The Little History of Glasgow E-Book

Neil Robertson

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Serie: Little History of
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 206

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Glaswegians are talkers, blaggers and storytellers. They love to wind each other up and to trigger a debate. They are friendly, no question, but it's more than just friendliness behind that desire for a good blether. Throw in some nosiness, eternal empathy and no shortage of opinions begging to be unleashed. Because Glasgow has a big heart, and with it a moral compass. Join travel writer and Glaswegian Neil Robertson as he delves into what makes his hometown tick. From the early origins of the city destined to become the Second City of the Empire, to the factory of the world in its industrial heyday and beyond, it's been a tumultuous journey encompassing plagues, penury, bombings and plenty of religious and political tension. Approachable reading for locals and visitors alike, The Little History of Glasgow salutes the great Glaswegians who have left their mark on the city's story alongside the modern-day industries and pastimes that continue to power the engine of Scotland's biggest city.

Leseprobe

For Kirsty

First published 2024

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Neil Robertson, 2024

The right of Neil Robertson to be identified as theAuthor of this work has been asserted in accordance withthe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprintedor reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without the permission in writingfrom the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 80399 503 8

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

1    The Origins

2    The Eighteenth Century and the Coming of the Industrial Revolution

3    The Nineteenth Century and the Arrival of Heavy Industry

4    The Twentieth Century – A Time of Extremes

5    Transport

6    Don’t Go There: Politics and Religion

7    The War Years

8    City Life and Education

9    The Glaswegians

10  Sport and Entertainment

11  The Twenty-First Century

About the Author

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

I belong to Glasgow, dear old Glasgow town. But something’s the matter with Glasgow, for it’s going round and round. I’m only a common old working chap as anyone here can see. But when I get a couple of drinks on a Saturday, Glasgow belongs to me.

‘I Belong to Glasgow’, a song by Will Fyffe

It’s one of the best-known reflections – and certainly the most immortal – about the city of Glasgow. One that manages to capture so much of what we as locals hold dear about the place. Personally, it takes me back to weary walks home at ungodly hours after bar shifts in the city centre, with the raucous night still pounding in my head, and to chance chatty encounters with midnight drifters only too eager to set the world to rights and make my stroll pass all the quicker.

For Glaswegians are talkers, blaggers and storytellers. They love to wind each other up and to trigger a debate. They are friendly, no question, but it’s more than just friendliness behind that desire for a good blether. Throw in some nosiness, eternal empathy and no shortage of opinions begging to be unleashed. Because Glasgow has a big heart, and with it a moral compass. Socialism runs deep in its waters and fairness is at the heart of the city’s personality.

This book is most certainly not a deep dive into every facet of Glasgow’s past. There are a million and one stories, myths and tangents that I could have delved into but what it is intended to be is more of a comprehensive summary. I’ve tried to cover all the big things while not delving exhaustively into anything, or anyone, in particular. Hopefully, I’ve achieved balance.

I’ve structured the book as logically as I can, with the first several chapters offering a chronological navigation through Glasgow’s journey. Chapter 1 deals with the ancient history, going back to the pre-existence of the city and the early days as it found its feet as a fledgling settlement. It took a long time to establish itself and only became a pin on anyone’s map long after Edinburgh, Perth and Stirling were well established. Chapters 2–4 cover a century each from 1700 onwards as the city became itself. Having set the scene and provided some momentum, I then break the remainder of the book into a closer study of some of Glasgow’s pillars. This includes its people, the evolution of transport and education, our all-important sources of entertainment and the tricky subjects of politics and religion. You’ll find it has had a passionate relationship with all.

There comes the question of what actually is Glasgow, geographically that is. I’ve stuck as much as is possible to the City of Glasgow, although notable mentions of the sprawling areas of Greater Glasgow do appear. That includes the highly populous surrounding regions of Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and others. Neighbouring towns including the Clydebanks, Dumbartons and Paisleys will come up, albeit minimally.

It’s been a great privilege to put my city into words, to try to capture what truly makes it tick. As the chef, author and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain once remarked, ‘Glasgow is maybe the most bullshit-free place on earth and an antidote to the rest of the world.’ Harsh, but fair. Which is Glasgow through and through.

