120th Anniversary
Turn of the century proved to be a more prosperous time for many locals
Below: The Cunarder tram at Bishopbriggs Cross |
Hand loom weaving, which had long dominated the town's industrial heritage up to this point, was in rapid decline by the beginning of the 20th century.
Faster machines were replacing the old hand looms and mills were springing up across the region.
Mining had become the main industry as it expanded rapidly throughout Scotland.
Mines were already well established in Twechar, Meiklehill and Woodilee, but other mining areas across Strathkelvin were growing in importance as output increased to meet demand.
Boat building had also taken quite a hold in the town with Hays' Yard and McGregor's Yard in Southbank Road.
The majority of people in the area would have worked in one of these four industries.
NEW HOUSING
Conditions at work were not great for the ordinary working man and they were not much better at home.
Tenement building was on the increase across Glasgow and the Strathkelvin area was no exception.
Kirkintilloch's Eastside was built at the turn of the century.
The tenements were built in order to accommodate an ever increasing demand for labour in and around the Glasgow area.
Extensive new housing was also being built in Twechar, with Barrhill Road under construction between 1890 and 1910.
The housing in general was of a poor quality, although running water and a sewerage system were well established.
But some houses still had neither, some cottages on Campsie Road still had mud floors.
More homes were also built
Bishopbriggs, where high demand for workers in the quarrying, mining and agricultural industries meant more houses were essential.
Left: The launch of the SS Briton at J & J Hay’s shipbuilding yard in Kirkintilloch in November 1893. |
More housing was also essential in Stepps as the population grew from 302 in 1891 to 1,338 by 1911.
Stepps saw a lot of social changes through out the first decade. Most came with the help of Colonel Alexander Sprot of Garnkirk Park.
With his land and money the village gained a tennis club, a bowling club and a public park. The park was opened to rapturous applause in 1910.
Bowling and walking in the public parks were among the more popular ways to spend leisure lime.
The early part of the century also witnessed the rise of the temperance movement in the area and the eventual ban of alcohol in 1920.
Clubs and societies based on the workplace were also starting to spring up. Miners welfare societies became popular places most notably in Twechar, where the mining community could enjoy a drink in peace.
At the turn of the century people from the Strathkelvin area would often go into Glasgow for the day, to look at the shops. The only problem with that was getting there.
Tramway
Although the public tramway was extended from Keppochill to Bishopbriggs in February 1903. it still was not that easy to get to the city.
Residents in Kirkintilloch, for example, had to get a horse drawn bus to Bishopbriggs, then a tram. And then, as now, complaints about the trains were plentiful.
The people of Stepps and other villages complained the service was too infrequent to be of any use, while the people of Kirkintilloch regularly complained of missed or late trains.
The century seems to have started as it is ending, with complaints about the transport system high on people's list of grievances.
Unlike the rail system, education in the region was getting better.
New schools were opening their doors all over the Strathkelvin area.
Lenzie Academy was vastly improved in 1909 with a new £6,000 building. The new building included a wing of classrooms and a bigger school hall.
Torrance School also opened its doors on March 14, 1900, and the Roman Catholic School in Union Street, Kirkintilloch, was extended in 1908.
The whole of the area flourished at the turn of the century as the Victorian era gave way to the reign of Edward Vll.
Medals were given to local schoolchildren to mark his coronation in 1902.
Kirkintilloch, Bishopbriggs and Auchinairn, Twechar, Stepps, Chryston, Moodiesburn, Muirhead and Lenzie all benefited from relatively full employment,
Although social conditions in the town were still well short of the standards we have come to expect today, things were improving.
Running water and gas lighting were commonplace and new sewerage systems meant age old diseases were being reduced.
This was the first generation to benefit from the great social, industrial and economic improvements of the latter part of the 19th century.
As a consequence the old Strathkelvin area enjoyed a period of comparative prosperity.
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