Crossmyloof
Encyclopedia
Crossmyloof is an area on the south side of Glasgow
in Scotland
.
According to local belief, the name is reputed to be derived from its location on the route taken by Mary, Queen of Scots to the site of the Battle of Langside
. A fortune-teller may have offered to tell the queen her fate if she would "cross her loof (hand) with silver".
parish and was formed around the junction of what are now Pollokshaws Road and Langside Avenue (the road to Cathcart). Crossmyloof was a small hamlet which suddenly grew in prominence when Neale Thomson opened a large bakery there in 1847. Some remnants of this industrial past still endure. A bakery building behind the tenement known as Camphill Gate on Pollokshaws Road still stands, and there is still a road named Baker Street, where once stood the Alexander 'Greek' Thomson-designed workers' cottages.
The main street in Crossmyloof was Cathcart Place, which is now part of Pollokshaws Road between the Langside Avenue/Minard Road junction and Shawlands Cross at the junction with Kilmarnock Road and Moss-side Road.
Crossmyloof was little more than the main street until the late Victorian era
, when Minard Road was opened up and the area around Waverley Gardens was built. For twenty years the tenements in Norham Street and Frankfort Street looked out on open countryside, dotted with ancient cottages, separating them from the Waverley Park area of Shawlands until the Waverley Scheme was constructed by Glasgow Corporation on the land opened up when Moss-side Road was formed to build Shawlands Academy
.
In 1818 Crossmyloof was described as the most populous village in Cathcart parish. Although till recently 'remarkable chiefly for being a resort of vagrants', the writer was happy to report that the village had now become more respectable from an increase in the number of its inhabitants, who now amounted to around 500. The remarks were a little premature, because in November 1820 two members of a band of armed ruffians who robbed a house in Crossmyloof were hanged in front of the Jail in the Saltmarket. The attack took place at the home of Dr Robert Watt
, the author of the four volume Bibliothica Britanica, who had died, allegedIy of overwork, the previous year. His terrified widow had a pistol held at her head and her gold rings wrenched off her fingers. She is reported as having hastily left Crossmyloof for the safety of a home in Hutchesontown. When the Rev James Smith wrote his account of Cathcart parish in 1840, he used the name Westfield for the village and gave the number of families as 124 and the total population as 587 persons. At this period the villagers were mostly cotton handloom weavers. The only remaining woollen weaver was William AIgie, assisted by his seven children, three of whom wove woollen cloth, and four of whom worked in cotton. Two elderly women, Mary Sinclair, a muslin
flowerer, and Margaret Wotherspoon, a muslin tambourer, were probably the last of the skilled embroideresses in the village. There were also a few shopkeepers, a blacksmith
, several brassfounders and tinsmith
s and William Ferguson, a lithographic engraver.
By 1851 the population had risen sharply to 939 persons. The rise was accounted for by the establishment of the Crossmyloof Bakery in 1847 by Neale Thomson of Camphill. The following year James Muirhead moved his Cart Forge from its original site in the Skin Mill Yard at Pollokshaws
to larger premises at Crossmyloof, where he produced axles for railway wagons. The Cart Forge was situated between Baker Street, where Thomson's workforce was housed, and the Pollokshaws Road.
Although most of the villagers lived along the Pollokshaws Road there was another small community in the area between Titwood Road and Moss-side Road. This area was known as Langside Valley and contained a few villas and cottages and several orchards and nurseries. This was where Glaswegians carne in the summer to enjoy fresh air and healthy surroundings. An advertisement in the Glasgow Courier of 25 February 1802 offers two 'neat' lodgings at the village of Westfield for renting as summer quarters for 'genteel families' from the city, who would find the houses well adapted for their use with the convenience of good water and a 'neat' plot of ground. The villa owners included James Smellie, a retired cooper who occupied the house called Langside Valley, and William Jaffrey, an accountant and notary public and owner of Campvale House. Springhill House was the residence of Henry Murphy, a pawnbroker and hat manufacturer in the Bridgegate. The house later became Springhill Academy with William Cairns and William Christie as joint headmasters. Archibald McAuslan was the local surgeon and physician, and the community included a group of customs officers with the titles of outdoor officer, running officer, clerk, weigher and locker.