1

THE ORIGINS

THE ROMANS

The mighty Roman Empire that dominated the continent of Europe met its match in Scotland, a fact that has been celebrated with cheeky ear-to-ear smiles and swollen chests across these lands ever since. The gladiators, the chariots and the rigid discipline of one of the greatest military dynasties in history were, it transpired, no match for the realities of The North.

In AD 83 much of the Scottish Lowlands were, like the rest of Britain to the south, under Roman occupation. Only challenging terrain, climate and the stubborn resistance of the Caledonians had prevented further incursion and the complete conquering of the island. This from an Empire whose reach extended as far south as North Africa and had consumed vast swathes of Europe. Damaging conflicts and fruitless forays resulted in the Roman leadership taking a simple and pragmatic approach to the situation, much to the delight of Scottish egos forever after. Emperors Hadrian and his successor Antonius Pius chose the Game of Thrones-adopted attitude to the wild Highlands – erecting two giant walls to mark the northern limits of their Empire and, in effect, lock in the northerners and abandon them to their own devices. In AD 122, Hadrian’s Wall sliced through what is now southern Scotland and northern England. Stretching the limits further, Antonine’s Wall spanned over 30 miles of today’s central Scotland between the rivers Clyde and Forth. Although manned for several decades, the latter was the first to be abandoned as the southern armies soon accepted that northern Britain was a march too far.

Precious little remains of the predominantly turf-built northern barrier, with only the outlines of defensive ditches and very sporadic stonework still in evidence for the super keen. Lanarkshire, Falkirk and the Lothians hold several barely there ruined fortifications that would have been outposts along the wall. Chief among the remaining relics around twenty-first-century Glasgow are the well-preserved Roman baths, found in the affluent suburb of Bearsden, 6 miles to the north-west of the city centre. Built to serve the garrison of a nearby fort, the bath-house culture made the journey north with the troops, serving as one of their few luxuries at the end of a hard shift. Furnaces created air heat that would rise through raised floors for a steam room effect, and permit temperatures around 40° centigrade. Very much a social venue, the fort here was probably home to around 100 soldiers. Relatively recent excavations of the fort’s latrine revealed insights into their rather extravagant diet that included well-travelled olive oil, hazelnuts, coriander and even figs! The Romans abandoned the fort around AD 170, destroying the site in the process.

What remains of the Roman Bath House at Bearsden, part of the Antonine Wall.

Today modern life has fitted around the bath house ruins, with flats, a main road and hotels overlooking the site. More impressive Roman relics are on display within Glasgow University. The Hunterian Museum’s permanent exhibit, ‘The Antonine Wall: Rome’s Final Frontier’, now boasts finely detailed sculptures and artefacts from the wall.

THE WARRING TRIBES

With the Roman Empire in full retreat by the late fourth century, the suddenly liberated peoples of fragmented Caledonia were faced with new challenges of identity, prosperity and security. Tribalism was the predictable outcome as the people fractured into geographical groups. The south-west, including today’s Glasgow and its environs, saw the creation of the Britons as a tribe. With mighty Dumbarton Rock as its centre of power until the late ninth century, dominance of the adjacent and advantageous River Clyde was guaranteed. The Rock still stands to this day, a rugged 73m-high mound now decorated dramatically with its own castle, neighbouring football pitch and offering spectacular views over the western outskirts of Glasgow and north to Loch Lomond. There is no better place to appreciate the scale of the importance of the Clyde, the single biggest contributor to what Glasgow would become in its heyday.

The impressive Dumbarton Castle sits to the west of the city.

But that’s jumping the gun a little, because the Vikings first played a role in shaping the direction that Glasgow would ultimately take. The image of a fleet of longboats tearing up the Clyde, packed full of foaming-at-the-mouth warriors is a tantalising one, and they subjected Dumbarton Rock to an ultimately successful four-month siege in 870. This particular defeat forced the Britons into a relocation of their seat, upriver and east to Govan, and the re-forming of their kingdom into something new, Strathclyde. As they did across the British Isles, and the wider globe, the Scandinavian settlers brought with them terror, progressiveness, ambition and intelligence. Securing permanent culture-changing victories over many of Scotland’s isles, their impact on the south-west mainland was less strong, although it was not until defeat at the Battle of Largs on the west coast in 1263 that their spectre over Scotland was cast back to the choppy seas.

