famous survivor being that at Walthamstow Stadium racing track in north east London completed in 1932.

Interestingly the stadium entrance and toteboard at Walthamstow, while no longer part of a greyhound racing track, is a listed building – Grade II listed on the system operated by Historic England. It only became listed in 2007 but its key features have been restored while incorporated into a mixed usage housing and retail development.

Where Shawfield’s design differs most notably from Walthamstow is in its use of that most Glaswegian of surfaces, and the main reason I ventured here, the redoubtable ceramic tile…

The iconic photo of Shawfield Stadium gates in 1937 held by Glasgow City Archives at the Mitchell Library (photo 5 in this article) shows two extruding columns faced in what looks like tiling and topped with lamps, but the monochrome photograph makes it impossible to be certain of the surface material.

Seen in situ there’s zero doubt, as the grey captured by the camera’s lens is revealed as rich green tiling affixed to the bricks behind, smooth to the touch albeit much chipped, missing some tiles entirely, and crudely painted over at points.

Design-wise the ziggurat arrangement matches the old photo but on closer scrutiny something’s not quite right. The tiled columns don’t extrude in exactly the same way. What’s gone on here then? Nothing in fact. There were two sets of gates, these being the slightly less grand set although still impressive in their day. Thanks to Lost Glasgow for the tip.

Another discrepancy is the small flagpoles on the present gates, which don’t appear on the other set. We can see they later had a (now rusted) spotlight affixed to each. Flagpoles are common features of many Art Deco and Streamline Moderne buildings, particularly on corner sites.

Lack of documentation of the building means we don’t yet know if they were there at launch in 1936 or added later. Maybe we can find out…

Do you have any old photos or newspaper cuttings of either sets of gates that show them in better times? We’d love to see them if you do and optionally you can donate old images to our South Glasgow Archive, whether in digital or orginal format. Leave a comment or contact us on social media if so.

A twentieth century temple to flock to

Leaving the gates and cycling round to the opposite end of the site I came to the other stadium structure still abiding from the 1930s. Was it the stadium offices, perhaps a customer bar or cafe with cloakrooms and restrooms, or even a member’s club area? Were you ever in it?

Getting closer the design conveys aspects of both modernist and far eastern architecture, with the almost pagoda-style roof extending over the door reminiscent of Buddhist-influenced roof designs common to China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia.

Overall there’s a Japanese feel to this building when looked at in the round, with its minimal but precise use of ornamentation and vertical window arrangements. This echoes some of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work which anticipated Art Deco modernism in the Art Nouveau era, with this pared-back style particularly evident at Hill House (built 1904) in Helensburgh and his posthumously realised House for an Art Lover (built 1989-1996) in Bellahouston Park.

While modernist in direction, it’s not fully attuned style-wise with the gates. Maybe the architect didn’t have a singuar vision he wanted to project and was happy to vary styles within the larger stadium site, or perhaps he did and the business wouldn’t allow it. A third possibility is that John Easton didn’t design both structures, so someone else was involved in one of them…

In turn the upper floor windows themselves are metal-framed, possibly Crittall windows. Crittall became the go-to window fitting supplier in many 1930s buildings due to its manufacturing prowess producing windows of reliably tight-fitting seal and weatherproof durability. These ground level windows however are more indeterminate vis-à-vis their material.

Crittall became so successful they even built a village of modernist housing for their workers in Silver End, Essex in 1926-27, contracting a range of architects to design them, most notably Paisley-born architect Thomas S Tait (of 1938 Empire Exhibition fame), on behalf of John James Burnet & Partners practice. Tait designed the manager’s house ‘Wolverton’ among others pictured here.

There’s a well-preserved interwar Crittall advertising sign in the corridor of The Engine Shed, Historic Environment Scotland’s premises in Stirling, which I spotted in 2018 when visiting to attend a conference.

Here too, as at the gates, the green tiles play an ornamental and shape-accentuating role, and suggest at their deployment at the gates by the same architect, John Easton, although green tiles especially in tenement wally closes are ubiquitous across Glasgow.

Meanwhile, below the doorway, a surrounding terrazzo stone step carries the staff, or punters, in.

Zooming closer in, a look at the window panes reveals a pattern. It’s impossible to confirm, but if these are the original panes then its fitting that the patterned glass has a playful Art Deco design.

Another possibility is that this ‘textured glass’ or ‘figured rolled glass’ was fitted later, with patterned panes felt to be in sympathy with the surrounding period style. I’d like to think these were original but haven’t found a match to pin down the production period yet. There’s a great selection of Victorian, Edwardian and 20th Century patterned textured glass collated here.

Either way, the pattern detail has a Jazz Modern swish to it that adds a little zing to proceedings. Have you seen this style elsewhere? Maybe someone could bring it back into production!

The many lives of Shawfield Stadium

Few today will mourn the decline of greyhound racing but Shawfield has hosted many other events over the years, such as music concerts and of course plenty of its original activity: football.

From big cup to local club games, it’s been home to plenty of memorable outings for Glaswegians and other Scots who follow the beautiful game, and a key site for Scotland’s sporting heritage, both as home to Clyde F.C., host to visitors prior to 1932, and an ongoing site for matches even while a greyhound track.

In turn, it’s been incorporated into ‘Football’s Square Mile’ by The Hampden Collection project to develop the world’s biggest outdoor football museum centred on the birthplace of the modern game of passing football, namely First Hampden in Crosshill, its successor pitches Second and Third Hampden in the Southside, and connected historic Glasgow (and now Rutherglen) football sites.

Shawfield has a more troubling history too. The site of J & J White’s Chemical Works was built on the lands of Shawfield Estate, owned by Daniel Campbell (1671/2–1753). As Mark McGregor notes in our #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies article on The Tobacco Lords:

“Campbell himself, however, acquired much of his wealth in trading tobacco for iron ore which provided him the means to purchase the Shawfield Estate, next to Oatlands and Polmadie, in 1707… Campbell made a considerable amount from both the trade of tobacco and more directly, in the trading of enslaved people.

The house and estate were passed down to his son Walter who then sold it to the chemical works firm J&J White in 1788. Due to ongoing contamination issues, the site which included the 150-year old Shawfield House was pulled down in the late 1960s.”

The house can been seen still standing eerily amid the Chemical Works complex in this 1967 photo, part of the John R Hume collection in Historic Environment Scotland’s Canmore archive.

This was it closer-up, in 1966, again photograped by Hume while on his odyssey of capturing Glasgow’s decaying industrial heritage.

Environmental legacies of Shawfield’s industrial past

The planning application to demolish Shawfield Stadium and redevelop the land with homes was submitted on 5th November 2021. South Lanarkshire Council responded 22nd December requesting an Environmental Imapct Assessment (EIA) of the proposed works before the application can progess to a final decision, an EIA as yet unreceived at time of publication. This is required as a large area around Shawfield is known to be contaminated with chromium, including hexavalent chromium 6, a poisonous and carcinogenic substance toxic to humans.

Chromium ore processing residue was a byproduct of the aforementioned White’s Chemical Works which operated on the site between 1820 and 1967 producing mainly bichromate of potash, for use in the tanning and textile dying industries. The manufacturing process produced a significant ratio of unusuable chromium byproduct including chromium 3 and hexavalent chromium 6, the latter of which is highly soluble and mobile in the environment.

Over the decades up to 2.5 million tonnes of chromium-containing waste was dumped by White’s – legally at the time – buried mainly in claypits and disused mines all around this area and elsewhere in Glasgow. Toxic clouds of chromium dust were also present in the air at high levels for many decades inside certain parts of the industrial complex.

In 2019 The Herald newspaper spoke to descendants of workers at the plant for an article: ‘Polmadie Burn: Everyone knew chromium waste was damaging health’.

“Workers at the chemical plant responsible for polluting a large area of the south of Glasgow were known as ‘White’s whistlers’, due to the damage caused to their nasal packages by cancer-causing chromium, relatives have claimed.

Men who worked for the company, J&J White’s of Rutherglen, came home clouded in dust, many bearing ‘chrome holes’ – burns in the skin, and with septums ruined by chemicals they had inhaled.”

In recent years large-scale remediation works have been carried out in various parts of the area (both within Glasgow and South Lanarkshire’s municipal borders) to measure and mitigate the leaching of chromium into both the water system and into new structures built locally, by containing or diverting it, by converting chromium 6 in-situ into the less toxic chromium 3, and to a lesser extent by removing it, but the sheer scale of the dumping has made this a huge challenge that’s only partly been addressed.

In the meantime, the chromium 6 continues to leach out, turning Polmadie Burn luminous yellow-green as recently as both 2019 and 2021, causing the waterway and local playing fields to be fenced off and raising alarm among residents and public representatives.

