History of Cambuslang

The History of Cambuslang is explained to a great deal by its geography. Now in South Lanarkshire, the town of Cambuslang is an ancient part of Scotland where Iron Age remains (at Dechmont Hill) loom over 21st century housing developments. It has been very prosperous over time, depending first upon its agricultural land, (supplying food, then wool, then linen) then the mineral resources under its soil (limestone and coal, and, to some extent, iron).
History.
Etymology.
Reverend Doctor James Meek, minister in Cambuslang from 1772 until 1810 and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1795, wrote in the First Statistical Account of Scotland (1792):
His follower and son-in-law, Rev Dr John Robertson, assistant to, then Minister of Cambuslang from 1797 until 1843, suggested in the Second Statistical Account of Scotland (1845):
However, Iain Mac an Tàilleir writes in his collection of placenames in Scotland (2003):
Origins.
The Parish of Cambuslang in the Barony of Drumsargard – whose castle ruins can be discerned to the south-east of Hallside – can be traced back to the time of King Alexander II of Scotland (1214–49) when it belonged to Walter Olifard, Justiciar of Lothian. The Barony of Drumsargard passed to Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas in 1370, as part of the settlement in his marriage to Johanna, daughter of Thomas Moray of Bothwell. In 1452 the Douglases were displaced in favour of James Lord Hamilton, who became tenant-in-chief in 1455. This feudal superiority remained with the Dukes of Hamilton – who were also the largest landowners – up until 1922, though the abolition of feudalism in Scotland did not come until the end of the 20th century.
The church.
The origin of the Parish Kirk of Cambuslang is lost in history, though it is traditionally supposed to have been founded by Saint Cadoc in the 6th century. Certainly, St Cadoc (or Cadow) is recorded as wandering about the hills of Strathclyde and finally founding a monastery at a spot most likely to have been the current site of the Old Parish Church. However, we hear of its first ecclesiastic about 1180 in relation to the Barony. Subsequently, there is a fairly full record of at least the names of Cambuslang clergy.
John Cameron of Lochiel was Rector of Cambuslang before he became Bishop of Glasgow. In 1429, as Bishop, he made Cambuslang a prebend of Glasgow Cathedral – meaning that the Rector (or Prebendary) could siphon off its teinds (that is tithes) to pay for one of his officials. The prebendary and his successor were to be perpetual Chancellors of the Cathedral. A later Archbishop of Glasgow James Beaton (or Bethune) was uncle to David Beaton, the Cardinal murdered at the Reformation. James made David Rector (and so prebendary) of Cambuslang in about 1520.
The prebendaries had a very fine view of the Cathedral from Cambuslang, but the distance meant they had to reside at Glasgow. Instead, they appointed vicars to care for the souls of the Parish. The vicars were allocated a house and 6 acres (24,000 m²), in an area near the Kirk, which is still called Vicarland. This indicates that the area was (relatively) prosperous. A post-Reformation church was erected in 1626 and a village (Kirkhill) grew up around it. A new kirk was built in the middle of the 18th century and this was replaced by the current building during the 19th century.
Our Lady of Cambuslang.
Another source of prosperity might have been derived from pilgrims to Our Lady of Cambuslang. Pilgrims had long come to Cambuslang to venerate the "ashes of St Cadoc" so it was not surprising that a chapel was founded in 1379 by William Monypenny, Rector of Cambuslang, and this had been ratified by a Charter of King Robert II (dated 8 August 1379). The chapel was on the edge of the ravine near Sauchiebog and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. No trace of the chapel remains. Even its location is in doubt, but local Catholics like to think their current church of Saint Bride’s is built on the spot. 19th century maps suggest it was situated where the Kirkburn gorge crossed the Caledonian Railway. Moreover, there are vestiges of an ancient hospital at Spittal (still called so to this day) some southeast of the Kirk. This again is suggestive of pilgrimages, in search of cures, which is confirmed by the fact that the Chapel was recorded as a valuable commodity at the time of the Reformation.
Prosperity.
