As our research accumulated, alongside a series of articles on our website and a guest article in Greater Govanhill Magazine, we also gave talks at three events, for the Scottish Civic Trust 2020 conference, Govanhill International Festival 2021, and Black History Month Scotland 2021.

Now we are delighted to announce that our lead researchers in the project – Dr Saskia McCracken and Mark McGregor – have had a jointly-authored five-page article published in the January / February 2022 issue of History Scotland Magazine.

It has been our intent to begin to assemble a more honest picture of our current and past landscape, and we’ve achieved a lot in two and a half years but more could be done.

If you have ideas or suggestions for our project, want to write for it or get involved in other ways, please contact us on our social media channels or by emailing info@sghet.com and check out the resources below.

Purchase a copy of the History Scotland Jan/Feb 2022 issue here:

https://www.historyscotland.com/store/back-issues/history-scotland/history-scotland-vol22issue1-janfeb22-issue-123/

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More #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies info:

Read our Southside Slavery Legacies posts here:

The Tobacco Lords: James Ritchie of Craigton & Daniel Campbell of Shawfield

The Stevens and Bellahouston Park

The Maxwells of Pollok
[see sections on: Sir James Maxwell 6th Baronet (1762-1785) & William Stirling of Keir]

Maxwell Park, Pollokshields Burgh Hall & Henry Edward Clifford

Sugar, Enslavement, and Glasgow’s Southside [Greater Govanhill Magazine]

Watch our presentation at the Scottish Civic Trust 2020 ‘Race & Heritage in Scotland’ conference:
https://www.scottishcivictrust.org.uk/race-and-heritage-in-scotland-conference/

Subscribe to our Southside Slavery Legacies mailing list

Follow the #SouthsideSlaveryLegacies hashtag on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Follow SGHET on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Image sources:

Craigton House, 1870 [blog post header photo] – photo courtesy of Glasgow City Archives, Virtual Mitchell website (brightness adjustments by SGHET)

History Scotland Jan / Feb 2022 cover – cropped and full versions courtesy of History Scotland magazine

History Scotland ‘Meet the contributors’ and ‘Contents’ snippets – photos by Deirdre Molloy

The post Slavery Legacies in Glasgow’s Southside – History Scotland article by SGHET appeared first on SGHET.

The trail is a circular route starting and finishing at the gates to Queen’s Park and leads trail followers through three Southside parks. The route introduces walkers and cyclists to 12 Southside trees, which are also common across Scotland. We suggest you set aside a good hour or two to enjoy the route.

To embark on the tree trail, pick a leaflet up from South Seeds at 514 Victoria Road or check out and download the leaflet online.

The tree trail leaflet is packed full of information explaining how to identify the trees. There’s a clear map to follow and the locations of the trees are marked. It also features descriptions of the trees and an illustration of the leaf shape.

During the winter, when some trees lose their leaves, tree identification can be a bit tricky. For this reason, we’ve included ‘What three words’ for each tree. Using the three unique words and the What Three Words app you will be able to easily locate each tree.

Spotting & identifying historic and everyday trees

The route introduces walkers to some outstanding southside tree planting. This includes the tree-lined Queen’s Drive, the ancient yew trees in Queen’s Park, the cheerful Rowan trees of East Pollokshields and the magnificent Ash trees In Govanhill Park.

Once you have walked the trail and located the tress you can keep an eye on those trees throughout the year and notice how they change throughout the seasons.

Learning how to identify trees at any point in the year is a valuable skill. The next time you’re out and about in town or the countryside, you’ll be able to tell the different between a Beech and a Birch tree.

South Seeds’ urban croft for the community

The tree trail route takes walkers past the entrance to the Croft on Queen’s Park recreation ground. Through the chain link fence passers-by can see the community garden where residents are invited to adopt-a-raised bed each March. There are 24 raised beds to be adopted and they are allocated to those that apply in March each year.

There’s a programme of support for the growers delivered by South Seeds’ expert gardener Eric. Growers adopt the beds until November, when they will have harvested all their produce. South Seeds looks after the beds over the winter to nourish the soil and conduct any maintenance in time for the next round of adoptions.

Southside Tool Library & home energy advice

South Seeds has an office on Victoria Road, open 9am–5pm on week days and 10am–2pm on Saturdays. From it South Seeds also runs the Southside Tool Library where you can borrow tools. In turn, we have energy officers who can help people reduce their energy bills.

If you’re interested in any of our projects or services, mitigating climate change, saving the environment or becoming more sustainable drop in to our Victoria Road unit!

Share ideas Sat 21st Aug 2021 at Queen’s Park Recreation Ground Croft!

South Seeds is holding its 2021 open AGM at the Croft, our beautiful community garden on Queen’s Park recreation ground. We’re keen for locals to help us shape the next 10 years, so please do come along and share your ideas. The AGM is on Saturday 21 August 2021, it starts at 10.30am and will finish by 11.30am.

Guest blog post by Lucy Gillie, South Seeds

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For more information about South Seeds visit www.southseeds.org and find them on Facebook and at their premises at 514 Victoria Road, Glasgow, G42 8BG.

If you spot any trees around the Southside and have identified or guessed the species, share your images and tell us on Bluesky, X or Facebook.

The post Glasgow Southside Tree Trail and community croft 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 a Southside Slavery Legacies 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 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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