For this, unfortunately, is the most concentrated area of chromium-polluted urban land in the UK by an order of magnitude. While it was produced elsewhere, for several decades J & J White’s gained a near monopoly on bichromate of potash production in Britain from their Shawfield complex, accounting for 70% of UK output in the 1930s.

For now the outcome for the site remains uncertain, and environmental safety concerns are paramount, but the remaining Art Deco fragments of Shawfield Stadium provide a stepping stone into the longer shared history and memories of the area, as well as the interwar era’s design trends.

However development plans proceed, it would be worthwhile keeping these historic elements intact, restoring them, and considering their addition to the register of listed structures in Scotland, as they’re local landmarks and part of the area’s unique character and social history, beacons of its shared past in an area dominated by new developments.

There are good memories here, alongside bad ones, when you get the full measure of the place. Some spectres though might be best not disturbed too hastily until we can figure out how to better tame them. Until then, as sure as it rains in Glasgow, they’ll keep haunting us.

What are your memories of Shawfield Stadium? Tell us in the comments below.

By Deirdre Molloy

Published: 14th October 2022

This is the third in our #SouthsideModerne series of articles, documenting the range of Art Deco and other interwar modernist buildings south of the Clyde for the two-decade Centenary of Art Deco architecture and design.

Follow the hashtag on Twitter and Facebook.

Read part 1: James Miller’s Art Deco Leyland Motors

Read part 2:  Renewing Govan Lyceum’s Faded Ambition

—

Sources & Further Reading:

John Easton, architect (1898-1977); entry in Dictionary of Scottish Architects

Charles Wilson, architect (1810-1863); entry in Dictionary of Scottish Architects

Southern Necropolis Gate Lodge, 316, Caledonia Road, Gorbals; Buildings At Risk website

Friends of Southern Necropolis website

Lanarkshire racetrack faces uncertain future with environmental report needed for planning application to proceed; Daily Record, 19th Sept 2022

Polmadie Burn: Everyone knew chromium waste was damaging health; The Herald, 6th March 2019

Whites Chemical Company; Rutherglen Heritage Society

Soil 2017 | Lecture 3 Characterisation of Cr(VI)-Contaminated Urban Soils; online talk by Professor Margaret Graham, University of Edinburgh for the International Institute for Environmental Studies, 20th Mar 2017

Contamination tests over toxic green burn in Glasgow; BBC News website; 12th April 2019

SEPA called to investigate ‘toxic’ Glasgow burn; Glasgow Evening Times, 26th April 2021

The Toxic Burn, Future Climate Info, undated 2021

Football’s Square Mile; The Hampden Collection

Image Sources:

Glasgow Road, Shawfield Chemical Works General view from NE showing SE side of works, 23 July 1967, John R Hume Collection, SC 595654. Copyright: Canmore / Historic Environment Scotland

Glasgow, oblique aerial view, taken from the SW, centred on Shawfield Stadium, 31 August 1998, SC 1685599. Copyright: Canmore / Historic Environment Scotland

Shawfield stadium boundary wall and gates, 1937. Copyright: Glasgow City Archives, Mitchell Library

Totalisator Board at Shawfield; Burrell Collection Photo Library, 1955 Survey. Copyright: Glasgow Life

Walthamstow Stadium toteboard, August 2006. Copyright: Futureshape, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Refurbished frontage of Walthamstow Stadium, 25 April 2017. Copyright: Acabashi; Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Glasgow, Shawfield Chemical Works General View, 27 March 1967, John R Hume Collection, SC 591198. Copyright: Canmore / Historic Environment Scotland

Glasgow Road, Shawfield Chemical Works View from SSE showing SW and SE fronts of old mansion house ‘Shawfield’, 11 September 1966, John R Hume Collection, SC 591469. Copyright: Canmore / Historic Environment Scotland

All other images copyright of the author, July 2021 (Shawfield) and April 2020 (Southern Necropolis).

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In a recent blog post I highlighted material from our archive collection on the No M77 and Pollok Free State protests. I have since been in conversation with artists Hannah Brackston and Dan Sambo, currrent artists in residence in the ward of Pollok.

Here they describe how they have been drawing upon the story of Pollok Free State in workshops with young people, and I share some more clippings from our archive to help illustrate the activism of the young people involved in this piece of local history.

(If you are unfamiliar with the story of the protests and the camp you can read our previous posts here and here.)

Can you give us an overview of the workshops and activities you have been doing in Pollok? What do you think it is about the story of Pollok Free State that interests young people?

There are aspects of the Pollok Free State story that instantly capture the imagination of young people, in particular details of the camp itself, tree houses and living together in the woods. These echo many of the ideas of how they would like to use the woods themselves and make their own spaces within it today.

In 2018 we had the opportunity to be part of Scotland’s contribution to the Venice Biennale of Architecture. The curator Peter Mcaughey commissioned different Scottish artists to engage with young people to explore the Biennale theme of ‘Free space’.

We were introduced to some local stakeholders in Pollok and a synergy emerged between the history of Pollok Free State and a piece of woodland, Damshot Woods, which was being occupied by St. Paul’s High School as an outdoor classroom. This became the focus of our project taking workshops in this space with local young people.

We collaborated with teachers John Harper and Kirsty Webster to engage a group of pupils in a 3 day long workshop in the woods. Together we went on a journey that involved learning about the PFS directly from Gehan McLeod, a central figure in the camp and co-founder of charity GalGael, and creating temporary structures to occupy an outdoor classroom in the woods.

We wanted the kids to be inspired as we were by the Pollok Free State history. Did they know that the woods beside their school had this powerful story to tell? We found it interesting to engage young people with aspects of the PFS story; What is a peaceful occupation? What does it mean to create ‘free space’, where they feel safe, governed by their rules and their ideas and values? Making a flag; making a passport; making a shelter; marking the boundaries of something; discussing what is individual and what is collective while learning about nature by being immersed in it.

Following this project we went on to use these same woodlands with different groups of pupils at St. Pauls and local families through Phase one of the Glasgow Life Artists in Residence for the Creative Communities Project. These workshops included map-making and sign-making projects with the pupils – during which we took time as part of our workshop plan to discuss and inform the pupils about the important local history of the Pollok Free State.

We invited local families into the woods on another occasion to walk, explore and make a fire together. We brought photos and old maps to discuss the area’s heritage and several of the parents shared their memories of visiting the camp as children themselves.

Over the summer of 2021 as part of Glasgow Life’s Phase 2 of the Artist in Residency Programme we ran a series of events for families in Damshot Woods – ‘weekends in the woods’. These were Sunday afternoons where we brought local people and their kids together to do creative activities and learn about specific aspects of the woodlands nature and heritage.

Each week we made small interventions that were aimed at improving accessibility and habitats, from bespoke bird box to making trails and signage. The culmination of this was bringing these families together to explore ideas for their own self-organisation and continued occupation of the woods. We hope this work may be able to continue in the spring.

During August and November in 2021 together with Sarah Diver-Lang (SGHET Board member) and with support from the Wheatley Foundation, we developed a project called ‘If Tree’s Could Talk’. Working directly with two groups of young people, The Village Storytelling Centre, and Turf Youth Project we delivered a series of workshops for the groups that explored the stories of Pollok’s significant trees and why they matter. We shared the story of the PFS as one of the starting points and watched parts of the BBC documentary ‘Bird Man of Pollok’ with the groups. We went on to use this as inspiration for making large textile banners for COP26.

The banners were made and designed by the young people – from dying and printing the fabric with natural pigments to cutting out closing words and slogans that reflected their responses. The banners were kindly displayed at GalGael in Govan during part of COP26 alongside their Govan Free State Programme. This project will continue January – March 2022 – working alongside tree planting initiatives in Greater Pollok as part of COP26 legacy in Glasgow.

How do you think people’s relationship with green spaces has changed in the last few years? What is the relationship like with Pollok Park and its local communities, and how have things changed now compared to the time of Pollok Free State?

There is an increasing amount of local activity taking place (COVID aside) by groups and schools to engage people more in their green spaces in Greater Pollok. Most of the schools are running lots more outdoor learning programmes, the area has seen new community gardens developed by local people in the last years and walking groups set up to meet local health and wellbeing needs.

Locally in Greater Pollok, among those who were involved in PFS at the time, there is a great deal of collective pride given in sharing memories. The area has changed dramatically since the occupation, with the construction of both the M77 and Silverburn shopping centre. Partly for this reason it feels as important as ever to hold onto that piece of local history and the strength that resounded around it.

Not so many young people have heard about it – so there is potential for finding new ways to creatively retell the story – especially today when many of the same social and environmental issues raised by people through the PFS camp feel as relevant as ever.

