Rutherglen Internet Guide - Introduction and Page Index

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INFORMATION

OLD PHOTOS

FOOD N DRINK

LINKS

HISTORY

PHOTO TOUR

TRANSPORT

RUGLONIANS

GUESTS

E-MAIL

As you can see, this history of Rutherglen is written by Dr Bell, not me, so it is much more informative than any drivel I can come up with. It was a bit lengthy when it was just text though, so I found some images of the things he was describing and have stuck them throughout the text. The map itself has been split into a few different parts because it was so big. The reproduction of the maps is a bit shit, so you might not see all the features. On the other hand, the worse the quality is, the less likely I am to get done for copyright breach. I did pay for my own copy of the map, but that doesn't cover distributing it on the net for nothing. The pictures have been plagiarised as well. So it is a criminal work, but I hope you enjoy it...

	History of Rutherglen By Dr Gilbert T. Bell Accompanying the Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Rutherglen
The map is in two parts – to the east, Rutherglen, and to the north and west the ever-expanding Glasgow. The map therefore graphically highlights Rutherglen’s problem – it is too near Glasgow! Glasgow restricted Rutherglen’s growth yet itself was ever-greedy. Rutherglen had long thwarted the advances of Glasgow but, with local government reorganisation in 1975, it was placed within Glasgow City Council area; it was taken out again in 1996 and placed in South Lanarkshire where it has to share the limelight with the county town, Hamilton, and the boomtown of East Kilbride. Rutherglen seems ever destined to be in somebody’s shadow yet has its own proud history.
Rutherglen was believed to have been created a Royal Burgh by King David I in 1126, with a boundary considered so extensive that it might one have embraced the whole of Glasgow which, though it became a burgh of barony in 1180, did not attain the dignity of royal status until 1611. By that time, however, Glasgow had already overtaken Rutherglen in population and prosperity. The Victorian gazetteer writer Francis Groome rather coldly assessed the situation "as Glasgow rose in importance, Rutherglen diminished". Ruglonians, however, might argue that their home town might not be big but it has always been special. It certainly has always had much of interest.
		Before focusing on the old burgh let us briefly consider the Glasgow dimension to the map. The beginnings of suburban development can be seen but chiefly the area is being utilised to serve the needs of the growing city – coal for its homes and industries, bricks for its buildings, railways to serve people and factories – and the last remnants of agriculture before urbanisation swept all before it. At Govanhill, streets are marked out awaiting tenemental development, and the very future of the Drill Ground looks decidedly precarious! Increasingly sport and recreational facilities to serve the needs of the population have been addressed – golf course, curling pond and boating pond but chiefly, of course, football grounds.