The soil in Cambuslang was a light loam, suitable for cultivation, but its mineral reserves are what brought modern prosperity. There was a limestone so fine as to be called "Cambuslang marble". This is capable of a very high polish. A good example can be seen in an 18th-century fireplace in the Duke of Hamilton’s old hunting lodge at Chatelherault Country Park near Hamilton. (James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, was granted the title of Duc de Châtellerault in 1548 for his part in arranging the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Francis, Dauphin of France). However, coal was mined from the 16th century and ironstone from the 18th, and it was these that brought industrial wealth.
Clyde Iron Works started as an offshoot of the Carron iron works in 1786 and by the early 20th century was the largest ironworks in Scotland. It was here, in 1828, that the hot blast was invented by James Beaumont Neilson. Clydebridge Steelworks started in 1887. It was linked with Clyde Iron Works just prior to WWII when it became the largest integrated steelworks in the country, producing steel plates for most of the famous ships on the Clyde. Clyde Iron Works finally closed in 1978. Steelmaking at Clydebridge stopped in 1978, the plate mill closed in 1982, but the heat treatment section of the works is still in operation.
The extensive ironworks also attracted engineering and manufacturing during the 19th and 20th centuries – the most prominent being Mitchell Engineering and Hoover (since shut down). A shale oil business was present in the mid 19th century. There is also reference to a trade in violet quartz and turkey-red dyeing, associated with the textile industries of nearby Dalmarnock. The standard sandstone of the area was used in building – most of the elegant 19th century villas which cover much of today’s Cambuslang were built of sandstone, quarried on the spot, or from several quarries, including two at Wellshot and Eastfield. Nowadays, Cambuslang takes advantage of its proximity to the motorway system and has developed several industrial estates and distribution centres.
The Reverend Doctor James Meek wrote the entry for the First Statistical Account of Scotland (published 1791 to 1799). He writes clearly, elegantly, and enthusiastically. He was a true Enlightenment cleric. On the one hand he records personally-gathered and extensive data on weather, population, farming, industry, history, transport and local personalities. He gets quite carried away with enthusiasm in describing the great improvements brought to Cambuslang in the late 18th century as a result of applying reason and science to practical problems. The opening of the turnpike road to Glasgow was a particular joy. This allowed locals access to a burgeoning market (and allowed them to bring in cartloads of city manure in return). But he lays out a parallel table showing the vast improvements between 1750 and 1790.
The Cambuslang Wark.
On the other hand, Meek is rather distrustful of any suggestion of 'enthusiasm' in religion. He realises he is on contentious territory so he affects to tell the whole story of the "Cambuslang Wark" (Cambuslang Work) of 1742 with due dispassion. At the top of the gorge, near the kirk, is a ‘natural amphitheatre on the green side of the ravine’ where the Methodist preacher George Whitefield came to preach in the open. This was part of the Great Awakening, or Revival, affecting the whole of the UK and stretching to the colonies in North America.
As Dr Meek's successor (and son-in-law) Dr Robertson describes it in the Second Statistical Account. It occurred from 15 February until 15 August 1742 under the ministry of the Rev Mr Mcculloch ‘"when in an encampment of tents on the hillside, Whitefield, at the head of a band of clergy, held day after day a festival, which might be called awful, but scarcely solemn, among a multitude calculated by contemporary writers, to amount to 30,000 people."’ Dr Robertson had inherited his father-in-law’s suspicion of 'enthusiasm'. A centenary event was held on 14 August 1842 attracting from 10,000 to 20,000 participants.
A railway suburb.
 By the end of the 19th century, many wealthy Glasgow businessmen had built houses in Cambuslang due to its easy accessibility by rail from the city. Many of the heritors had sold off their estates for building. In the late 1860s, Thomas Gray Buchanan sold off the 'lands of Wellshot' on which elegant limestone and slate roofed villas were built. His own mansion house still exists – a very modest early 19th-century country house, situated in Milton Avenue off Buchanan Drive – though it is divided into flats. The original wall to its orchard and garden can be seen on Brownside Road – the limestone blocks are roughly hewn as opposed to more 'modern' villas whose machine-cut stones are very regular.
Population.
Dr Robertson also carried on Dr Meek’s other "enlightened" enthusiasms – for collecting detail of the progress of science and industry in Cambuslang, as indicated by a growing population which he tabulates thus:
Census data (given in the "Gazetteer of Scotland in 1901") shows that the population had grown in 1881 to 5538. By 1891 it was 8323.
