Posts

Burnbrae: The Dye Works and The House (updated 2pm on 11 August)

Image
Burnbrae, as we know, is located on the Milngavie Road out of Bearsden.  Craighdu Burn, which runs in between McDonalds and Pure Gym, is the boundary between Bearsden and Milngavie.  Thus the Burnbrae pub and restaurant and McDonalds are in Bearsden but Pure Gym and Kelvin Timber are in Milngavie. Going back to the 1920s, this would have felt semi-rural compared to today, as the following photo illustrates: I think this was taken from just north of the junction with Kilmardinny Avenue  looking towards Milngavie.  The road still has a slight bend in it but it is hardly noticeable in a car.  The monorail is visible in the middle distance (see my post here ).  Just to the left we see a building end on and behind that is today's Kelvin Timber building. Going back before that we can get an idea of how the area looked when New Kilpatrick was originally becoming established at and to the south of today's Bearsden Cross (see my post here ) by using material from this website : Burnbrae
Post a Comment
Read more

Braehead Farm

Image
It's well known that before the Braehead Shopping Centre was built, the site was occupied in part and most recently by a power station.  Less well documented is that to the east of the power station site stood Braehead Farm.  This was just off of what was referred to as Renfrew Road in the 1890s and at that time there was an additional dwelling place referred to as The Lodge. Maps from this amazing resource (click here) provided by the National Library of Scotland, photos from Britain from Above (click here). It can be seen in this map from 1895: The river runs from bottom right to top left. The earliest industrial development around Scotstoun is shown on the right.  Braehead Farm and the Lodge are centre left of the map. By 1909, industrial development was eating into the farm lands.  The Lodge still stands on Renfrew Road but the new geography is in the shape of railway lines linking industrial sites to the main towns in the area: The Lodge was now cut off from the farm except by
Post a Comment
Read more

George Edward

Image
  George Edward was born on 25th August 1865 at 246 Bath Street, Glasgow: This is still standing 159 years later: It is the door with the bins on either side (and presumably the upper floors) and may have looked grander at the time! George was born partially deaf. George's father, David,  and described his occupation as Master Watchmaker, but I suspect this covered more general work in jewellery, silverware etc.  He had married Mary Anne Nisbet on 14th September 1864 so George was their first born. George's siblings were Margaret (born 1868), Mary (1871), Edith (1872), Winifred (1875), David (1880) and Catherine (1887, 22 years after George). The Edward family are missing from the 1871 Census (possibly travelling overseas?),  Around this time, George was beginning his education at "The Glasgow Institution", which I take to be the Glasgow Deaf and Dumb Institution, recently moved to a new building at Prospecthill Road, Langside (see this link for more): Rather alarmin
Post a Comment
Read more

Mosshead, Gartconnell, North and South Baljaffray: four lost farms north of Bearsden

Image
  I found this fascinating map on the Scotland's People website.  It is dated 1945 and was part of a series covering farmland in Scotland.  In the area I have selected above you can see Schaw House bottom right, Edgehill Road immediately to the right of that and parallel to the right of that, Gartconnell Road.  The black buildings marked on the extreme right, just above the marking "30" on the vertical side of the map, is Gartconnell Farm.  Heading north (and just below the letter C in KILPATRICK is Mosshead Farm.  Going north again to the top of the photo is South Mains Farm (still a working farm in 2024) on Craighdu Road.  Following this road left to the then crossroads (now a busy roundabout) and going straight across into what we now call Baljaffray Road you can see another two farms, North Baljaffray and South Baljaffray. All the photos are taken from air the Britain from Above website GARTCONNELL The first photo of Gartconnell is from 1928: We are looking from the
Post a Comment
Read more