Many of us who walk through the Linn Park area admire the river Cart and its surroundings, but if you look closely you can find some reminders of the river’s industrial past.

Mills existed on the river Cart from Netherlee to Pollok from the late 1600s and provided employment for many local people, made some families rich, and also played a central role in the development and prosperity of the area.

We are going to focus on three mills that we can see (or detect in part) while on a walk through the park and point out at least one other that has now disappeared. If we look for them today, we can still see some signs of these early industries.

Starting at the southern end of Linn Park, the first waterfall and mill was at Netherlee…

Netherlee

Netherlee mill lands are situated immediately over the boundary wall from the Lime tree avenue at Netherlee. There were at least six types of water powered industry at Netherlee, including a waulk mill (1730s), snuff mill (1750s), bleachfields (1766), and paper mills from the 1730s.

Remains of the dam can be seen, especially on the Netherlee side of the river. Below the dam, on the Crematorium side of the river, the Ramloch Burn falls into the Cart on the park boundary. The mills turned Netherlee into an industrial village which by the 1850s employed hundreds and competed with Cathcart in scale. Everybody relied on the flow and power of the White Cart for their livelihood.

Linn Mill

The buildings of Linn Mill and its settlement were deliberately swept away when laying out Linn estate and building the driveway to Linn House, so nothing is left of this mill. This mill was at the site of the main falls in the park.

Careful inspection of the site will show that this end of the falls is greatly altered to support this mill. A small weir, made of a single course of sandstone masonry blocks, is fixed to the crest of the falls by metal bands to divert the water into the lade. The sluice opening in the bank can still be seen, plus remains of the metal control valve.

Following the path down below the falls, the tailrace of the mill exits at the square opening in the face of the sill. Deep inside the tunnel, the iron waterwheel still lies buried in the wheel pit. The site is crying out for archaeological investigation, both of the sawmill and the earlier waulk mill.

Millholm

The next dam downstream at Millholm powered a paper mill. Millholm was the third paper mill in the parish after Newlands and Netherlee. Initially it was known as the “Mid Paper Miln of Cathcart”, as it was situated between the other two.

Millholm had numerous owners over its two centuries of operation, the most notable of whom were the Halls and the Coupers. The Couper brothers built houses on Netherlee Road at Braehead, then decided to build villas above the mill.

Robert Couper had a villa, ‘Sunnyside’, designed by architect James Smith (now demolished). Shortly after, James Couper commissioned Alexander Thomson to design ‘Holmwood’ alongside, now restored by the National Trust for Scotland.

He also left a sum of money  – the “Couper Bequest” – for the benefit of local people in dire need, the only condition being that they reside within a mile of Cathcart. The Couper Bequest also funded the construction of the now Category B-listed Couper Institute Library (1923-24) built as an extension of the older Couper Institute which was built in 1887-88.

Miss Marion Couper, the last of the family, died in 1933 aged 84. It was she who launched a scheme.to start the Victoria Infirmary as she was disturbed at the lack of hospital facilities on the south side of the Clyde. The ‘Victoria’ was eventually opened in 1890. So, the mills and the wealth they created really transformed Cathcart and the south of Glasgow.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Millholm had become part of paper-making giant Wiggins Teape, manufacturing typing paper from rags and wood pulp. The mill finally closed in 1929 and the chimney and most of the original buildings were demolished in the 1930s.

The gatehouse and two mill houses on the road down to the mill were occupied into the 1970s but damaged by fire and demolished. If you look closely, a great deal of remains survive along the river. On the mill road, the cobbles and flatter paving for the cart wheels, can still be seen.

Snuff Mill

Lastly we get to perhaps the best known mill hereabouts, Snuff Mill, as the surrounding road and bridge share its name and it sits in a scenic location.

This mill was used latterly to produce snuff but had an earlier history as a dye mill. In 1835 the lease was taken over by Solomon Lindsay. His legacy remains in the tenements that he built across from the mill: ‘Lindsay House’.

Next time you visit the Linn Park, try looking for the remains of the old mill industries on the river banks, a reminder of Cathcart’s industrial heritage.

By Dougie McLellan

Published: 1st June 2022

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References & further reading:

Stuart Nisbet from his articles: ‘Netherlee and Linn Mills’ (The Eastwoodian, Vol.1, 1989); ‘Renfrewshire Snuff Mills’ (RLHF Journal, Vol.6 1994); The Four Paper Mills of Cathcart (Scottish Local History, Vol.49, 2001).

Special thanks to Gerry Blaikie whose website gerryblaikie.com was the primary source material for this article. His website has many interesting articles on Glasgow architecture.

Photograph of Netherlee Village courtesy of Gerry Blaikie

Photograph of Millholm paper mill courtesy of Gerry Blaikie

Painting of Cathcart Mill and the Old Bridge (also known as Snuff Mill Bridge) over the White Cart Water, c 1830. Watercolour by artist unknown. Copyright: National Trust for Scotland; courtesy of The Glasgow Story.

What is a waulk mill (aka a fulling mill)?

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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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