We would love to do some further work with local people to develop a plan for how this story could be commemorated through a permanent piece of public art, an installation or even through some form of strategic planting/event in the ward itself.

Thank you to Hannah Brackston and Dan Sambo for sharing their exciting work with us. In the story of Pollok Free State, it is inspiring to see that the space created, the activities that were undertaken there, and the makeshift schools of learning that so resonated with the local school children in the 90s, can continue to do so today.

It is also powerful to see how the act of remembering this piece of local heritage and the motivations behind the gathering of these communities in that public space, still resonates in new generations and can be used to help open up conversations to better construct our environment and our relationship with it.

We look forward to Hannah and Dan’s future workshops and can’t wait to see how people continue to engage with this piece of local heritage.

You can have a look through other elements of our Pollok Free State collection in the SGHET Archive here:  Pollok Free State: Archive Selections and Reflections

By Romy Galloway

Published: 24th March 2022

The post The Pollok Free State Story Connecting with Young People Decades On appeared first on SGHET.

While it can be entered at points from within Glasgow city’s south side, the picturesque Cathcart Cemetery sits largely in the modern-day council boundary of East Renfrewshire. Designed and laid out in 1878, it’s a tranquil place for locals and visitors to escape the urban hubbub, but less known are the circumstances surrounding the cemetery grounds’ purchase which have a whiff of scandal and mystery that lingers, writes Jacqui Fernie…

“There might not have been the slightest glimpse or sign of a burial ground, I might have mistaken the entrance as that of a grand residential estate, but for the words ‘Cathcart Cemetery’ modestly displayed in the wall angles near the main road.”

– An English gentleman quoted in Cathcart Cemetery and Surrounding District, 1888

Looking up Clarkston Avenue in Muirend today – some 133 years later – through the archway of trees, our friend’s first impressions of Cathcart Cemetery still hold true. The mature lime tree avenue sweeps through grand iron gates to the Scot Baronial gatehouse lodge beyond. No sign of graves or memorials – just the promise of a pleasant stroll in a grand country estate.

Cathcart Cemetery was laid out in around 1878, by one of Scotland’s foremost cemetery designers, William Ross McKelvie (1825 – 1893). McKelvie had previously been the Superintendent of the grand Victorian garden cemetery in Greenock, which had been planted out by the Curator of the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow and the man responsible for laying out the Glasgow Necropolis, Stewart Murray.

Designed for life & wellbeing as well as commemorating the dead

William came with an impressive pedigree. He designed cemeteries in Dundee and Wick and parks in Dundee and Aberdeen. Garden cemeteries were designed to be places for not only burying the dead, but green, pleasant spaces to be enjoyed, where people could walk in sylvan nature and be morally uplifted by the experience; a place to contemplate nature, life and of course, death (and to show off a bit).

Again, that is true today of Cathcart Cemetery as it was in 1878. The Victorian section is a semi-mature woodland, home to vibrant and thriving flora and fauna: rabbits, deer, and majestic monkey puzzle trees. As well as being the final resting place possibly over 30,000 people, including early pioneering footballers such as Joseph Taylor (the first captain of the Scottish National Team), Suffragette Henria Leech Williams, and artists Hannah Frank and George Henry.

Trouble in the Parish Board… origins of the scandal

But the Cemetery didn’t start out under the most harmonious circumstances. According to an article in the North British Daily Mail (now the Daily Record) in June 1877, a ‘squabble’ between the Cathcart Parish (Parochial) Board and some of its committee members broke out over who owned the land. The newspaper report has an air of resignation about it when it notes that these things happen in the West of Scotland.

It started in 1874 and the village of Cathcart was growing. And the good people of Cathcart called upon the Parish Board to provide space for a new burial ground. A sub-committee was duly set up and two members – Mr Martin and Mr Athya – were dispatched to negotiate the purchase of land which formed part of the Bogton Estate. In turn, the owner, Mr Gordon of Aitkenhead, agreed to sell the land to make way for the Cemetery.

Underhand dealings in the Board sub-committee?

After this it all gets a bit murky. A meeting of the Parish Board was called in March 1876, where four men were appointed to the sub-committee to conclude the sale with Mr Gordon, but according to the article, the minutes of this meeting have ‘strangely disappeared’ and no one knows what really happened.

A second meeting was called later that month by Messrs Martin and Athya with other mysterious benefactors. Again, no one knew who was there or what was discussed but a little after the formation of the Cathcart Cemetery Company Limited was announced.

Profit and a cunning plan wins the day

The problem here is that Mr Gordon had thought he was selling the land to the Parish Board, when in fact he’d sold the land to Mr Martin and his friends. They then subsequently re-sold the land to the Cemetery Company, making a considerable profit on the deal, £10,000 – £1.25 million in today’s money – to be split between the seven friends. The Parish Board were livid, calling the deal ‘a betrayal’ and intended to take their case higher and seek legal advice.

As the newpaper article concluded: “But for the moment, the action of the Parochial Board simply leaves those whom, by implication, it accuses of a very unpleasant transaction, in full enjoyment of the profits, and the pleasing reflection that possession is nine-tenths of the law.”  The Cathcart Cemetery Company Ltd went into liquidation in 1979.

You can find out more about Cathcart Cemetery and who’s buried there on our website www.cathcartcemetery.co.uk

By Jacqui Fernie
Co-Chair, Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

Published: 26th August 2021

Image Sources:

1. Photos of Cathcart Cemetery Gatehouse, Monkey Puzzle tree and the image at the top of the article, courtesy of Friends of Cathcart Cemetery

2. 1895 Map of Cathcart Cemetery, courtesy of Glasgow City Archives

3. Sunny cemetery view: Creative Commons licensed photo by Felibriu on Flickr, 4th September 2020 (CC BY-NC 2.0)

4. All images by Michael Paley, 6th May 2020, donated to SGHET Archive’s ‘Southside Lockdown Lens‘ 2020 project Collection. SGHET are currently developing plans to have a digitised verion of this project, and our larger archive, created and made accessible to the public.

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In August last year I posted an article on our blog attempting to give an overview of the story of the Pollok Free State. It spoke about the protest camp and the campaigns in the 1980s and early 1990s against the M77 motorway extension through southside communities. Since the article we have received some incredible donations to the SGHET Archive to help document and illustrate this story and piece of local heritage.

Donations of newspaper clippings, grassroots zines, posters and publications give some great details and insight into the story. Media clippings show the varying ways the media portrayed the protestors and the camp and items from the camp itself, like the PFS University enrolment form, give insight into the driving forces behind the movement. The collection also shows the work involved in organising the campaign of protest and how to inform and engage individuals and communities.

Thanks to these generous donations there is a lot to be found within the archive. The selection here speaks to the legacy of the protests and the camp, and  is punctuated throughout with memories and reflections on Pollok Free State from individuals who spent time in the camp.

Protests in the Media

A double-page spread in the Evening Times, October 1994, showing a photograph of the road construction cutting through large green fields with houses in the distance. A graphic on the left charts the route of the motorway through different communities amidst opposition, and includes an image of Arden bridge with the words “No death M-way. We don’t need” spray painted in red.

“The planned concrete will swallow up 95,000 square yards of rural land – some of it in Pollok estate. The land is recognised by Glasgow City Council as an important site of interest to nature conservation. The region can do nothing about this.”

The hotline listed also reported 68% of callers as being opposed to the road but also reported some individuals flooding the phone lines and voting repeatedly.

This poster was created as part of the S.T.A.R.R (Stop The Ayr Road Route) campaign to inform and engage Glasgow’s southside communities in opposition of the motorway extension. Designed to be hung in windows as a show of support, one side shows an image of trees in Pollok Estate and the words NO M77 overlaid. On the other, a timeline traces the proposals for and protests against, the motorway. It starts with the gifting of the Pollok Estate to the people of Glasgow and ends with the formation of the Pollok Free State camp.

The poster also details the aims of the S.T.A.R.R group, the organisations that form it, what people could do to get involved, and upcoming events of note. The events include a family day, a big shared meal at the camp, and a public meeting in City Halls. Notably, it also declares August 20^th as Pollok Free State Independence Day (by complete coincidence we were only 4 days off sharing our original blog post).

This 1994 photograph from The Scotsman shows protestors sitting with the NO M77 posters outside a council meeting. The story below reports on protestors breaking into the meeting.

The Scottish Daily Mail (March 1995) has a front-page banner dedicated to the “dramatic report and pictures.”