Many maps have football grounds on them – this one has its fair share for by 1910 football had truly become the national game. It might not have had its roots here but since 1903 Hampden Park had been the national stadium. At one time the ground could hold 150,000 spectators but is now capable of around 52,000. The recent refurbishment of Hampden Park, costing over £50m, will ensure that it remains a great modern sporting venue as well as home and shrine to Scottish soccer. When the Scottish Football Association was established in 1873, Queens Park (formed in 1867) was among its first members. The club won the first ever SFA Cup and at the first match at Hampden in 1903, Queens Park beat Celtic 1-0. The club long dominated Scottish Football, until its amateur status meant it was overtaken by professional clubs in an increasingly mercenary sporting world. Being elitist might have its attraction but does not necessarily mean an abundance of silverware and glory!
		Hampden was the third home for Queens Park and prior to their move there, they had occupied the football ground just to its north. That ground then became the home of Third Lanark FC and was renamed Cathkin Park. The club’s rather strange name reveals its military origins – it began as the team of the Third Lanark Rifle Volunteer reserves in 1868 but as early as 1872 had opened its doors to ‘civilians’. Whereas Queens Park retained its amateur status, Third Lanark was reputedly the oldest professional club in Scotland; but as Glasgow football became increasingly polarised between Rangers and Celtic, Third Lanark became a casualty and was wound up in 1967.
One of the giants of heavy industry was William Dixon Ltd. Its ironmaking and coalmining empire stretched from the Monklands to Govan and at Polmadie we have a clue to its size and scope with the sidings leading off the map towards Govan Iron Works – known to generations of Glaswegians as Dixon’s Blazes – and we also see the Govan Colliery railway, part of the Pollok and Govan line which he established to serve the needs of the enterprise. William Dixon was one of the most enthusiastic of railway pioneers – although initially involved in order to cater for his business interests, he saw the rich potential in allowing the Caledonian Railway (established in 1845) to utilise his lines.
Polmadie Engine Shed was probably first built in 1879 for the Caledonian Railway but has been rebuilt and expanded many times so that it still remains and important maintenance depot for the railway. Springburn was the great railway metropolis in the north of Glasgow but Polmadie was to become a sort of ‘Miniopolis’ to the south of the river. William Dixon had built ‘pug’ locomotives for use in his own private collieries and ironworks. It was possibly to capture some of that business or to share in work for the growing Caledonian Railway that a locomotive builder moved into the area; for one certainly sensed a gap in the market.
In 1864 Henry Dubs, works manager of the Neilson and Co Locomotive works at Springburn, parted company with the firm and set up his own Glasgow Locomotive Works, south of the river (at the corner of Aikenhead Road and the future Calder Street. For some time business blossomed but in the face of competition of competition from England it was thought desirable that the Glasgow firms should merge. In 1903 Dubs and Co together with the Springburn firms of Neilson, Reid and Co and Sharp, Stewart and Co joined forces to become the North British Locomotive Co. This site became known as the Queen’s Park works and William Lormier, the works manager of Dubs, became chairman of the great company, regarded as being the largest locomotive building firm in Europe. In 1963, however, the firm went into liquidation and almost all trace of the Queen’s Park Works has disappeared.
		The area around the delightfully-named Malls Mire burn was long an important source for clay and bricks. Dubs used clay from his own site to make bricks to build his factory and the nearby Polmadie Brickworks was regarded as being the last working brickworks in Glasgow when it closed in 1963. Almost all of what is open space on the map has now been built on, on mostly for housing purposes. Much of it, like the Toryglen scheme, might have provided much-needed housing but is of a fairly nondescript sort although the name of the road from Hangingshaw to the Rutherglen Boundary – Prospecthill Road – does have a wonderful ring to it. One of the housing developments – sadly, almost entirely removed in 1993 – merits a little consideration.
At Hangingshaw, almost on the site of Aikenhead colliery, a scheme of 52 ‘semi permanent’ temporary prefabricated aluminium bungalows were built in 1949. Designed by Sam Bunton, manufactured at the Blackburn Aircraft Company factory at Dumbarton and brought by lorry to the site, these houses were among the 12,000 or so produced by the factory. As the need for aircraft production diminished at the end of the war, the needs of housing could take on a new urgency and aircraft factories with a surfeit of aluminium increasingly turned their attention to prefabricated houses or EFMs (emergency factory-made dwellings). This type of prefab was known as the AIROH (Aircraft Industry’s Research Organisation on Housing) model but in spite of this unfriendly sobriquet they were much-loved houses. Many schemes of permanent houses were not as well-cherished as this small development of cute little houses.