Elsewhere across the nation during all this turbulence, the tribes of the north-west and the east, the Scots and the Picts, had been united by Kenneth MacAlpin in 848 to form a single kingdom. This marked the pivotal step in the ultimate unification of Scotland and the triggering of a long line of Scottish kings to come.

THE GREAT SAINTS OF GLASGOW

Mythical King Lot, ruler over much of what is now East Lothian, was one of many regional leaders who opportunely emerged in the aftermath of the Roman occupation. Whether he actually existed or not will forever be unclear but, in the interests of a good story let’s imagine that he did. Because the legend has it that he was also the father of Thenew and grandfather of Kentigern, both of whom would go on to become Glasgow’s patron saints. The story goes that Thenew fell pregnant out of wedlock – possibly as a result of rape – and was exiled by her seething father to Culross in Fife. It was here, on the banks of the Forth, that she birthed her son Kentigern, who would be sheltered and raised by local priests.

Young Kentigern would go on to raise a Christian ministry in an anonymous place to the west called Cathures, aside the Molendinar Burn. This fledgling little place would ultimately become Glasgow. He did this with the blessing of the King of Strathclyde, at a time when Christianity was very much on the rise. An arrival from Ireland, St Columba was the single most prominent contributor. Landing on the Inner Hebridean island of Iona in AD 563 from Ireland, his community-building works planted the seed for many others to follow. Kentigern would go on to acquire the status of bishop and the affectionate name of Mungo by the mid-sixth century. So began Glasgow’s story as passers through would come upon this calm, peaceful haven aside a river teeming with leaping salmon.

Blossoming at the lowest crossing point of the River Clyde, the high footfall and strategically advantageous position inevitably led to it becoming a place of interest for traders; not to mention St Mungo’s converts, whom he would baptise in the Molendinar. His enduring base was therefore further ripe for expansion and Strathclyde’s centre point very slowly began the transition away from Govan to what became known as Glasgu, or ‘Dear Green Place’. Passing on in 603, St Mungo was buried within the current cathedral, the epicentre of old Glasgow. A much-improved Gothic version still stands today, as pretty much the only relic of medieval times (cue envious glances east to Edinburgh) and one of the most impressive historic buildings in the country. Now sited in a detached and serene spot slightly to the east of the city centre, it’s a moody yet majestic look back at another time. Cared for by Historic Scotland and open for worship and visitors, it has also featured in numerous historically themed films and television shows in recent years.

Ask a Glaswegian to name the patron saint of their city and a sizeable percentage will identify St Mungo, his is a role well-known. Yet few will associate St Enoch with anything other than the current subway station and neighbouring shopping centre. Yet Enoch was in fact Thenew, Kentigern’s mother, a former co-patron. Magnificent modern-day tributes to both exist within Glasgow’s famed street art scene, with multiple touching murals depicting the humble, gentle and giving nature of mother and son. Which brings us to Glasgow’s coat of arms, depicting four objects ‘that never’, which eagle-eyed visitors will see dotted about the city. The tree that never grew represents a legend that saw St Mungo reignite an extinguished fire using holly branches brought to flame solely through prayer. The bird that never flew was a robin brought back to life by St Mungo. The fish that never swam was one he cut open to retrieve a swallowed ring that symbolised a renewed love between the King and Queen of Strathclyde. The bell that never rang almost certainly did ring and is thought to represent the ringing of the city’s church bells in order to ‘Let Glasgow Flourish’, the city’s motto and words thought to have been spoken by St Mungo himself in one of his sermons.

A version of Glasgow’s coat of arms.

THE GLASGOW FAIR AND EARLY PUBLIC GET-TOGETHERS

This hallmark of local culture reportedly began in 1190. Bishop Jocelin obtained permission from King William, the Lion, to hold the event, the first of its type in the area. Originally held around the cathedral, it would have been an opportunity to bring items of value to market for trade. This would have centred mainly around farming and agriculture in the early years but food and drink would have increasingly lured a wider audience. The River Clyde also began its role as a vital trade route as word got out, opening up wider domestic and international markets. In later times, the Fair marked a holiday for the locals and would traditionally see a stampede to the coast and to the islands of Bute, Arran, Great Cumbrae and others. Going on a wee holiday ‘doon the watter’ remains an expression to sneak a smile from any Glaswegian.