Researcher Dr Wallace McNeish on the legacies of Pollok Free State:

“While the anti-M77 alliance was ultimately unsuccessful in achieving its aims of stopping this particular motorway from being built, it was nevertheless part of a successful UK-wide protest movement against the then Tory government’s £23bn Roads for Prosperity programme. At its height in the mid-1990s, this movement included over 300 local opposition groups, with high-profile direct-action protests taking place at Twyford Down, Wanstead, Batheaston, Newbury and Fairmile as well as the south-side of Glasgow. What protests like those centred on the Pollok Free State showed was that very different constituencies of people can be together in dialogue and united action around a common cause. In the run-up to the 1997 General Election the government was under such political pressure that it slashed its unpopular road-building programme by more than two-thirds to £6bn and abandoned the most contentious of its remaining plans.”

Photograph showing women wearing face masks and holding a hand-painted banner that reads “for our children NO M77” with the lower half of the banner obscured. The article states that the protest was part of International Women’s Day and notes that the Pollok area is above average for asthma rates in children.

Women’s Environmental Network flyer with overleaf giving information on air pollution and offering advice on how to protest and take action against air pollution.

An image in the Daily Record (1994) shows a pair of protestors passing the time with some music at the offices of a construction firm Tarmac on Nithsdale Road.

Wallace McNeish:

“Sometimes environmentalism is painted as a middle-class type of politics that is cut off from the lives of so called ‘ordinary people.’  What the Pollok protests showed was that this is far from always the case. The residents of the Free State were often locals themselves – including its founder Colin MacLeod – and it simply could not have been developed over approximately two years without support from the adjacent working-class estates. Indeed, a key legacy of the Free State is the Gal-Gael Trust which grew out of Colin and Gehan Macleod’s commitment to providing training for the unemployed in Glasgow’s south-side communities.”

“It is notable that the eco-activism of the mid-1990s around the roads issue did not tend to frame the issue in terms of climate change – instead the issues of sustainability, pollution and amenity were to the forefront. It is also the case that new non-violent direct-action tactics were pioneered by Free State activists and other anti-road protesters, and have become part and parcel of the tactical repertoire of subsequent generations of eco-activists protesting unsustainable development, like the Extinction Rebellion movement.”

Inside the Camp

The Pollok Free State Passport above shows the symbol of PFS with figures in a circular emblem and details of foliage, animals, plants, and tools. In August 1994, when PFS declared independence these passports were handed out to over 1000 “citizens.”

The passport has sections inside to fill out details of passport number, Pollok name, adopted tree, and folds out into the Declaration of Independence, featuring a quote from Robert Burns’ “The Tree of Liberty.” The declaration references the history of land ownership in Scotland and outlines the need for connection to place and land for health and wellbeing.

Local protestor Helen Melone on her memories of a Free State:

“When I first visited Pollok as part of the protests, my favourite area was a patch of trees which were all cut down at the St Valentine’s Day Massacre. I’d adopted one of those trees as my own friendly tree and climbed it every time I went, even though there were a few rotten branches at the top. I’d put a rope round the trunk to help me climb it more easily.”

Above is a 3D scan of a stone carving by Colin Macleod from Pollok Free State. You can view the model in ‘matcap’ through the model inspector to see the skill of the stonework and the detail of the design. The design features Pollok Free State symbols, Earth First logos, elements referencing Native American and Aboriginal land rights, and Celtic stone carving akin to the medieval Govan school of design featuring interlace and hunter figures.

Feature on Pollok Free State campsite in the Spectrum section of Scotland on Sunday (1995). Images show a treehouse in Pollok Free State, with windows and a tarpaulin roof, and a banner hanging from the tree reading ‘RESPECT’, and view of the camp with a fire in the centre, seats, ladders, sculptures and sun coming through the trees. The journalist recalls spending time in the camp and speaking to those involved, giving a feel of the atmosphere:

“The gain outweighs the sacrifice. It’s a community, with warmth, companionship, shared meals around the fire, the healthy tiredness of the fresh air at the end of the day, the self-esteem of doing something worthwhile […] for every set of dreadlocks, every Visigoth t-shirt or willie winkie knitted hat, there is a campaigner in a Gore-tex anorak with newsreader hair. The startling thing is how wide a cross-section – of nationality, class, subculture – the campaigners represent.”

Wallace McNeish:

“During 1995 and 1996 I was a young Glasgow University PhD student who spent considerable time researching the protests against the M77 extension as part of a wider sociology project on the then burgeoning anti-roads protest movement in the UK. The Pollok Free State was the epicentre hub that facilitated and sustained a vital alliance between young radical eco-activists and community activists from the surrounding estates of Pollok and Corkerhill. I observed as the Free State morphed from a few tents around a campfire into a fortified encampment with outposts along the M77 route during its protest-action phase, to eventually become a colourful education oriented eco-hamlet with a wood-workshop, large central tree-house, public artworks, gardens, paths, and even a compost-toilet. My daughter Catriona was only a toddler at the time, and I remember her joy at the totem poles, walkways, and colourful spectacle of this ‘dear green place’ in the woods. Most of all though I remember the warmth and helpfulness of the people involved.”

Pollok Free State University enrolment form. Describes some of the activities at the camp that would have involved workshops and talks. The curriculum includes social history, living skills and creativity.

Postcard references the Criminal Justice Bill. Overleaf is handwritten note that reads “Hi Bigs, Got your call, hope to see you soon. I am going to Pollok this weekend. Tell Robo I miss him very much!!! Lots of love and peace, your big pal Big Ben”. The protests at Pollok Free State were also tied into protesting the Criminal Justice Act as it was passed in part to quell public gatherings and could be used to disband and remove the camp.

Helen Melone :

“I did spend a few overnights in tree houses and I’ve never been so cold in my life. My own flat in the West End was pretty poverty-stricken as well (no hot water and only a gas heater to stay warm) but it was better than staying in the camp. I remember having good conversations with Walter Morrison and he was the one who explained it best – how whole communities, like Corkerhill, were going to be cut off from each other by a huge, big road and cut off from their green spaces too. It was hard to imagine this, as plans and drawings didn’t quite convey the enormity of it all.”

Photo in Scotland on Sunday (February 1995), of carhenge stunt, showing upended and burnt out car, spray painted with NO M77, dug into the construction landscape for the motorway. The article details attempts by campaigners to drum up support, and quotes a conversation with a local woman and her children protesting in the camp.

Helen Melone:

“I remember there being a good balance of people from the local area at various points. I would meet interesting women who had different experiences of activism than me – I made some friends I’m still in touch with today many years later! The poverty-stricken flat I shared with my pal Iain hosted a load of people from Manchester Earth First, who came along to show their support and offered to help out – this was also the same night where a few of us stayed up all night making banners out of hospital sheets (saying No M77) with the intent of hanging them from the Finnieston crane the next day. All the people I met, whether fun, interesting or dangerous were worth getting to know, and all brought something different to my life.”

Earth First! “Busted in defence of mother earth?” leaflet giving advice on what to do if arrested during a protest. Offers contacts for legal support, and gives advice on rights if stopped, detained, or arrested.

The collection also holds a selection of documents from the Earth First offices (not pictured) that give great insight into the practicalities of organising the campaign of opposition to the M77, such as a booklet on how to liaise with the media, so how to contact news desks and journalists, and the importance of making sure your version of events reaches audiences. It also included different iterations of “the phone tree”’ a handwritten document with a changing series of numbers to call when security arrived at the camp, so that they could get people down to the camp to oppose eviction attempts or tree cuttings.

Helen Melone :

“I remember the day of 14th February (Valentine’s Day Massacre) where they activated the phone tree early – might have been as early as 5am, saying the diggers were coming into the camp. I don’t remember exactly how I got there from the West End, bus maybe – but I remember running through the back woods trying to get there faster, amid the awful sound of trees groaning as they were cut down (I still remember that to this day – a horrible groaning noise that could be heard from far away). When I got to the camp, all the trees on the other side of the wood (including my friendly tree) were all down and it was a mess over there – looked like a wasteland.”

Image in Scotland on Sunday (1995) of construction workers with chainsaws. Caption reads: “Chainsaw massacre…In the face of mounting protests the company is considering bypassing the gathering of tree houses, teepees and totem poles known as the Pollok Free State.”

Legacy and Changing Relationships with Green Space

This photograph of a protestor dressed as death holding sign that says M77 pollution kills, is featured in an article in The Evening Times (March 1995) written by the Secretary at the north Pollok community council. They write about the adverse effects on the low health of the disadvantaged areas involved and about media attempts to smear the camp as outsiders and rent-a-mob.

Helen Melone :

“I think perhaps people took their outdoor space for granted, until recently with COVID-19 and lots of lockdowns, people are really discovering their local areas and valuing them much more. I think Pollok Park is different from many other parks in Glasgow because it’s a country park and it really does feel that you are away from the city and the traffic when you’re in it.