Just as the Clyde makes its penultimate meandering loop as it heads towards Glasgow and civilisation, there lies one of the key requirements of urbanisation and healthy urban living: sewage treatment. Dalmarnock Sewage Disposal Works - formally opened on 3^rd May 1894 – was the first works established for preventing pollution of the Clyde; hitherto raw sewage simply went straight into the river. A drying plant was added a few years later and a sludge cake known as a ‘Globe Fertiliser’ was produced and sold to the agricultural community. As the demand for sewage manure decreased to the prevalence of chemical fertilisers, it was decided in 1935 to cease manufacture and all the sludge was then taken to Shieldhall for disposal at sea.
		Across the river from the sewage works lies the Broomloan shipbuilding yard of Thomas B. Seath. Formerly based at Pointhouse Shipyard, at the mouth of the River Kelvin, Seath relocated to Rutherglen, possibly in 1856. Seath’s new location on such a narrow and shallow stretch of water decreed that no large vessels could be built there, so the firm specialised in small river boats for home and overseas markets. For the Clyde Navigation Trust, the yard built five of the little steamboats known as Cluthas. This ‘fleet’ of twelve vessels proved a popular up-and-down-river service, introduced in 1884. With a standard fare of 1d, but passengers could travel from the city centre to Whiteinch for 2d. At its peak, the service reputedly carried 3 million passengers per year.
Surprisingly the yard built several pleasure steamers, some of substantial length, the Benmore of 1876 was 235 tonnes and 201ft. Possibly the best known of its ships was the paddle steamer the Lucy Ashton, built in 1888, and which sailed on the Clyde until withdrawn from service in 1949. Thomas Seath died in 1903 and the yard limped along in differing hands until finally closing in 1923. As for the Cluthas, they were withdrawn from service in 1903 as they lost out to the trams – Rutherglen benefited. In April 1902 Glasgow Tramway introduced their new service to Rutherglen – and Rutherglen, for better or worse, was connected to Glasgow!
Rutherglen, like Glasgow, was long and important textile manufacturing centre. By the end of the 18^th Century, it was reckoned that over half its population was employed as handloom weavers. From about 1800, cotton manufacturing increasingly became a factory-based operation, and handloom weavers hit hard times. Around 1860 Rutherglen acquired two large weaving mills, and these were located on the Cityford or West Burn.
		The aptly name Burnside Mill continued operational until 1929 and was long affectionately known as Old Rutherglen Mill. The Avonbank, whose owners had originally commenced business in Strathaven on the banks of the Avon, had a longer life and even survived a spectacular fire in 1891. In 1932 parts of the works were acquired by Tulliallan fabrics and specialised in chenille manufacture until it finally closed in 1981. At its most productive, it is believed that the factory produced upwards of 40000yds of chenille per week and most of it was exported.
Probably Rutherglen’s greatest business enterprise was the huge chemical works of Messrs. J & J White on Glasgow Road. In 1820, John White bought soapworks (originally established in 1810) and with the acquisition of the Shawfield estate – once one of the finest on the banks of the Clyde – he not only had a splendid home for himself but had ample room for business expansion; gradually the works encroached on what had previously been attractive policies. His son and partner James White lived at neighbouring Hayfield before increasing affluence allowed him to acquire the country estate of Overtoun, near Dumbarton and well away from the sights, sounds and smells of his works. At Hayfield his son John Campbell White (1843-1908), the future first Lord Overtoun, was born. The Hayfield policies were also soon engulfed in chemical works, for major expansion took place in the 1860s for what was to become a truly gigantic enterprise.
Although Overtoun was renowned for his philanthropic actions and Christian principles, the firm had a notorious reputation, for not only did the chrome contaminate the land, but his workforce toiled under dire conditions in an atmosphere which had a detrimental effect on their health. The Whites were also regarded as tight-fisted employers but Overtoun was to meet his match in James Keir Hardie, the Labour pioneer. Hardie backed the workers when they went on strike and publicly exposed their fearful conditions. Hardie called the workers ‘white slaves’, for labours at Shawfield worked for 12 hours a day (without meal breaks) for seven days a week. For an 84-hour week they were paid 3d or 4d an hour (21/- or 28/- per week). It is likely that at this time that an average wage might have been 35/- for a 54-hour week (9 hours per day and 7½d per hour). Although his labour force worked on Sundays, Overtoun campaigned to have the museums closed and the trams off the road on Sundays because they breached his strict Sunday observance requirements. Hardie alleged that that Overtoun "lived a lie" by his shameful hypocrisy – his outward piety and yet allegedly unchristian treatment of his workers certainly suggests double standards.
		Whites was certainly an unhygienic place but it was also an especially dangerous and unhealthy workplace. Respiratory diseases were common among the workforce. The cartilage of the noses of many of the workers were destroyed by by fume and contact with the chrome resulted in holes being burned in their bodies. It was also claimed that the hooves of the cart horses fell off in the streets, regarded as a sure indicator of chrome poisoning. It was certain that wall was not well at Whites! Although Overtoun refused to be drawn into public debate with Hardie, changes were quietly introduced at the works and business continued. At tits peak J & J White produced over 70% of the annual output of British biochromates, but in 1967 the firm closed.

