George built my house in Earlspark Avenue. He also built the whole of Earlspark, other than some new houses that went up in the 1960’s on the site of a farm where George had his offices.
George was a prolific builder in the beginning of the 20th Century. He bought up land from Sir John Maxwell Stirling, a famous shipping magnate and landowner of my parts. He built a lot of houses in my immediate area and also a lot of the housing in an area of Shawlands popularly known by its residents as High Shawlands.
George employed his two sons in this mini empire. They were Joiners and Builders. However, to build these houses in red sandstone, George would have employed a considerable number of other skilled men in the building trade, particularly trained Stonemasons. The railway line known as the Cathcart Circle had arrive in the 19th Century and the station had a large ‘mineral’ yard next to it. This would have been an offloading place for coal, aggregates and the red sandstone needed for the house building. The stone was probably quarried locally but I would imagine that trains played a big part in getting it the short distance from the quarry to the building site.
Earlspark Avenue was developed from early in the 20th Century, my neighbours across the road have evidence that their houses were built in 1906. My house was completed in 1910. Much of the Builders craft would have been on site. Unlike modern house building where roofing and other components arrive ready made and ready for installing from the lorry, Joiners and Carpenters and Stonemasons would all have been preparing everything on site.
George, I think, because I have not properly researched this point, built his own house close by to where I live. The evidence is that George was the first Feuar (see my previous post regarding Feus) of the land that it was built upon. He had negotiated an incredibly reduced rate of Feu Duty and was only paying five shillings per half year. This must have been a good sweetener for George. He was making sufficient profit to build himself a substantial house on the corner of Newlands Road and what used to be Broomhall Road.
Broomhall Road has been a bit of a wild goose chase with online searches. The only sources I have found were in references to the Church of Scotland on Merrylee Road in the Nether Pollok Estate Feu Register where it is listed as being on the corner of Merrylee and Broomhall Roads. This suggests to me that it stretched from the church all the way across the Cathcart Nurseries to George’s house on the corner of Newlands Road. Here is some evidence of this.
I have marked this map with two red dots to indicate the two ends of Broomhall Road. The one at the bottom shows the name, Broomhall, below the site of the Church on Merrylee Road. It should cross over the road to a short cul de sac that is now officially known as Ardle Road. Broomhall would then have continued, if it had been developed, along the Western side of the Cathcart Nurseries until it reached Newlands Road at George Anderson’s house, marked with a red dot. (Ordnance Survey Six Inch map 1915 reproduced with permission from National Library of Scotland)
George’s house was a hive of family life on the day of the Census enumeration. The 1911 Census shows the following information about the household.
George Anderson Head 60 married Wright and Builder employer
Margaret W. Anderson Wife 61 married 36 yrs
Annie Anderson Daughter 33 single
William J Anderson 24 single Wright and Builder worker
Margaret L Anderson or Ballardie Daughter 34 married 8 years
William Ballardie Grandson 7 School
Frederick L Ballardie Grandson 4
Catherine McLellan Servant 22 Gaelic and English speaking General Servant
George has an old-fashioned trade. Wright was the common term for a manufacturer of machinery or items in wood. It has gone out of fashion and was probably not used after George retired. I notice that his son, William, has the same description.
Both George and Margaret were born on the East coast of Scotland. George was born in Kincardineshire which no longer exists having become part of Aberdeenshire, and Margaret was born in Clackmannanshire which borders Fife. Annie, William and Margaret were all born in Partick, a post-industrial area of Glasgow in the West of the city. This suggests to me that George settled in Partick to practice his trade before later moving south of the river to create the leafy suburbs of what is now known as Langside and parts of Shawlands. Margaret is married to somebody called Ballardie. She is described as Married and not Widow and she is possibly visiting her parents with her children, her son goes to school in Eastwood, about three miles south of George’s house. The Census returns in Scotland have a column to indicate if a person speaks Gaelic or both Gaelic and English. This shows that Catherine McLellan, the Servant, speaks both. She was born in Uist, part of the Outer Hebrides.
There has been some discussion online about the whereabouts of Broomhall Road. I am certain that its source is at 82 Newlands Road. The house that George built for himself is called Broomhall and the wall has the name of the road carved into it. The Feu Register for Nether Pollok names the church on the corner of Merrylee as being on Broomhall Road. The road may well have gone across the Cathcart Nursery on its Western side, or had never been developed and completed to join the two ends up and has never been properly identified on OS maps, other than this six inch Ordnance Survey map from 1915.
On the same Census return for 1911 for George there are four properties with the address – Cathcart Nurseries, Newlands. These are clearly marked below George’s house. After the Second World War, all the Nursery footprint was taken over for the development of the Merrylee Housing Estate. (Note that I use the English term – Estate – when in Scotland it is known as a Scheme). The Nurseries would have been responsible for the growing of seasonal produce for the local City market. Some of the houses were of varying sizes including a Bothy for two young Nurserymen in their 20’s. Another house housed the Young family. The head of the house, Robert Young was a Nurseryman while his eldest son, John aged 24, was a Lecturer in Botany at Agricultural College. It is not clear where the college was but I am presuming in the Glasgow area. It is an indication of how much training went into being a Gardener, a craft that was very important during the 19th and most of the 20th Century. There is still an Incorporation of Gardeners in Glasgow which is an echo of the past importance of the trade.
George and his family would have known many people in their community, including the Nursery and its workers. He also had premises based at Paper Mill Farm which had its Farmhouse a short way down the road from my house. This would have enabled him to store a lot of his building materials here.
I have yet to research more about George and his life. His footprint online is minimal and challenging because of his name which is enormously popular in Britain. There will be more about him to share in the future, I am sure.