When Hugh MacDonald passed through Crossmyloof on one of his Rambles in 1851, he found that the weavers of Crossmyloof and Strathbungo
, like their neighbours on the hill above at Langside
, were 'celebrated growers of tulips, pansies, dahlias and other floricultural favourites' and met regularly at their florist clubs to examine choice flowers and discuss the best means of rearing them to perfection. Of these 'bloom worshippers' MacDonald writes:
"There are some sharp-sighted people who are said to see further into a millstone than their neighbours. For the truth of the saying we shall not venture to vouch; but most assuredly, for seeing into the mysteries of a tulip or a dahlia, we shall back a Crossmyloof or Strabungo weaver against the united amateurs of Scotland."
In his report on the parish, the minister also explained that a 'large and excellent school' under the patronage of Neale Thomson of Camphill, served the inhabitants of Crossmyloof and district, although it stood just across the boundary within Eastwood parish. The parish boundary was formed here by the Waterland stream, and its course can be traced between the ruinous remains of two old walls behind the school building on the north side of Skirving Street, now used as shops. Mr Smith describes how a number of years before, when there was no teacher for two years, the inhabitants, mostly weavers, formed themselves into an educational society to be managed by twelve directors under the presidency of the minister, and some of the 'more intelligent' of the villagers undertook the task of teachers: a room was hired for the purpose, and a school opened from 8 to 10 o'clock at night, in which the teachers, two by two, in monthly turn, gave gratuitous instruction to whatever children were committed to their charge. The duty of the directors was principally to visit the school, and to wait upon careless parents to urge upon them the propriety of securing to their children the advantages which it offered. In 1877 the Cathcart School Board built Crossmyloof Public School in Stevenson (now Deanston) Drive. This school building has since been converted into flats.
The first church to be erected in Crossmyloof was Langside Road Church (later Langside Avenue). This was built in 1859 for a United Presbyterian
congregation which had been formed two years previously. The site at the corner of Baker Street and Langside Avenue was gifted by Neale Thomson. A new church was built on the same site in 1896. The congregation united with that of Shawlands Old in 1963 and the Langside Avenue buildings became St Helen's Catholic Church.
The Langside Halls stand nearby, on the edge of Queen's Park
. This building was originally a bank, when it stood in Queen Street in the centre of the city. In 1902-03 the building was relocated to its present site and converted to serve as public halls.
Pollokshaws Road and Minard Road provided the shopping area for Shawlands
- mainly in small shop units until the construction of the area's first supermarket by the Co-operative during the 1960s.
on the Glasgow South Western Line
, offering regular services to Glasgow Central
. For many years, the most visible evidence of the area's name was the signage for Crossmyloof Ice Rink adjacent to the railway line, but that was replaced by a supermarket during the 1980s, which remains open today run by Morrisons
.
As well as the Langside Halls, the ice rink
, the churches and the pubs on Pollokshaws Road, the area's main social amenity was the Waverley Cinema until the early 1970s when the decline in film-going led to its conversion first into a bingo hall and then to TUSK nightclub and the Waverley Tearooms.
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Etymology
The name is derived from Gaelic Crois MoLiubha, St Malieu's Cross.According to local belief, the name is reputed to be derived from its location on the route taken by Mary, Queen of Scots to the site of the Battle of Langside
Battle of Langside
The Battle of Langside, fought on 13 May 1568, was one of the more unusual contests in Scottish history, bearing a superficial resemblance to a grand family quarrel, in which a mother fought her brother who was defending the rights of her infant son...
. A fortune-teller may have offered to tell the queen her fate if she would "cross her loof (hand) with silver".
History
The original village of Crossmyloof was situated in the north-western corner of CathcartCathcart
Cathcart is an area of Glasgow between Mount Florida, King's Park, Muirend and Newlands. The White Cart Water flows through Cathcart, downstream from Linn Park....
parish and was formed around the junction of what are now Pollokshaws Road and Langside Avenue (the road to Cathcart). Crossmyloof was a small hamlet which suddenly grew in prominence when Neale Thomson opened a large bakery there in 1847. Some remnants of this industrial past still endure. A bakery building behind the tenement known as Camphill Gate on Pollokshaws Road still stands, and there is still a road named Baker Street, where once stood the Alexander 'Greek' Thomson-designed workers' cottages.
The main street in Crossmyloof was Cathcart Place, which is now part of Pollokshaws Road between the Langside Avenue/Minard Road junction and Shawlands Cross at the junction with Kilmarnock Road and Moss-side Road.