All was not doom and gloom in Rutherglen. There were causes for celebration. In 1901 a statue was placed at the corner of Queen Street and Main Street to commemorate a much-loved local surgeon, Dr James Gorman. A cast-iron fountain was erected at the west end of Main Street to mark Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. It, together with a fine bandstand also from Walter MacFarlane’s Saracen Foundry, has been relocated in Overtoun Park, just off the map (and of course, gifted by Lord Overtoun).
		The West Church (in Chapel Street) was built in 1836 but following the disruption of 1843, many of the congregation, along with the minister Rev James Munro, left the Church of Scotland. The free Church in Glasgow Road was built in 1850 to serve this new congregation. Following the 1929 reunion this church, by then the United Free, became the Munro Church of Scotland. But in 1967 both the congregations of the West Church and the Munro church merged. The Munro Church was retained as the place of worship, and it is now known as the West Church, while the old West Church was demolished as part of the redevelopment of that part of the town.
Most of Rutherglen’s major public buildings are located in the town centre, including the Old Parish Church. Rutherglen was long an ecclesiastical centre of note. St Conval, a disciple of St Mungo (Glasgow’s patron saint) was believed to have built a church here in the 7^th century but this was superseded by a 12^th century stone-built Norman church. Sometime around 1500AD a steeple or tower was added but when the old church was removed that tower was retained and it still stands in the Burial Yard and reminds us all (if we ever need reminding) of Rutherglen’s long and proud history. A plain Georgian church – a real Presbyterian box – of 1974 was erected but that too was replaced. The present church is a very dignified Gothic building designed by Sir JJ Burnett and opened in 1902.
Rutherglen reputedly owes its name to Reuther, a Caledonian chieftain who had his power base here about 200BC and it must have attained sufficient importance to be create a Royal Burgh by King David I in 1126. It continued to grow steadily if unspectacularly, and in 1860 Hugh Macdonald stated it was "a comparatively small and insignificant member of the Burgh family". Its population was than reckoned to be about 7000. By the time of 1913 its population had substantially increased and was something in the region of 28000. As it had long been overtaken in size and importance by Glasgow, it is difficult now to imagine that Rutherglen was a place of much importance when Glasgow was of little significance.