Dr Robertson says that most of the population lived in 'villages' (really very small hamlets) while the rest lived in 'rural areas'. None of the villages bore the name of Cambuslang (this was the parish). Their names are retained in district names to this day but Dr Robertson recorded the thirteen villages as Dalton, Lightburn, Deans, Howieshill, Vicarland, Kirkhill, Sauchiebog, Chapelton, Bushyhill, Culluchburn, Silverbank, East Coats, and West Coats.
Heritors.
Robertson also gave details of the 'heritors' (the landowners who appointed the minister and schoolteacher and set the rates to pay for them and the poor rate). The most important heritor was still (in 1845) the Duke of Hamilton but all the estates, big and small, were listed, with their area.
Not all these heritors lived in the Parish (for example the Parish Records indicate that the Duke was always represented by a minion), but Dr Robertson opines, "The number of families of independent fortune residing occasionally or permanently in the parish is about 5. There are about 7 fatuous persons and 2 blind." (Not among the heritors, one presumes.)
Buildings.
The buildings of Cambuslang include ancient sites, medieval castle ruins, 18th-century mansion remnants, churches, schools, public buildings, commercial and industrial premises and retail and leisure facilities. There are three, much modified, railway stations. The very diverse domestic architecture comprises 19th-century mansions, villas and tenements, and sheltered and nursing homes constructed from Victorian public buildings. Extensive 20th- and 21st-century housing estates include private and social housing and range from small terraces to high rise flats. The 1960s town centre has recently been redeveloped.
Bridges.
There have been three bridges of different types over the River Clyde north of Cambuslang Main Street. In the early 21st century there is a large supermarket on the Cambuslang side of the bridges, and on the other side is the ancient village of Carmyle, which is administered by the City of Glasgow.
Orion/Rosebank Bridge.
The earliest crossing over the river (other than informal fords at crossing points which were unsafe when the water levels rose) was a 19th-century wooden mineral railway bridge. It was constructed in the 1850s and named Orion Bridge in commemoration of a naval tragedy involving a paddle steamer of that name which had occurred a few years earlier. The bridge was also known as "Rosebank Bridge" after Rosebank House, the nearby mansion on the Cambuslang side. For a time the Dunlop Family, operators of the Clyde Iron Works around a mile to the north on the opposite side of the river, were also the owners of Rosebank House, explaining the reason for the desire to link the sites. The private railway linked the iron works to the main Clydesdale Junction Railway lines and also provided a source of fuel from local collieries. The Orion connection would appear to stem from the fact that another previous owner of Rosebank, shipping magnate Sir George Burns, had a brother who died in the Orion incident. The wooden bridge eventually burned down in a fire in 1919, by which time the iron works were linked to the closer Rutherglen and Coatbridge Railway lines and most of the local coal had been exhausted.
Cambuslang/Orion Bridge.
Cambuslang Bridge which has been referred to as "Clyde Bridge" and later as "Orion Bridge", was built in 1892 by Crouch and Hogg. It was built using the steel lattice girder structure commonly used in rail bridges of the time (see Westburn Viaduct, Dalmarnock Railway Bridge in the vicinity) but historical maps do not show it ever having been used by a railway. For 80 years it carried the main road north towards Tollcross in the East End of Glasgow but weight restrictions meant it became unsuitable for such heavy use, and in 1976 a replacement was built downstream. Vehicles continued to use the Cambuslang Bridge until 1986 when the Bogleshole Road Bridge was built around half a mile to the north.
Footbridge.
Cambuslang Footbridge (constructed by Strathclyde Regional Council in 1977) is the point where the Clyde Walkway and the National Cycle Route 75 cross from the north to the south bank of the Clyde. In 2015 a feasibility study was conducted on creating a new cycling and walking route which would run along the south (Cambuslang) river bank to Farme Cross in Rutherglen via the Clydebridge Steelworks site. The footbridge is just downstream from the original Cambuslang Bridge, and although becoming overgrown and blocked off from vehicular traffic the older structure is still in place and can be used freely by pedestrians, meaning that for several years there have been two crossings serving the same function only a few yards from one another.
