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There are few districts which combine so much of the attributes of
country life with the bustle and stir of manufacturers; for the soil is
dotted at every little distance with the villas of the aristocracy of
Glasgow; with tall chimneys of coal works, with belts of thriving
plantations and clumps of old wood, with orchards, grassy holms, or
waving grain, and with the homely farm steading or lonely dwelling of
the cotter…’
Ordinance Gazeteer of Scotland
1884.
Farming
Lands
Much
of Greater Easterhouse is built on old farmland. Several farms were
either partially or completely taken over by the housing schemes that
were built in the 1950’s. All that remains of most of them are their
names, which were given to the new streets. You might still find clumps
of trees which surrounded the farm houses today.
Farms
on old maps include Easterhouse, Westerhouse, Nether House, Dungeonhill,
Rogerfield, Greenwells, Commonhead, Wellhouse, Queenslie, Blackfriars, Provanhall, Lochwood and Lochgreen.
There
was a farm in the grounds of Gartloch Hospital, as it was believed
mental patients benefited from the theraputic effects of working there.
It provided milk, butter, oatmeal, eggs and meat form its own abattoir
to the hospital, and also later to the Royal Infirmary, the Southern
General, and Barlinnie and Low Moss prisons.
Over
100 years ago the best farms had a four-year crop rotation. One year the
farmer would grow potatoes, the next turnips, the next oats and then the
last, wheat. Then the cycle would begin all over again.
Many
of the farms owned livestock such as cattle or poultry. Imagine how the
farmers must have felt watching the new housing estates creeping closer
to their land? One poor man in the 1960’s had 100 of his hens stolen.
They were found with their heads chopped off in a field the next day.
Amid
the modern houses, there are still people farming the land in Greater
Easterhouse today.
Weaving
Industry
Over
two hundred years ago flax was grown in the area for linen making. Some
farms grew 20-30 acres of the crop a year. Swinton, West Maryston and
Ballieston were thriving weaving villages. At
Wellhouse Farm, strips of linen were laid out to bleach under the sun in
the fields. The weavers would then carry the heavy rolls of linen on
their shoulders to Glasgow. Flax
growing died out around 150 years ago, when cotton became more common.
Coal
Mining
Coal
has been mined in Easterhouse for hundreds of years. The monks of
Newbattle Abbey were given much of the land in what is now Greater
Easterhouse in the 12th Century by King Malcom IV. They were amongst the
earliest coal miners in Scotland.
250
years ago, coal ‘cropped out, or became exposed here. It was because
the coal seams were so close to the surface that the district was one of
the first to mine coal in Scotland. At that time, miners would have
worked in cramped conditions in Bell Pits.
Coal
Mining became a major local industry in 1790 with the opening of the
Monkland Canal. It could then be sent to Glasgow, rather than just
catering for local needs. Old maps show around 30 pits around Ballieston
at that time. Coal was also mined at Dungeonhill, Provanhall and Bishop
Loch. The industry brought a new population to the district, many coming
from Ireland to work in the pits.
In
1962, when the Corporation were building houses in Westerhouse Road,
they struck coal.
For 3 weeks people helped themselves!
The
Monkland Canal
In
1769 magistrates in Glasgow had to find a way to transport coal to the
city from the East. They decided to build a waterway. They allocated the
job to James Watt who invented the Steam Engine. Ten mil
Barges
carrying coal and steel were running daily into the city. Its profits
grew after 1825 when the great iron works at Calder, Gartsherrie,
Dundyvan and Langloan were built.
In
1807 passengers were ferried along the canal in boats drawn by horses.
For over 160 years barges used the canal. It was closed to shipping in
1952.
The
Monkland Canal became known as ‘The Killer Canal’. Many people
drowned there through the years. In May 1964 work began filling in the
canal at a cost of £300,000. The canal is now part of the M8 motorway
which opened on June 1973.
Development
of the Housing Schemes - Late 1950's
 Housing
has always been a controversial subject in Easterhouse. When the schemes
opened, people coming from the old tenements were delighted with their
new homes, especially their indoor toilets! Easterhouse was a highly
desirable option to families living in the cramped single-ends of the
inner city. Its two-bedroomed flats were very spacious, and the
experience was promoted as ‘like living in the country’. People had
to earn a certain amount before even being considered for a house in the
area. But the joy of these modern luxuries soon wore thin for many, as
little consideration was given be planners to the needs of the new
residents.
Easterhouse
became internationally known for its poor housing and lack of amenities.
Billy Connolly called such housing schemes as ‘deserts wi’ windaes’.
Many tenants in Greater Easterhouse are still living in the houses that
were constructed by the council in the 1950’s.
At
this time, there were few local amenities. There were no supermarkets,
and residents bought food and provisions for their families at the small
local grocery stores. The proposed shopping centre at Bogbain and
Shandwick Street was delayed for years because of coal seems supposedly
underneath it. This wasn't constructed until the early 1970's.
Even
when the population of the scheme rose to 60,000, there was still no
police station.
New
housing, both public and private, is being built all over Greater
Easterhouse today to replace the old buildings that are rapidly
decaying. More changes are ahead, following the vote to proceed with
Glasgow’s housing stock transfer. Whatever happens, the lucky
residents who get flats in the new schemes are delighted.
Our House Style
Gartloch
Hospital
 Gartloch
Hospital was situated on the Gartloch Road near the village of Gartcosh.
“Gart” in old scots means a Garden. The name probably arose because
the estate had extensive gardens near Bishop’s Loch.
In
1889 the City of Glasgow bought Gartloch Estate for nearly £8,600. Here
the Glasgow District Lunacy Board built an asylum. In 1896 the first
patients were admitted.
A
tuberculosis sanitorium was opened in 1902 and closed after World War
II. During the War, Gartloch was transformed into an Emergency Medical
Services hospital. Psychiatric patients were transferred to other
hospitals and a number of “temporary” hutted wards built.
Mental
Health Care in the Nineteenth Century with the straight jacket. When
Gartloch Asylum opened in 1889, treatment for mental health problems was
very different than what it is now. There are records of patients being
treated with ‘purgitives, bleeding of the temples with leeches,
shaving of the head and cold applications to the head.’
When
Gartloch joined the National Health Service in 1948 it was placed under
the Board of Management for Glasgow North-Eastern Mental Hospitals. When
the Greater Glasgow Health Board was created in 1974 Gartloch was placed
within the Eastern District. From 1993 Gartloch was under the Greater
Glasgow Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust. Gartloch
Hospital closed in 1996.
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