When, or by what Scottish king, a royal castle was established in Rutherglen may be open to dispute but there can be no doubt that there was such a castle and Castle Street leads to it. Rutherglen Castle was probably built about the mid 13^th century and it was presumably held to be of some importance. The English seized it during the Wars of Independence and the Scots frequently laid siege to it, before finally capturing it in 1313. King Robert the Bruce awarded it to the Stewarts and his grandson Robert II, the first of the Stewart Kings, reputedly lived there for some years. For a time it was bypassed by state affairs and passed into the Hamilton family. In 1568, however, the Regent Moray, and an act of revenge, had it destroyed in the aftermath of the Battle of Langside. The Hamilton family, allies of the departed Queen Mary, restored it again, but later, as country houses rather than keeps became the preferred homes of nobility, it fell from grace and eventually into disrepair. During the course of the 18^th century it was gradually demolished, having become a quarry for stones to build the houses of the burgh. Having a royal castle meant the town became embroiled in national events. It was within the mediaeval church that the Scots Parliament met o 10^th May 1300 and it was also within its walls that occurred one of the most shameful episodes in Scottish history. There, Sir John Menteith supposedly conspired with the English to betray Sir William Wallace. Wallace was later seized at Robroyston and taken to London where death awaited.
		For the most part, Rutherglen’s churches have had a less dramatic but nevertheless noble record of dedicated and devoted service. The Victorian Age saw a great increase in the number of church buildings as each of the many branches of the Protestant faith set up its own buildings. Subsequent unions and dwindling congregations have seen a reversal of fortune with the disappearance of many of these buildings. In 1910, however, churches stood proud and plentiful. Wardlawhill Church, on Hamilton Road, began as more or less a church extension charge – a sport of missionary outreach from the Old Kirk. It was built in relatively uncharted Church of Scotland territory so that it might serve the people of east Rutherglen as it expanded.
The United Free Church at the east end of the Main Street was built in 1872 of Gothic style but sadly it was recently demolished. Its splendid 128ft tall tower has, however, been retained as landmark. Off the south side of the Main Street, at Kirkwood Street, stood the old RC Church of 1853 but this was removed and a very fine Byzantine-style church erected in 1940. It was built by a design to the renowned architects Gillespie Kid and Coia, and it adds dignity to the Main Street. The Mitchell Arcade, a nearby shopping centre, might add to Rutherglen’s role as an economical centre but not to its architectural glories.
		Dominating the Main Street, as it has dine since 1862, is the majestic and lofty Town Hall. It is a splendid Scots Baronial edifice designed by Charles Wilson, though extended in 1877 to make it even more weightier. Its 110ft tall tower commands our attention but the entire building exudes civic pride. Internally there were provided court room, council chamber, public hall and council offices while the additions provided police station, jail and additional council offices. The Gazetteer writer Francis Groome was not prone to praise but view could fault his view that this "is a very handsome building which would do honour to many a much larger town". Almost next door was built, in 1907, a fine public library with money gifted by Andrew Carnegie.
The twin symbols of civic power and authority in old burghs were the Tollbooth and Mercat Cross. Both are lacking from this map – the former was gone as recently as 1900, and the later as early as 1782. By 1900 the Old Tollbooth had ceased to be an ornament of the town – Groome thought it "a poor structure". Most of its functions had been usurped by the stately Town Hall so it thus served little useful purpose and presumably was not a great loss even if it had served the Burgh with some distinction since its erection in 1768. Having decided in 1777 to ‘take down and remove’ the Mercat Cross and thereafter ‘place it on some more convenient place’ it took the town council a few years to pluck up courage to take action. It was removed in 1782 but sadly they forgot about the re-erection aspect and it seemed to just get lost.
In 1926, however, as part of the Burgh’s octocentenary celebrations, a replica was built. From David Ure’s description of 1795, the Burgh Surveyor James J Craig, produced detailed drawings which allowed for the creation of a handsome monument. The Town Clerk, in 1917, expressed the hope that a generous townsman might provide the burgh with a Mercat Cross. Lord Fleming (1877-1944) the former Solicitor General for Scotland, whose father had been a local lawyer and one-time provost, responded to the plea by gifting the monument in memory of his parents and of his brother who had been killed in the Great War. It is therefore a very fitting memorial, not only to Rutherglen's past but also to one family’s service in peace and war. It still stands proudly on Main Street.
		Mercat Crosses not only reflected pride and status but they marked the spot where public meetings and trading arrangements took place. News was heralded and enactments proclaimed from their steps. It had been at the old Mercat Cross that Covenantors placed their Declaration of 1697 which led to battle – surprising success at Drumclog, closely followed by sad defeat at Bothwell Bridge. Rutherglen Main Street seems to have always been a wide and spacious thoroughfare, ideally suited as a venue for fairs and markets, and the town was long regarded as a market town. Cattle and horse fairs were probably the biggest crowd-pullers and Rutherglen was reckoned to be an important centre for trading in heavy workhorses or Clydesdales.
Roads and bridges had long connected Rutherglen to Glasgow but the development of public transport allowed for easier access, especially with the arrival of the City Tramways in 1902. In 1896 the Caledonian Railway had built a line from Rutherglen through Dalmarnock and Bridgeton, most of it underground, which led to the city centre and beyond to the Clyde coast and holidays ‘doon the watter’ and to work in Glasgow shipyards and factories.
Rutherglen shared in the industries of greater Glasgow, with coalmining and weaving long being its own principal activities. As urbanisation spread, quarries and brickworks provided employment and building blocks. Although the Burgh was to diversify into a wide range of manufacturers – paper, ropes, furniture etc – it was heavy industries that most assuredly made it an important centre for much of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The entire west side of Dalmarnock Road, from Farme Cross to the river, became the Phoenix Tube Works. Originally established by James Menzies & Co, it was acquired by A & J Stewart in 1898 which in turn merged with Lloyds of Birmingham n 1903 to form the giant Stewart and Lloyds, the largest tube makers in the country. From about 1935 onwards they increasingly centralised at Corby in the Midlands and Phoenix limped along in an ever-decreasing state until closure. Stewarts and Lloyds had merged with others to form British Steel & Tube Ltd and tubes were to provide Corby’s path to survival.