It is likely that much of the bluster and excitement in town would in time have found its way to Mercat Cross, historically Glasgow’s most famous, and located where the Saltmarket, Trongate and Gallowgate converge at today’s High Street. A visible pillar that marked a place approved for legal public trading, its earliest recorded existence was in 1590. The Tolbooth would also, of course, have been the place where local taxes were collected, and surrounding buildings would at various times hold courts, jails and council offices. Public hangings were also carried out there until 1813. A modern replica of the cross can be found aside the Tolbooth Steeple.

Once the centre of trade, Mercat Cross on the High Street.

WARS OF INDEPENDENCE

While Glasgow was growing slowly but surely over the centuries following St Mungo’s passing and the end of the Viking era, Scotland’s wider story was developing at pace. Surging forward through the historical timeline, the late thirteenth century brought arguably the most defining chapter of the nation’s history. The death of King Alexander III in 1286, followed soon after by the death of his infant granddaughter the Maid of Norway, created a terrifying vacuum in Scotland’s leadership. Competing noble families aggressively argued their cases, while King Edward of England watched on with interest. With furious disagreement preventing any sort of coming together among the most powerful families in Scotland, it fell to Edward to propose himself as a conciliatory overseer and de facto kingmaker over the Scottish throne. He put forward the uninspiring John Balliol and the new king was ambivalently welcomed in by the Scottish nobility as king in 1292. A solution that suited Edward down to the ground.

Years of tension followed as Edward’s attempts to manipulate and control Scotland got stronger and stronger, resulting in the capture and removal of the beleaguered Balliol as king and Edward’s blatant seizing of the throne for himself. The first War of Independence between Scotland and England began in 1296. The heroic figure of William Wallace was to sear himself into legend during this time, which for many may be down more to Mel Gibson’s efforts in Braveheart than anything owing to fact. But a sensationalised Hollywood story aside, Wallace upset the hierarchy among the Scots’ nobility and was elevated as the chosen one to lead a hugely outmatched army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, and even a subsequent daring invasion of northern England. Although factual knowledge of it is sketchy at best, the smaller-scale Battle of the Bell o’ the Brae was supposedly fought in the area around Glasgow Cathedral and neighbouring ‘Glasgow Castle’ at the time that Wallace was rising to prominence. An occupying English garrison was attacked from both front and rear on, or very near, the village’s High Street and the outnumbered Scots were victorious, with Wallace personally slaying the English commander, Earl Percy. The castle may have been the home of prominent Wallace ally Bishop Wishart or that of a residing English bishop, but in any case, it ceased to exist many centuries ago. Had Glasgow seen its first battle?

A more stirring and odds-defying tale than Wallace’s the nation has never seen, yet the high was short-lived. Wallace was betrayed and captured in 1305 at Robroyston in north-east Glasgow, with his last night in Scotland spent at Dumbarton Castle before the long journey to a brutal torture and execution in London. Of course, history and movie buffs will know that was far from the end of the matter and leading nobleman Robert Bruce stepped up as the new talisman to continue the war against England well into the fourteenth century. Appointed King of Scots, he recorded another improbable victory at Bannockburn near Stirling in 1314 and became a long-running thorn in the side of multiple English kings. In 1357 Scotland achieved its full independence.

Although recognised as a burgh in 1175, Glasgow was not a big player during any of this period. It didn’t have a significant harbour or a military stronghold in the way that an Edinburgh or Stirling did, and was not set up for large-scale defence. On the topic of fearsome strongholds though, Glasgow and its surrounding areas did hold both Dumbarton Castle to the west and Bothwell Castle in South Lanarkshire, south-east of the city today. The latter is among the most historically intriguing of all in Scotland and was a staging point during and after the Bannockburn battle for the gathered English armies. It had also been besieged in 1301 by Edward’s armies, numbering around 7,000 men and a famous siege engine named ‘le berefrey’. It still took several weeks of them knocking loudly on the door before the defenders succumbed. Bothwell then went on to become the base for the dreaded Aymer de Valence, Edward’s Warden of Scotland.