I remember one night at the camp, there was a party on, and I walked along the pre-road surface right to the river Cart and I sat down at the edge of the bank for hours. It felt like a different planet.

Now, my favourite part of the park is Rhododendron Walk and the continuation Lime Avenue over the hill down towards Pollok House. If you go in May, the rhododendrons are flowering and they’re so beautiful and colourful. So my first connection with Pollok Park was a feeling of having something wild, feeling like it belongs to me and the second time it gave me the feeling of being away from the city.

While we didn’t stop the road, it showed what we can do when we work together. It also shows what power the press has (which we were speaking to as much as we could) so there’s many skills I have from that campaign – working with people who could be really difficult to engage with, and it was really difficult to get consensus and agreement on things. It felt like one of those forming experiences you have in your life – it might not be pleasant, there’s good and there’s bad but you come away from it and know that something has fundamentally changed in you.”

This photograph shows protestors on the Finnieston crane and the title accompanying it reads “I’ll go back to the peace camps!” – Stewart’s promise after an incident where the councillor brandished an axe at protestors in the camp. (Unknown paper or date).

Conclusion

We would like to extend a massive thank you for the generous donations from the people from the Earth First Glasgow offices and Helen Melone, for holding on to such a fascinating treasure trove of documents and cuttings over the years. And to Wallace McNeish for sharing documents and experiences from his research at the time. The protests and campaigns from Pollok Free State continue to have a legacy of community and commitment to your local environment and its people.

Keep an eye out for the next post in this series with Pollok Artists in Residence Hannah Brackston and Dan Sambo, who will share how they are drawing upon this piece of local heritage in workshops with young people in Pollok.

We are working to digitise aspects of our archive and create an online platform to browse the SGHET collections. In the meantime, if you would like to view any of the collection, for research or personal interests, or if you would like to donate anything, please do get in touch.

If this has brought up any memories of the time for you, we would love to hear from you, get in touch at info@sghet.com or via Facebook or Twitter.

By Romy Galloway

SGHET Board Member

Read the previous article: Pollok Free State and its Legacy

The post Pollok Free State: Archive Selections and Reflections appeared first on SGHET.

                 STARR Alliance leaflet, Spirit of Revolt Archive.

With the recent lockdown making us more aware of what we have locally, many in the Southside have a renewed gratitude for the incredible green space that is Pollok Country Park. Understanding the difference that access to a place like Pollok estate can make sheds some light on a fascinating aspect of the park’s history. In the early 1990s, local communities gained international attention for protesting against having their access to the park obstructed by a motorway.

Still from Given to the People, Yuill, 2008

During 1994 to 1996 Pollok Park was the site of an eco-camp named Pollok Free State, a space where protests against the construction of the M77 extension took many forms including, but not limited to: building and occupying treehouses in the park for almost two years; declaring an autonomous free state; local school strikes involving  around one hundred children; a land sculpture made of burnt out-cars dubbed ‘carhenge’; violent clashes with security firms and councillors; and hundreds of people marching through the city into the park.

The campsite became a meeting ground for people to engage in community through heritage, music, food, conversation, and activism. The ‘No M77’ campaign was primarily led by working class communities in the affected area, and uniquely for its time drew together social and class issues with environmental issues.

While the campaign was ultimately unable to stop the construction going ahead, the experience at Pollok Free State and the community built there left a legacy that continues to have an impact today.

“There’s going to be an outrage and we’re going to start it!” Colin MacLeod, local activist, 1993.

Still from What Do You Think You Have to Lose Here? YouTube, Macleod, 2011.

M77 proposal and Initial Opposition

In 1939 Sir John Stirling Maxwell created a conservation plan to keep the estate of Pollok open to Glaswegians, ‘that the open spaces and woodlands within the area shall remain for the enhancement of the beauty of the neighbourhood as well as the citizens of Glasgow’ (Haynes, 2016). In 1974 the National Trust for Scotland agreed to the proposed extension to the M77. It would cost £53.6m and cut through 7 miles of woodland and the south west side of Pollok park, removing direct access to the communities of Pollok, Corkerhill, and Mosspark. It is important to also remember that this campaign grew within the historical context of the M8 motorway, which saw great loss within the areas of Townhead, Cowcaddens, Charing Cross, Anderston and Kinning Park.

Opposition to the M77 plans began in 1978 with Corkerhill Community Council and other community groups, and in 1988 there was a 3-month public inquiry with multiple groups submitting opposition including Glasgow District Council and Glasgow for People. However, by 1992 preliminary construction had started. Its opponents included academics, transport consultants, politicians and environmentalists, who argued that it would increase air pollution and noise pollution, cause irreparable damage to woodland and wildlife habitats, and send 53,000 vehicles a day across the already overloaded Kingston Bridge.

The road department for the region cited a multitude of reasons in favour of the extension, including saving travel time for road users between Ayrshire and Glasgow, and improving road congestion by removing traffic from Giffnock, Thornliebank and Newton Mearns (Glasgow For People, 1994). The benefits were for neighbourhoods noted by Glasgow for People at the time as predominantly middle-class residential and shopping areas, and for car owners in general. By contrast it would not serve the communities local to the construction of the motorway, Mosspark, Corkerhill, Pollok, Nitshill, Carnwadric and Kennishead, where car ownership was significantly low, with Corkerhill being amongst the lowest percentage of car ownership in Europe, and where 1 in 5 children have asthma.

As many primary and secondary schools from these areas would see their recreational green space replaced with a motorway, the school children became heavily involved in the protests. Thanks to a lot of media documentation at the time you can watch some great videos of these kids critically engaging with the issue in an informed way. (https://archive.org/details/PollokFreeState, from 4:20)

 Still from Remembering Pollok Free State Archive Footage.

In 1994 STAR, Stop the Ayr Road Route Alliance, was launched, combining community and environmental groups. Arguments were made for relocating the resources to existing infrastructure, updating rail networks and public bus services. In the same year local man Colin MacLeod spent 9 days in a beech tree to prevent its felling by the construction company awarded the contract for the motorway. From this Pollok Free State emerged.

The Camp

Pollok campsite from Routledge, 1997.

Located in the Barrhead woods of Pollok estate which the proposed motorway would soon replace, the camp was a space for people to build together, share meals, skills, music and discussions, and physically stop the construction. An information board in the camp stated the intent to ‘create a positive alternative to the road by drawing upon the skills of the local community and by building an inspirational focal point for resistance and non-violent direct action should the democratic channels fails’ (Routledge, 1997).

The camp was made up of artists, scaffolders, tree surgeons, carpenters, musicians, cooks and people from the surrounding housing estates, who would visit and participate in ongoing work and meals. The number of people living in the camp would vary from 5 to 20, but during events like talks and workshops, numbers would rise. There were protest marches from George Square to the site at Pollok, on one occasion drawing around 300 people. The camp was well equipped, with substantial treehouses and even a wind-powered generator for a TV with a communal phone stationed above. In August 1994, they even declared independence from the UK and issued passports to over 1000 ‘citizens’.

 Colin MacLeod, Nicolson, 2008. 

Imagery and symbols used around the site referenced Australian aboriginal land rights and native American culture. Colin MacLeod had spent time in South Dakota in the late 1980s and met people of the Sioux tribes, where he was inspired by initiatives in the reservations working with problems of alcohol abuse in young people by ‘re-introducing them to their cultural roots’, and engaging them with their cultural heritage. Flags hung from trees stated, ‘Save our dear green place’. Residents taught traditional wood carving, and young kids from the surrounding estates were introduced to Gaelic poetry, story-telling and music about Scottish history. Some members remembering it as ‘an education’, there was even the proposal of the Pollok Free State University where a prospectus was drawn up.

 Still from What Do You Think You Have to Lose Here?

Political actions involved ‘holding public meetings, lobbying members of the Strathclyde Regional Council, leafleting communities around Pollok estate, conducting community centre meetings, and holding legal demonstrations and rallies’ (Routledge, 1997). Beyond this, protesters also disrupted the construction process by chaining themselves to equipment and trees.

On Valentine’s day in 1995 there was an attempt to evict people from the camp. It was surrounded by security; occupants were to be forcibly removed and treehouses cut down. However, the children of a nearby school who had been involved in the school strikes and protests heard of the attempt and marched through the police roadblocks stopping the eviction and saving much of the camp. This was followed by over 20 of the security staff quitting to take a stand alongside the protestors.

‘At the Pollok camp yesterday, one of the former guards, William Lang, 26, said he had changed sides because until last week he had not realised that most of the objectors were locals. “Before I went up there that morning I thought that the demonstrators were environmental nutters from Europe. But they are not. Most of them are from this part of the city – schoolchildren, young people, old people. I listened to what they were saying and saw the extent of what was proposed, and I just thought ‘Wait a minute. This is wrong” (Arlidge, 1995a).