Although the west bank of the Clyde did have a fairly substantial works, in 1910 the entire peninsula was to be eventually developed as steelworks. The Clydebridge Steel Co had been established in 1887 but following closure in 1908, it was taken over by Colvilles in 1916 so that it could contribute fully to the war effort. It was then developed as a vast and very modern plant, which still continues as the Clydebridge Works of Corus plc. The nearby bridge (or viaduct) was built by the Caledonian Railway in 1865m while the Bogleshole Road has given way to a modern road bridge (1986).
		The works on the right edge of the map (below Easterhill colliery) were part of the Clyde Iron Works, one of the earliest iron works of the area, having been established in 1796 by James Dunlop & Co. They were later acquired by Colvilles and were closely linked with Clydebridge but sadly have not survived. The collapse and disappearance of most of the Scottish iron and steel industry without viable alternatives appearing is to be regretted. De-industrialisation alone is not a path to prosperity.
One of the major Clydeside potteries was the Caledonian Pottery. Although it had its origins in 1810 as the Glasgow Pottery in Garngad at the heart of Glasgow, it was to end its days in Rutherglen. In 1826, the pottery had been acquired by William Murray and his sons, but due to pollution from adjacent steelworks which discoloured the wares, the Murray family decided to relocate to Rutherglen in 1872, for it provided good train links and a then ‘greenfield’ site. The pottery produced a rich and diverse range of products but after a time of expansion it struck financial problems and went into liquidation in 1897. The jam manufacturer WP Hartley then took a controlling interest in the pottery, for it ensured he had a ready source of stoneware jam jars, although it continued to make a wide range of items. Glass jars, however, soon became in vogue, and in 1928, the pottery again went into liquidation. A steelworks was later to occupy the site.
		A few other enterprises deserve brief mention. Rutherglen Ropes was to become British Ropes and later moved to Cambuslang where as Certex (UK) Ltd it still continues to trade. Richmond Park Laundry was once regarded as being the largest single-unit laundry in Britain, with over 1000 employees, but has since 1984 been Initial Textile Services. It still flourishes although now has about 160 employees. Messrs Somerville and Morrison, established in 1870, made long brattice cloth of use in the mining industry, but it still produces waterproof and protective paper for a range of applications. In 1901 the firm employed 200 workers – today the base is about 30. Rutherglen, like so many other places which once formed the industrial heartland, has seen a dramatic ebb in its manufacturing base. It is good to note that there are still survivors.
By the start of the 20^th century, tenements had replaced many of the cottages and small houses of the town centre. As the burgh grew, spacious villas and terraces were built in its suburbs to the south and east. To the north, however. There was to be a most interesting example of working-class housing. At Farme Cross are four stretches of terraces which provided a good example of working-class co-operation in practice. They were built by the Glasgow Working Mens’ Investment Trust and Building Society, an organisation set up to provide homes for local coal and steel workers. Smith and Millar Terraces were built first (1877) – believed to be named after two leading lights of the society – with Carlyle (1882) and Ruskin (1889) following and, of course, these were named after two great Victorian heroes.
By the time the last terrace was built, the Society was already in acute financial difficulty. Smith and Millar are of two storeys, with ground floor flats entered from one side of the building while the external stairs on the other side lead to the upper houses, which also have attic accommodation. Even the single-storey cottages have alternate houses entered from either side which gives the impression that the houses are larger than they are in reality. It is good that they still survive – they are part of housing history. They have well served the community – it was an experiment that worked.