Crossmyloof was little more than the main street until the late Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, when Minard Road was opened up and the area around Waverley Gardens was built. For twenty years the tenements in Norham Street and Frankfort Street looked out on open countryside, dotted with ancient cottages, separating them from the Waverley Park area of Shawlands until the Waverley Scheme was constructed by Glasgow Corporation on the land opened up when Moss-side Road was formed to build Shawlands Academy
Shawlands Academy
Shawlands Academy is a non-denominational secondary school on the southside of Glasgow, Scotland.-Admissions:It has a roll of approximately 1,250 pupils and 90 teachers...
.
In 1818 Crossmyloof was described as the most populous village in Cathcart parish. Although till recently 'remarkable chiefly for being a resort of vagrants', the writer was happy to report that the village had now become more respectable from an increase in the number of its inhabitants, who now amounted to around 500. The remarks were a little premature, because in November 1820 two members of a band of armed ruffians who robbed a house in Crossmyloof were hanged in front of the Jail in the Saltmarket. The attack took place at the home of Dr Robert Watt
Robert Watt (bibliographer)
Dr Robert Watt was a Scottish physician and bibliographer.-Early life:The son of a small farmer in Bonnyton near Stewarton in Ayrshire, Watt attended school from the age of six to twelve. After working as a ploughman, aged seventeen he went to learn cabinetmaking with his brother...
, the author of the four volume Bibliothica Britanica, who had died, allegedIy of overwork, the previous year. His terrified widow had a pistol held at her head and her gold rings wrenched off her fingers. She is reported as having hastily left Crossmyloof for the safety of a home in Hutchesontown. When the Rev James Smith wrote his account of Cathcart parish in 1840, he used the name Westfield for the village and gave the number of families as 124 and the total population as 587 persons. At this period the villagers were mostly cotton handloom weavers. The only remaining woollen weaver was William AIgie, assisted by his seven children, three of whom wove woollen cloth, and four of whom worked in cotton. Two elderly women, Mary Sinclair, a muslin
Muslin
Muslin |sewing patterns]], such as for clothing, curtains, or upholstery. Because air moves easily through muslin, muslin clothing is suitable for hot, dry climates.- Etymology and history :...
flowerer, and Margaret Wotherspoon, a muslin tambourer, were probably the last of the skilled embroideresses in the village. There were also a few shopkeepers, a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
, several brassfounders and tinsmith
Tinsmith
A tinsmith, or tinner or tinker or tinplate worker, is a person who makes and repairs things made of light-coloured metal, particularly tinware...
s and William Ferguson, a lithographic engraver.
By 1851 the population had risen sharply to 939 persons. The rise was accounted for by the establishment of the Crossmyloof Bakery in 1847 by Neale Thomson of Camphill. The following year James Muirhead moved his Cart Forge from its original site in the Skin Mill Yard at Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws is a district on the southside of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The housing stock mostly consists of some sandstone tenement housing, tower blocks and modern brick tenement-style buildings...
to larger premises at Crossmyloof, where he produced axles for railway wagons. The Cart Forge was situated between Baker Street, where Thomson's workforce was housed, and the Pollokshaws Road.
Although most of the villagers lived along the Pollokshaws Road there was another small community in the area between Titwood Road and Moss-side Road. This area was known as Langside Valley and contained a few villas and cottages and several orchards and nurseries. This was where Glaswegians carne in the summer to enjoy fresh air and healthy surroundings. An advertisement in the Glasgow Courier of 25 February 1802 offers two 'neat' lodgings at the village of Westfield for renting as summer quarters for 'genteel families' from the city, who would find the houses well adapted for their use with the convenience of good water and a 'neat' plot of ground. The villa owners included James Smellie, a retired cooper who occupied the house called Langside Valley, and William Jaffrey, an accountant and notary public and owner of Campvale House. Springhill House was the residence of Henry Murphy, a pawnbroker and hat manufacturer in the Bridgegate. The house later became Springhill Academy with William Cairns and William Christie as joint headmasters. Archibald McAuslan was the local surgeon and physician, and the community included a group of customs officers with the titles of outdoor officer, running officer, clerk, weigher and locker.
When Hugh MacDonald passed through Crossmyloof on one of his Rambles in 1851, he found that the weavers of Crossmyloof and Strathbungo
Strathbungo
Strathbungo grew up as a small village built along the Pollokshaws Road, one of the main arteries leading southwards from the centre of Glasgow, adjoined by the Camphill Estate, now part of Queens Park...