Carhenge

Carhenge Routledge, 1997

Similarities with other anti-road protests and camps in east London against the M11 brought interest and support from other cities. Prompted by the Valentine’s day raid, a convoy of activists from England and Wales drove up in cars to perform ‘To Pollok with love’ a stunt designed to gain media attention. They created the large sculptural work ‘Carhenge’; half buried burnt out cars formed a circular Stonehenge-like formation on the site of the proposed motorway. Activists involved in the stunt claimed the burnt-out cars were intended to be symbolic of the decrease of the car’s use in modern society, as environmentalists argued for a future with more public transport and less individual car ownership. With the failing government at the time having pursued Thatcher’s brand of individualism that prioritised private transport, activists accused the local council of being ‘roads-obsessed’ and asked the motorway budget to be spent on public transport.

The Legacy of Pollok Free State

Leaflet from Spirit of Revolt Archive

Although the campaign did not prevent the development of the M77, the communities surrounding Pollok park continue to take initiative and interest in the use of the park and its spaces, with the Save Pollok Park Group campaign against the construction of an adventure park by Go Ape in 2008. The plan was given the go ahead by Glasgow city councillors, despite large opposition against it including the National Trust for Scotland and five community councils. Eventually Go Ape dropped the adventure park plans with the council expressing regret over the decision.

Simon Yuill who later made the film Given to the People which documents and remembers Pollok Free State said of it, “It was always about more than just the motorway. It was about public land that had been gifted to the people of Glasgow, who had not been given a say in what was to be done with it. That is something that still resonated very strongly with Glaswegians” (Nicolson, 2008).

“The M77 campaign not only showed that there was a diverse range of social groups opposed to road building schemes, it also articulated various counter-cultural, eco-political practices, of which Pollok Free State was the most dramatic” (Routledge, 1997).

It seems that when people talk of Pollok Free State they do not dwell on the campaign’s loss and the motorway. Rather, they focus on the sense of connectedness and participatory citizenship, the lessons learned from taking action and being engaged in your environment. It articulated an alternative approach, and created space for different inputs, rethinking how city space is structured, who for, and how to have a voice in the process.

Interviews with residents involved in the camp speak of the value of the experience personally, stating that time spent living and working together in the camp was more important than whether they stopped the road or not. For many just taking direct action within their surroundings toward issues that they cared about brought a sense of fulfilment (Routledge, 1997).

Many of those involved in Pollok Free State went on to be involved in similar initiatives, some members started a radical bookshop called Fahrenheit 451, and some started the Land Redemption Fund, an initiative to acquire land in Scotland to create sustainable communities. The influence of the camp and its community-building activities can also be seen in other Glasgow movements surrounding threatened spaces like the Kinning Park Complex and Govanhill Baths’ Save Our Pool campaigns.

The late Colin MacLeod who was such a central figure to Pollok Free State, has since been the subject of BBC documentary The Birdman of Pollok, which explores his involvement in the creation of the camp and his subsequent work creating GalGael, a Govan organisation that teaches carpentry and traditional ship building skills. GalGael said of Pollok Free State, “We lost the campaign but learned many things about how to make community in a difficult space; how to take responsibility, articulate our concerns and find common purpose.”

Do you remember the protests against the M77? Do you have any of your own memories of the campsite or Pollok Free State? We would love for you to share them with us. We are looking for material for our Community Archive, if you have any flyers, images, or a memory to share with us please get in touch. Extra points if anyone has a Pollok Free State Passport!

Contact info@sghet.com or message us @SGHETorg

Still from archive footage Remembering Pollok Free State.

By Romy Galloway

Published: 25th August 2020

Read the follow-up article: Pollok Free State: Archive Selections and Reflections

Read the third article in the series: The Pollok Free State Story Connecting with Young People Decades On

References

• Arlidge, John, ‘Scots Vow to Win Britain’s ‘Last Motorway Battle’, Independent (1995a).
• Arlidge, John, ‘Tory MP Fined £200 for Waving Pickaxe,’ Independent (1995b).
• BBC Alba, Birdman of Pollok, [Documentary] (2019).
• BBC, ‘Go Ape Drops Treetop Park Plans’ (2009).
• Crocket, James, ‘Not Going Away: Pollok Free State,’ Medium (2020).
• Glasgow for People, 1994, Instead of the Ayr road route.
• ‘Pollok Free State Remains Uninvaded,’ The Herald (1995).
• Haynes, N., ‘Pollok Park Conservation Area Appraisal,’ Glasgow City Council (2016).
• Macleod, Gehan, ‘What do you think you have to lose here? Pollok Free State’ [YouTube footage] (2011).
• M77 Motorway, Glasgow Motorway Archive.
• McNeish, Wallace The Anti-Roads Protest Movement in Nineties Britain a Sociological Interpretation (1999)
• Nicolson, Stuart, Film Tribute to the ‘Pollok Birdman’, BBC (2008).
• Pollok Free State, Pollok Free State, Archived video footage.
• ‘Pollok Free State Lives On!,’ Do or Die, issue 5 (1996): 7-10.
• Routledge, Paul, The Imagineering of Resistance: Pollok Free State and the Practice of Postmodern Politics, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 22, No. 3 (1997): pp. 359-376.
• Seel, Ben, Strategies of Resistance at the Pollok Free State Road Protest Camp, Environmental Politics Vol. 6, No.4 (1997): pp. 108-139.
• Spirit of Revolt Archive, Pollok Free State, Flyers and Newspaper clippings.
• Yuill, Simon, Given To The People [film] (2008).

The post The Pollok Free State and its Legacy appeared first on SGHET.

Queen’s Park and Langside synagogues form a fascinating part of South Glasgow’s heritage.

Scotland’s Jewish Community

Many Jewish people moved to the UK in the twenty years leading up to World War I, fleeing the Russian pogroms, with later generations moving to Glasgow, as a result of Nazi persecution. The Scottish Jewish community was once considerable, with about 15,000 Jewish people living in Glasgow in 1939. While some communities were established in Garnethill, many settled in areas such as the Gorbals, Govanhill, Battlefield, Langside, and Shawlands. The Gorbals was a real hub, with a Zionist Centre (which later moved to Queen Square), the Jewish Institute, the Jewish Board of Guardians, and the majority of the synagogues, kosher butchers, bakers, and Jewish grocery shops. Sophie Geneen also ran Geneen’s Hotel in the Gorbals, where she dispensed charity and food to those in need.

Synagogues in the Southside

Further south, Queen’s Park Synagogue was founded in 1906, and moved to a substantial new building in Falloch Road in 1926. About the same time, Langside Synagogue, originally founded in 1915, moved to Niddrie Road. In later years synagogues were established in Pollokshields (1929), Giffnock and Newlands (1934), Netherlee and Clarkston (1940) and Newton Mearns (1954). A Reform synagogue opened in Pollokshields in 1931, and later moved to Newton Mearns. A short-lived community was also established in Hillington, Mosspark and Cardonald (1937). Queen’s Park eventually closed in 2002; Langside Synagogue remained active for longer but closed in 2014.

Queen’s Park Synagogue

Land in Lochleven Road, donated by Sir John Stirling Maxwell for a nominal sum, was to become the Queen’s Park Synagogue. Plans were put on hold during World War I. A ‘tin Shool’ of concrete with a corrugated metal roof was constructed temporarily. Surviving plans show a simple building with pitched roof covered with asbestos tiles. The official Queen’s Park synagogue opened in the mid-1920s. It was designed by McWhannell & Smellie, with a red-painted and rendered Romanesque artificial stone façade. It was closed in 2003 and was converted into flats. The synagogue’s stained-glass windows by the Scottish glassmaker John K. Clark, made to mark Glasgow City of Culture in 1989, were moved to Giffnock Synagogue, and the Ark was salvaged and re-used in a new-build synagogue in Manchester.

Langside Synagogue

Langside Synagogue was established on Langside Road in 1915. The synagogue moved to 125 Niddrie Road, to a design by architects Jeffrey Waddell & Young with a Romanesque style façade. It re-opened in 1927, and was home to the Langside Hebrew Congregation. The building has a traditional immigrant shul interior. The Ark (two-tiers made of timber and gilding in traditional Eastern European style), bimah and decorative details including the clock on the gallery front were carved by a Lithuanian-born cabinet-maker called Harris Berkovitch (c. 1876–1956), who was a member of the congregation. Woodcarving and wall-painting in folk-art style was a characteristic of synagogue building particularly in Poland, Ukraine, and Romania. The tall upper tier includes large gilded Luhot (Tablets of the Law) with painted glass panels to either side, and the pediment contains a Keter Torah (Crown of the Torah) with gilded sunrays, both motifs found in traditional Jewish art. It is one of the only two (the other being in London) truly Eastern European-style synagogue interiors in Britain!