Cambuslang clergy.
The Catholic Church.
The revenues of the Parish of Cambuslang (originally Drumsagart) were obviously substantial enough for the priests to carry the title Rector. One – William Monypenny – had enough to endow a Chapel to Our Lady. These revenues also supported Vicars when the Rectors were made Prebendaries and were usually absent, attending to their official duties in Glasgow Cathedral. Cambuslang Parish was obviously a step on the career ladder of ambitious clerics who also had political ambitions. John Cameron (of the Lochiel Campbells) became Bishop of Glasgow – and made the Prebendaries of Cambuslang Chancellors of the Cathedral – and went on to hold all the Great Offices of State. David Beaton probably never even visited his Parish on his way up the ladder to become the Cardinal later murdered by soldiers supporting the Reformation in Scotland.
Both Cameron and Beaton were members of the Scottish aristocracy, as were a number of other Rectors and Prebendaries – such as Lord Claud Hamilton – and the "English Cleric" mentioned below no doubt accompanied the many Anglo-Norman adventurers who came to Scotland at the time. The issues associated with the revenues of Cambuslang, and its entanglement with finding a living for young aristocrats, continued beyond the reformation. The revenues were in the hands of the landowners – the Heritors – who therefore nominated the Ministers, according to the Patronage Act, 1712.
The established Protestant churches.
During the years of the Reformation, Cambuslang clergy were sometimes priests of the Episcopalian Church of Scotland and sometimes Ministers of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Several were doughty fighters for Presbyterianism, notably John Howison, while others, such as Patrick Hamilton gave much of their time to (sometimes provocative, not to say scurrilous) poetry. William M'Culloch organised great preaching festivals on the hillsides near his Kirk, inviting one of the founders of Methodism, George Whitefield to preach to upwards of 20,000 people. This "Cambuslang Wark" was part of an extraordinary series of revivalist movements which swept Scotland, England and New England in the 1740s. Subsequently, many of M’Culloch's Elders opposed the Duke of Hamilton's nominee, James Meek as his successor, on the grounds that he was unsound in doctrine. Meek was a typical Moderate in the 18th-century Church of Scotland – well educated, ”enlightened”, well-connected – his friend and supporter was William Robertson, Principal of Edinburgh University – and more concerned with good Christian conduct, which often meant good order, than with what he thought of as the more contentious areas of scholastic Calvinist theology. He won the fight and became a much-loved minister. He was followed in his place by Principal Robertson's nephew. This was John Robertson, who died the year before a great split in the Church of Scotland over the long-standing issues, familiar to his predecessor, of Patronage and doctrine. Later Ministers lived quieter lives. The Robert Blair not only helped translate the Bible into Gaelic, but also found time to translate Gaelic Poetry. Robert Sibbald Calderwood wrote "Bible Stories", but also proclaimed his patriotism on the coronation of George V.
Other churches.
In 1799 some Christians who were not prepared to attend the Parish Kirk, perhaps including some remnants of M’Culloch's Cambuslang Wark, rented a house to hold independent meetings. In 1801, they bought a building, which became known as the Tabernacle, in what is now Tabernacle Lane. David Dale, a Glasgow Merchant who lived nearby, contributed some money for this, and worshipped there himself. Thus began the Congregational Church in Cambuslang. After the Disruption of 1843, a Free Church of Scotland congregation was set up. The Duchess of Hamilton gave land for an Episcopalian Church to serve the needs of English immigrants who had come to work in the Cambuslang collieries and Hallside Steelworks (Newton). Later, Baptists and other Protestant denominations set up chapels, then more substantial churches. Similarly, Catholic immigrants from Ireland and the Highlands were served first by a chapel, then a more substantial church. Meanwhile, the growing population of Cambuslang meant that the Church of Scotland had to set up subsidiary churches – the mission church in Hallside, for example – to accommodate the growing population. These eventually became the separate Parishes of the Church of Scotland – Flemington Hallside Church, Trinity Parish Church and St Andrew's Church of Scotland, are remaining examples. Smaller Protestant Churches were also set up – Westcoats Evangelical Church for example, and the Gospel Hall.