THE LATER MIDDLE AGES AND MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS

Without a central medieval historic ruin to Glasgow’s name, the closest remaining example is the poignantly atmospheric Crookston Castle in Pollok to the south-west. Built around 1400 by Sir Alexander Stewart, the Earl of Lennox, it was originally a three-storey keep. Involved in an uprising against James IV, Lennox’s castle fell under siege in 1489 and was badly damaged by that and a further siege in 1544. It is thought that Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley were betrothed here, though it has been largely forgotten about ever since. Surprisingly it remains in impressive condition, with an intact tower and atmospheric interior rooms asking to be explored. Meanwhile, the city was elevated from its bishopric status to Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492, with Glasgow University having been founded in 1451 and a blossoming status as a centre of religion and academia by now unfolding. The university was the fourth oldest to be established in the English-speaking world. First located within the cathedral buildings, the centre of learning would move to its own premises on the High Street and eventually west to its current location dramatically overlooking Kelvingrove Park in the 1600s. Glasgow High School dates back to the twelfth century and would have also been housed within the cathedral. Although records only began several hundred years later, Latin and grammar would have been central to the teachings.

The atmospheric ruins of Crookston Castle.

The Reformation of the mid-1500s brought a wave of destruction to the hitherto unchallenged world of religion in these lands. The long-standing relationship with France (still referred to as the Auld Alliance) was eroded in place of a stronger one with England and the Stewart dynasty of ruling monarchs faced an existential crisis. Mary, Queen of Scots was at the heart of this latest unrest – a French-raised, Catholic ruler elevated to the Scottish throne at the tender age of a mere six days. Immediately placed in the centre of a power struggle between the French and King Henry VIII of England, she first came to Scotland to take the reins as a teenager and bravely attempted to bridge the growing Catholic–Protestant divide. Throw in multiple doomed marriages, several love-fuelled murders, political betrayal, imprisonment, defeat in battle and ultimately the long road south to Fotheringhay for execution in 1587 and the impossibility of her task becomes clear. So died possibly the most tragic character in Scotland’s tapestry, no mean feat.

Mary did have further connections to Glasgow in that it is thought she penned the letter that doomed her in Provand’s Lordship, the oldest surviving building in the city and another well worth a visit just across the road from the cathedral. Known as the Casket Letters, the words were for her lover the Earl of Bothwell, and were used as evidence against her and proof of intent to murder her previous husband, Lord Darnley, by Queen Elizabeth of England, who would ultimately go on to order Mary’s execution. She also inspired several battles in the vicinity. The Battle of Glasgow of 1544 was fought during her early reign between the Earls of Lennox and Arran, with the latter routing the former and taking Glasgow and the castle in retribution for Lennox’s perceived treachery for fancying the throne for himself. The castle defenders are said to have been conned into surrendering, then hanged for their loyalty to Lennox, who had already fled to his stronghold at Dumbarton. This savage act triggered another conflict between the Earl of Glencairn, a Lennox ally, and Arran’s forces, with Arran again victorious, in what is known as the first Battle of the Butts. Occurring just to the east of the city centre, this crushed Lennox’s designs for power and he fled to England and exile. At the other end of Mary’s tenure, her ultimately decisive defeat at the Battle of Langside in 1568 was also fought what was then a few miles to the south of Glasgow, and she was captured shortly afterwards.

During all of this, Glasgow Cathedral was, curiously, one of the few centres of Catholicism not to be decimated as the Roman Church was aggressively replaced by Protestantism. John Knox was the most vocal critic, the outspoken Presbyterian preacher so bent on pushing through the Reformation and dooming Mary in particular. Today, a 12ft statue of Knox glares down at the cathedral that eluded his all-consuming tsunami from the neighbouring Necropolis graveyard. But, as with the Wars of Independence, Glasgow’s as-yet fairly peripheral role in the Scottish power struggles perhaps sheltered it from the tumult occurring elsewhere across the nation. The thought that by far the most populous city in Scotland should be not much more than a bystander to such momentous events is certainly a hard one to grasp.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY