There was a haste in starting this post last week due to my absence in Madeira and I was using a tablet to write the start of this post which is a challenge when I normally use a keyboard to write my posts.
In last week’s post I got as far as the old entrance to Paper Mill Farm which cut Earlspark Avenue in half. I posted a photo of the lane that led down to the cattle fields. It was the site of an early paper mill on the River Cart which was started by a French man in the 17th Century. Eventually there were four paper mills on the Cart because of the abundance of clean water.
The pure and abundant water of the Cart made paper-making an early and important industry. The first of four paper mills in the parish was established at Newlands in 1682 by a Frenchman, Nicholas Deschamp, an experienced paper-maker who had previously worked in Edinburgh. His son-in-law, James Hall, son of the meal miller, began a second paper mill upriver from Cathcart at Netherlee. Both mills were replaced in 1730 by a new paper mill at Millholm which survived for almost two centuries. (The Glasgow Story.Com)
The back gate at the end of the lane leads into what were the old cattle fields which are now in the ownership of Langside Sports Club. The farm land was purchased in the beginning of the 20th Century and developed into the recreation grounds of a local water pump manufacturing factory, Weirs. For over a century, the recreation ground was owned by Weir’s. Gradullay the workforce no longer lived locally, and numbers reduced to the point where members of the public were able to join for a fee. There were tennis, bowling, cricket and football clubs throughout the 20th Century.
The background story to the creation of the recreation fields by Weir’s was a financial one. Demands for wage increases before the First World War were unacceptable and to mitigate the dissatisfaction of the workers the factory owners bought up the old pastures which were plagued with flooding from the River Cart, landscaped them to stop the flooding and developed them as playing fields for the benefit of the workers and their families.
Weir’s factory also changed hands twice and the new owners realised that the cost of funding the recreation grounds outweighed any usefulness to its workforce of whom only a few were members. It was proposed that the land be transferred to the Club members once they had set up a charitable sports foundation with a governing board that would manage it. This plan was completed two years ago and the recreation ground is now a completely self-funding community sports club.
On the right of Earlspark Avenue is the lane that leads up to Langside Station.
This lane leads all the way around at the back of the new houses on the right hand side. The land that the new houses is situated was still part of the Paper Mill Farm up until it was demolished in the early 1960’s. The farm owner allowed access to the station and the other end of Earlspark Avenue but it was never a right of way. When the land was sold each new house owner became the owner of their stretch of the lane. The only impact this has is that the Council do not accept responsibility for keeping it clear and the growth, foliage overhang and big weeds can be a nuisance.
We now arrive at the ‘bollards’.
If you talk about the ‘bollards’ to Earlspark residents it conjures up something that all parents and children will recognises. It was the boundary for all play activities and bike riding by the small ones. It was created because of its use as a cut through by lorries delivering and collecting from Weir’s factory.
On the other side of the road, returning to the lane that leads to the back of the sports club, continuing down Earlspark Avenue is a row of terraced red sand stone houses.
They are of a similar size to my house. However, most have a generous sized cellar accessed from the rear garden. These houses like mine were all built by the same builder, George Anderson early in the 20th Century.
Earlspark Avenue then leads to a cross roads at Kintore Road before continuing down to meet Newlands Road, passing more terraces of red sand stone houses as well as semi detached villas.
We arrive at the corner of the old Weirs factory. They manufactured water pumps and became world leaders in this product. The factory site is about 18 acres and the buildings were enormous. The workforce was big and most originally live locally. Over the decades the workers moved away to live in other suburban areas. The workforce diminished and for the past few decades many of the buildings and offices were lying empty. The factory changed hands and is now owned by a company called Celeros. One of the office buildings was used as an innovative ‘college’ for teenagers struggling at school. They were assisted to improve their skills in preparation for employment. The results were good, but the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council declined to continue its funding. The inevitable has happened. About six acres of buildings and land have been demolished and cleared in preparation for six hundred new homes of four story maisonettes.
The original frontage of the factory is further down the road. An imposing piece of decorative architecture that has been preserved.
The only sign left that the factory was originally called Weir’s are the cast iron insignia plates on the gates with the letter ‘W’ on them
I return to my house via a parallel road, Cromarty Avenue, whose terraced red sand stone houses were all built by George Anderson.
I finish with a photo from a pocket guide to Glasgow published by Bartholomew’s in 1906. You can locate the Recreation Ground, Paper Mill Farm and the Weir’s engineering works. Where Earlspark Avenue begins and where my house was to be later built you will find two roadways leading to the farm. There were no residential houses here at that time.