As the burgh grew, nearby country estates were swallowed up for development and the old houses themselves eventually fell prey to ‘progress’. A few of theses houses merit a little comment for while they were once simply homes to one family, their subsequent history places them in a wider context. By far the most interesting was Farme Cross, for it and its lands had originally been Crown property, although King Robert the Bruce granted them to Robert Stewart as a reward for loyal service. In time and through various hands it had become the property of a local family, the Faries, who developed coalmining on their estate. The castle comprised and ancient keep, believed to be 15^th century, to which over the years various additions were tacked on to make it seem more homely, and it was considered on eof the finest baronial mansions in Scotland. About 1890 saw the last of the Faries in occupancy and the manager of the nearby Farme Collieries then tenanted the property.
		As early as 1870 it had obviously begun to feel the pressures of being just too near industry and Rutherglen. The authors of ‘Old Country Houses noted that it was "surrounded and hemmed in by the squalid and hideous accompaniments of modern civilisation" and they hoped "its strong walls will long resist the assaults of the advancing city". Ross Shearer, the Burgh Librarian, almost 50 years later, noted "the foul effluvium of a fish gut factory, the grime and smoke of foundries, and the encroachment of numerous tenement buildings, give to this once salubrious residence of kings the appearance of a fish out of its natural element". The house survived until the mid 1950s in ever-diminishing splendour.
The estate of Eastfield from about 1750 belonged to the Gray family, long leaders in the burgh’s civic affairs, but in time it was inherited by the Buchanan family who increasingly developed the property on more commercial lines. Eastfield House was a picturesque ivy-clad 14-roomed mansion, possibly built around 1800. Most of the estate was acquired, in 1937, by Clyde Paper Company for staff recreational purposes, and the house was for a time occupied by a groundsman. When it fell vacant, however, it was subject to vandalism and was set on fire in 1968 and had to be demolished. The council acquired part of the site and Trinity High School was built there in 1977.
		Gallowflat was built in 1769 for Patrick Robertson, a Glasgow lawyer, but in time it passed by inheritance to John Robertson Reid, whose chief claim to fame was that he was the creator of the wonderful Argyle Arcade in Glasgow, still one of the finest shopping precincts in the country. The house was extended in 1834 and 1864, with James Thomson as architect, but it just grew more rambling with even less cohesive qualities. The tumulus in the garden was reputedly of Roman origin but it was converted into a fishpond by one of the Robertson -–nobody has ever really appreciated history! Poor Gallowflat was itself demolished in 1914.
It would be remiss to overlook Easterhill, on the north bank of the Clyde. The property was purchased, in about 1750, by one of the Glasgow ‘tobacco lords’, Archibald Smellie, and he, in tradition with his wealth and prestige, built himself a fine castellated style country house. With the American War of Independence, that trade ceased and he and his family were compelled to sell up. The purchasers were the Findlay family and they had learned a valuable lesson, for as bankers as well as merchants they did not have all their eggs in one basket.
Rutherglen too has survived and grown because it has changed and adapted to meet new demands and serve new generations. It has had a proud history and deserves a flourishing future.