Contribute to Our Archive of the Southside

If you have memories or any artefacts relating to South Glasgow’s synagogues and Jewish history, please get in touch with us: info@sghet.com. We are seeking memories, local knowledge, donations and photocopies of material relating to the Southside for our archive of South Glasgow!

Sources:

• Canmore
• Kenneth E. Collins, Ephraim Borowski, and Leah Granat. Scotland’s Jews: A Guide to The History and Community of The Jews in Scotland. 2^nd ed. (Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, 2008).
• Sharman Kadish. ‘Jewish Heritage in Scotland’. Jewish Historical Studies 47 (2015): 179-216
• Langside Hebrew Congregation
• Scottish Jewish Archives Centre
• The Glasgow Story

The post Queen’s Park Synagogue and Langside Synagogue appeared first on SGHET.

Maxwell Park and Pollokshields Burgh Hall have a fascinating history, involving barrage balloons, West Indies slave plantations, and freemasons.

Maxwell Park

In 1887, Scottish politician, baronet, and philanthropist Sir John Stirling Maxwell gifted the land that is now Maxwell Park to the burgh of Pollokshields, for the development of Pollokshields Burgh Halls and public gardens. The area was entirely agricultural until 1850. The park contains a variety of different plants and flowers that were taken from the gardens of his home Pollok House, in what is now Pollok Country Park. These species are believed to have been brought back from around the world by botanist and explorer George Forrest. Many of the flowers can be found in the ornamental bed that used to be the base of the Hamilton memorial fountain. Forrest’s expeditions to the Himalayas were responsible for many unique species becoming part of Scotland’s garden heritage at Pollok House and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Building on this heritage, the community launched a plant nursery with the support of the Friends of Maxwell Park in 2012.

Not many people know that there was a barrage balloon mooring site in the South West section of Maxwell Park. This site was part of a network that protected the people and war-time industry of central Glasgow and the Clyde from low flying enemy bombers during World War II. The park has many significant features including Pollokshields Burgh Hall, ornamental horticultural bedding displays, a formal play area, and a commemorative George Forrest display plant bed. There’s also a pond with wildlife, and what the local Helen Millar and her friends called the ‘elephant stone’, when growing up – a large rock for children to play on – nearby.

The Stirling Maxwells

The Maxwells/Stirling Maxwells of Pollok House in Pollok Park were one of the most eminent families in South Glasgow. Sir John Maxwell, 2^nd Baronet, had Pollok House (now A listed) built from 1747-1752. The 10^th Baronet, Sir John Stirling Maxwell (1866-1956) inherited Pollok House in 1887, and opened the estate to the public in 1911. He gifted land that now contains Maxwell Park to the burgh of Pollokshields in 1887; you can still see the Maxwell family motto, ‘Do Good While the Holly is Green,’ carved on the wall of Pollokshields Burgh Hall (also A listed), in the park. He was Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, and a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, one of the founding members of The National Trust (and one of its first Presidents) and became a noted art collector. After he died in 1956, his daughter Anne gave Pollok House, the art collection, library, and 361 acres of surrounding land, to the City of Glasgow.

Links to Slavery

The Stirling Maxwells inherited their wealth in part from Archibald Stirling the elder (1710-1783), who made his fortune through his sugar plantations, using slave labour, in Jamaica. Archibald Stirling the younger (1768-1847) was also planter and slaveowner in Jamaica. After the British Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 the younger Archibald Stirling was awarded £12,517 in compensation (over £50 million in today’s money) for the 690 enslaved people across his estates: Hampden in St. James, Frontier in St. Mary, Kerr or Keir Settlement in Trelawney, and Grange Hill in Westmoreland, all in Jamaica. He returned to Scotland and married Elizabeth Maxwell (daughter of Sir John Maxwell (7th Baronet) and sister of Sir John Maxwell (8th Baronet of Pollok). Their son Sir William Stirling of Keir went on to become Sir William Stirling Maxwell (9th Baronet of Pollok). You can learn more about this family in our July 2020 blog on the Maxwells.

Architect Henry Clifford

Pollokshields Burgh Hall was exhibited in 1890, and officially complete in 1893, to a design by architect Henry (Harry) Edward Clifford (1852-1932). Clifford has connections to slavery both through his family and his work for the Stirling Maxwells. He was born in Trinidad to a family of sugar plantation holders. When his father died, the Cliffords moved to Glasgow. He studied and taught at Glasgow School of Art, won prizes for his work, and set up his architecture partnership Landless & Clifford, before going solo. He lived with his mother and sisters in Pollokshields. Clifford achieved national fame in 1901 by winning the Glasgow Royal Infirmary competition, although the commission was eventually given to James Miller. Clifford designed Pollokshields Burgh Hall in the Scottish Renaissance style. He clearly remembered his time in the Caribbean fondly as well, and named two of his buildings Woodbrook House after the Trinidad estate, one on Elphinstone Road, Whitecraigs, the other at Reigate.

Pollokshields Burgh Hall

The A listed halls form an asymmetrical composition of 17th-century towers and wings, made of dark red sandstone (in contrast to the blond sandstone of many surrounding villas). The buildings include an adjoining Jacobean lodge (refurbished 1996), and gate leading to the Maxwell Park drive. The Maxwell coat of arms appears on the entrance archway, flanked by lions, and is set in marble on the floor of the building entrance. You can see Maxwell’s motto ‘Do Good While the Holly is Green’ carved on the wall outside the building, and in the large east window. The halls feature a range of stained glass windows gifted by Pollokshields residents, a Venetian window, a 1935 west window bearing the emblem of the Corporation of Glasgow, and 17th-century-style Masonic stained glass. The building is maintained by Pollokshields Burgh Hall Trust.

Freemasons

The building has been used as a masonic lodge since it was built, and the arch built into the back wall displays several carved Masonic emblems and the Masonic symbol. The Memorial Window in the main hall depicts the glory of the afterlife, with the two pillars on the side panels representing the entrance to the Sanctum. The inscription on the centre panel reads:

“To the memory of departed brethren”.

The Minor Hall features a window dedicated to Saint John, Patron Saint of Freemasonry with the motto ‘Gloria in Excelsis’, presented by Morris Carswell, First Master of Lodge Pollok. The other window is dedicated to St. Andrew the Patron Saint of Scotland, with the motto ‘Virtute in Silentio’, and was also presented by a freemason, David R. Clark. Both windows display masonic emblems, and were gifted in 1890.

Southside Slavery Legacies project 2020

South Glasgow Heritage and Environment Trust are currently working on the #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies project, including a potential heritage trail and walks, as well as blogs on our website, and published articles.

If you would like to know more or become involved, please subscribe to our mailing list, message us on Facebook or Twitter or contact info@sghet.com

Sources:

Canmore: Maxwell Park

Canmore: Pollokshields Burgh Hall

Discover Glasgow

Friends of Maxwell Park

Legacies of British Slave-ownership

MeasuringWorth.com

Pollokshields Burgh Hall

Pollokshields Trust

Rias.Org

Runaway Slaves in Britain.

Scotland and the Slave Trade

Scottish Architects

Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow

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Since its closure in 1958 and later liquidation in 1960 the Dixons Ironworks has been a strong part of the historic past of the Gorbals and those who are able to recall its physical dominance within the area have similar memories of this part of the environment that was known to “light up the sky with a glow of red in the night”

Through recollections from individual recordings, anecdotes and past newspaper articles SGHET has been working on archiving information on this unique (and now gone) part of the Gorbals’ rich historical jigsaw.

More info coming soon!

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In 1839 a public meeting was held in the Gorbals Baronial Hall with the proposal that land should be bought for the provision of a much needed Southern Necropolis, resulting from the cholera outbreak of 1832. After further meetings a management committee was set up which included particularly noteworthy member, Colin Sharp McLaws, Tea Merchant from King Street. The committee issued a prospectus and emphasised that the new cemetery was one where lairs could be disposed of at such moderate prices and payment taken in such small instalments as to put the prospect of a burial place within the grasp of even the poorest citizens. There was to be no common ground and of course no pit burials. People were then invited to become subscribers.

The Southern Necropolis was opened in the year 1840. It is a cemetery rich in the history of the past. Early Chartists and Socialists, poets, artists, soldiers, merchants, engineers etc. are all buried here. All were players in the drama of the changing life of the city. Like any other graveyard the Southern Necropolis has its very own white lady. The mournful lady’s head is said to turn after someone passes. But if you ever see it turn you too will be turned into stone. The cemetery and the gatehouse are an important historical and education resource that has much to offer for the present and future generations to come.