, like their neighbours on the hill above at Langside
Langside
Langside is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated south of the River Clyde, and lies east of Shawlands, south of Queens Park, west of Cathcart and north of Newlands. The district is residential and primarily middle-class, and has become an increasingly fashionable address in...
, were 'celebrated growers of tulips, pansies, dahlias and other floricultural favourites' and met regularly at their florist clubs to examine choice flowers and discuss the best means of rearing them to perfection. Of these 'bloom worshippers' MacDonald writes:
"There are some sharp-sighted people who are said to see further into a millstone than their neighbours. For the truth of the saying we shall not venture to vouch; but most assuredly, for seeing into the mysteries of a tulip or a dahlia, we shall back a Crossmyloof or Strabungo weaver against the united amateurs of Scotland."
In his report on the parish, the minister also explained that a 'large and excellent school' under the patronage of Neale Thomson of Camphill, served the inhabitants of Crossmyloof and district, although it stood just across the boundary within Eastwood parish. The parish boundary was formed here by the Waterland stream, and its course can be traced between the ruinous remains of two old walls behind the school building on the north side of Skirving Street, now used as shops. Mr Smith describes how a number of years before, when there was no teacher for two years, the inhabitants, mostly weavers, formed themselves into an educational society to be managed by twelve directors under the presidency of the minister, and some of the 'more intelligent' of the villagers undertook the task of teachers: a room was hired for the purpose, and a school opened from 8 to 10 o'clock at night, in which the teachers, two by two, in monthly turn, gave gratuitous instruction to whatever children were committed to their charge. The duty of the directors was principally to visit the school, and to wait upon careless parents to urge upon them the propriety of securing to their children the advantages which it offered. In 1877 the Cathcart School Board built Crossmyloof Public School in Stevenson (now Deanston) Drive. This school building has since been converted into flats.
The first church to be erected in Crossmyloof was Langside Road Church (later Langside Avenue). This was built in 1859 for a United Presbyterian
United Presbyterian Church of Scotland
The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination. It was formed in 1847 by the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, and in 1900 merged with the Free Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland, which in turn united with...
congregation which had been formed two years previously. The site at the corner of Baker Street and Langside Avenue was gifted by Neale Thomson. A new church was built on the same site in 1896. The congregation united with that of Shawlands Old in 1963 and the Langside Avenue buildings became St Helen's Catholic Church.
The Langside Halls stand nearby, on the edge of Queen's Park
Queen's Park, Glasgow
Situated on the south side of the city of Glasgow, in Scotland, Queen's Park lies approximately two miles from the city centre, and can refer both to the park itself, the adjacent residential district, or the football team Queen's Park F.C.The park was developed in the late 19th century in...
. This building was originally a bank, when it stood in Queen Street in the centre of the city. In 1902-03 the building was relocated to its present site and converted to serve as public halls.
Pollokshaws Road and Minard Road provided the shopping area for Shawlands
Shawlands
Shawlands is a district of Glasgow, Scotland located less than 2 miles south of the River Clyde. The area has an approximate population of 8000 people, with over 82% dwelling in flats, 74% owner occupied and 79% living alone or with one other person...
- mainly in small shop units until the construction of the area's first supermarket by the Co-operative during the 1960s.
Facilities
Crossmyloof is served by a railway stationCrossmyloof railway station
Crossmyloof railway station is a railway station in Glasgow, Scotland. The station is managed by First ScotRail and is served by trains on the Glasgow South Western Line.The overline station building was removed during the late 1990s...
on the Glasgow South Western Line
Glasgow South Western Line
The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride.- History :...
, offering regular services to Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central station
Glasgow Central is the larger of the two present main-line railway terminals in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. The station was opened by the Caledonian Railway on 31 July 1879 and is currently managed by Network Rail...
. For many years, the most visible evidence of the area's name was the signage for Crossmyloof Ice Rink adjacent to the railway line, but that was replaced by a supermarket during the 1980s, which remains open today run by Morrisons
Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The company is usually referred to and is branded as Morrisons formerly Morrison's, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies...
.
As well as the Langside Halls, the ice rink
Ice rink
An ice rink is a frozen body of water and/or hardened chemicals where people can skate or play winter sports. Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include ice hockey, figure skating and curling as well as exhibitions, contests and ice shows...
, the churches and the pubs on Pollokshaws Road, the area's main social amenity was the Waverley Cinema until the early 1970s when the decline in film-going led to its conversion first into a bingo hall and then to TUSK nightclub and the Waverley Tearooms.