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.

The St. Andrew’s Quoiting Club on Butterbiggins Road

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 1912, the Scottish Referee reported that:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Published: 7th February 2023

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Thomas Oldham, SGHET Board Member.

The post First Hampden Archaeological Excavations appeared first on SGHET.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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