History of The Southern Necropolis

The Southern Necropolis was established for two main reasons. Firstly, the old burial ground, first established in 1715 to meet the needs of the one time village of Gorbals was, by the late 1830’s, in an appalling state; the unfortunates “on the Parish” were buried in long trenches, left barely boarded over until the trenches were full; it had been used for mass pit burials in the cholera outbreak of 1832; the bought lairs were full, and not much space was left. Secondly, the city had its great Necropolis by the cathedral, and the new Sighthill Cemeteries-both places of great dignity.

Gorbals, now joined by Laurieston and Hutchesontown, and full of merchants and professional people, and prospering mill-owners and engineers, aspired to similar dignity. But with a difference. The dignity was to be shared by all. This later point was emphasised at a public meeting in the Baronial Hall on the fifteenth of November, 1839. There it was proposed that the Southern Necropolis should be established “to enable the working classes to become proprietors of burying places similar to those in the Necropolis, or Sighthill.”

This meeting was chaired by Archibald Edmiston, the Chief Magistrate of Gorbals, Timber Merchant and Builder. A second meeting followed very quickly, on the 27th of February, 1840. A Committee was formed, made up of the Magistrates of Gorbals. Two members are particularly noteworthy: Colin Sharp McLaws (who it was later stated was the projector of the scheme), and Archibald Edmiston. This committee issued a prospectus, re-emphasising that the new graveyard was to be one “where lairs could be disposed of at such a moderate level, and payment taken in such small installments as to put the prospect of a burial place within the reach of the poorest.”

What is now called the Central Division, the original seven-acres, was bought from a Mr. Gilmour, father-in-law of Colin McLaws, and was afterwards vested in a committee of the Magistrates of the Gorbals. (Archibald Edmiston has now disappeared from the scene). This committee`s function was apparently to act as guardians of the land and legal protector. The organisation of the affairs of the division was by a committee of lairholders, who met annually, were elected, were responsible for the recording of, and payment for, lairs, appointment of a superintendent, and his necessary staff. The affairs of the Central Division seem to have gone along fairly smoothly for many years, although signs of alteration to the original plans appear after a while. In the first two years, there is a surprising amount of burials, and then reburials, almost exactly a year later. But this could be explained by the time it would take to prepare the ground, and lay it out.

After the first years though, there is correspondence between the burial books and the actual lairs, i.e. if the burial book says that x is buried in lair 192, one finds that a stone to x is there-or no stone at all, since many have collapsed, and been removed. But this is not so in the Eastern and Western Sections. The Burial Book may say x is in lair 192. One goes to 192, and the stone is inscribed to a totally different family. This happens repeatedly. The reason can be found in the history of these sections.

THE EASTERN SECTION

By 1846, all the cheap lairs in the Central Section had been sold and it was decided to buy more land, and set it out, largely in cheap lairs. These lairs were to be seven feet by three, cost £1/1, payable at 6d a week. When 5/-had been paid, the lair could be used for burial, and when all had been paid, the lair became the property of the buyer. Colin McLaws, accordingly bought from Mr. Gilmour (father-in-law) a further seven acres. And here the first great mistake was made…

The Management Committee of the Central Lair-Holders did not wait to take on extra responsibility, so the agreement between McLaws and Mr.Gilmour was an agreement between individuals. The agreement was that as soon as the price of the additional ground, and the expense of building a wall round it, and laying the ground out, (all paid for by Mr. Gilmour) was repaid by Mr. McLaws, and the new lairs disposed of, then the extension should go into the control of the Magistrates of Gorbals (or of Glasgow when the Gorbals take over took place) in trust for the lair-holders.

In 1847 on the same conditions, McLaws bought a further stretch of land from Gilmour. Clearly the faster the lairs were sold, and the more lairs were sold, the sooner McLaws was out of debt. How he set about this can be seen more clearly when we reach the Western Section. In 1853 McLaws borrowed £300 from Mc Glashan, monumental sculptor, security was the unsold lairs in the Eastern Division. In the meantime in 1848 Gilmour died, in 1857 McLaw went bankrupt. His estate was sequestered, and his rights sold publicly. The rights to this section of the Necropolis were acquired in 1865 by the Central Management Committee.

According to the original agreement, the Management Committee, prepared to convey the extension into the protection of the Magistrates of Glasgow. But all the lairs had not been sold, and so, in accordance with the original agreement, the Magistrates decided it was not yet time for them to come on the scene. This is understandable. What is difficult to understand is that in 1891 when all the lairs were sold, and the Magistrates were approached again in the name of the lair-holders, they still did not want to be responsible. They suggested application should be made to the Court of Session to constitute a new body of trustees. This suggested application was made in 1893 by the Central Management Committee and they suggested as suitable trustees for the Eastern lair-holders, their chairman and treasurer, Mr. J. Hovett and Mr. W. Hovett, of 146 Buchanan Street.

THE WESTERN SECTION

Still running short of space, Colin McLaws bought more land-9½ acres from the trustees of a Mr. Jardine, claiming that it too was to be laid out in cheap lairs. The ground cost £4,858. (£1,000 paid in cash the rest to be paid for the sale of lairs.) McLaws launched his selling campaign. Canvassers were sent all over the city and surrounding country-offering every inducement. “Lairs were to become private property of purchasers and successors for all time, were to be preserved inviolate as a repository for the reception at death of all held most dear.” So that the ground be tastefully laid out, 30/- lairs were raised to 36/9- the additional charge to be used for ornamental gardening. The section was to be laid out on the general plan of the central. All lairs were to be private. No place for burial of strangers (common ground). No pit burials. Sales were rapid, but not rapid enough…

In 1855 McLaws borrowed from the City of Glasgow Life Assurance Co. £6,000 on security of 9½ acres of Western Division. Three gentlemen were bound with him for interest on the loan, and £700 lodged to build a wall. One of the seventeen was Mr. W.T. Edmiston, son of Archibald Edmiston, who had been chairman of the inaugural meeting of the Central Necropolis. In 1857 McLaws was bankrupt. The Assurance Company sold lairs until 1859, when the three gentlemen (cautioners) who had guaranteed the loan, borrowed from the Royal Bank to pay the balance due to the Assurance Committee and proceeded to pay themselves back with the sale of lairs. Edmiston defended it by saying that he had noticed some “respectable artisans” could not afford the price of lairs, and he had proposed to set aside a certain portion of the 9% acres where this type of burial could be offered, at a low cost of 8/- for an adult and 3/- for a child.

At the same time other actions were brought about the reselling of lairs, on the grounds that a lair had not been selected, or that it was not fully paid. Other practices, totally opposed to the original concept of the Necropolis were hinted at-the re-opening of pits, after a time, and the remains huddled together in a piece of waste ground lying on the south side of the cemetery; certain undertakers claiming that they held land of their own within the cemetery, offering special terms, and making use of the pits, and the waste ground (we have found indications of this service from undertakers in the Burial Books).

All this accumulation of complaints finally brought about collective action on the part of the lair-holders of the Western Section. They sent deputations to Mr. Edmiston, to no avail. Through his lawyers he claimed he was the sole proprietor. They offered to buy the remaining land. No reply. They had a public meeting in October 1869. The complaints were once again recorded, and a decision made that if they were not remedied, they would go to law. A conaittee was formed to collect funds for this purpose. The Committee applied to the sheriff for an interdict on pit burials. This was refused. But a small victory was won, when Edmiston’s lawyer, although he still upheld Edmiston as the proprietor of the ground, conceded that the lair-holders became the proprietors of the lairs.

At a second public meeting in December 1869 the committee of the lair-holders decided that since the land had now very largely been disposed of as lairs, Mr. Edmiston had no right to manage them. That right now belonged to the lair-holders. The meeting authorized the committee to assume management. The committee decided to force a confrontation. They advertised that after the 3rd January 1870, they would conduct internments (until this none could take place without Mr. Edmiston’s consent). Several lair-holders stated that they wanted to conduct internments, but Mr. Edmiston reacted strongly, and advised the committee that a strong body of police would be in attendance to prevent any attempt to conduct funerals without his consent. This the local police superintendent confirmed. Clearly a long battle with the law was imminent, and an appeal was made to the lair-holders to build up funds for it.

SOURCES

Constitution, Regulations etc. of the Original Southern Necropolis-1865.
Report on Burial Grounds to the Town Council-1870.

The Western Southern Necropolis-A Statement of the Dispute between the Lair-Holders and Mr. W.T. Edmiston-1870-71.

Petition by Peter Luineden and other Lair-Holders in the Eastern Section of the Southern Necropolis for appointment of Trustees-to the Lords of the Court of Session-1893.

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