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

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.

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!

Working conditions were very poor for the coal miners working in Greater Easterhouse’s pits. Many of the mines were difficult to work and were vulnerable to dangerous flooding. Wages were low and families survived on very basic staples as soup, potatoes, sour milk, bread and porridge.

Before the introduction of motorised pulley systems, pit ponies pulled the heavy coal trucks through the mines. Many would live down the pit for fifty weeks of the year, never seeing daylight.

Weaving

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.

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 miles were constructed when the company found itself in difficulty financially and it sold out to William Stirling & Son who owned Drumpeller Estate. They completed the waterway in 1790.

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.

The Killer Canal

The Monkland Canal became known as ‘The Killer Canal’. Many people drowned there through the years. This Certificate of Bravery was awarded to… for his rescue of a child who had fallen in the water in…

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.

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.
Image courtesy of Stenlake Publishing

Sack Grabber

People who worked on the trade boats on the Monkland Canal would have used sack grabbers. They made heavy bags easier to lift.

The Dairy Farms

This is a milk can. Children were sent from the villages to the local farms to collect milk. If you had lived in Easterhouse village, the ‘soor milk cairt’ would have delivered butter to you twice a week from Dungeonhill Farm.

Weaving Shuttles

These are shuttles, which were traditionally used in cloth weaving. Old accounts tell how many local people as children had watched the weavers at work, fascinated by the ‘clickety clack’ of the shuttles.