|
Parish of Baldernock
Presbytery of Dumbarton, Synod of Glasgow and Ayr The following material and background information was taken from the history of Baldernock written by the Rev. John Pollock, Minister. It was published in the Statistical Account of Scotland, 1841. I-TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. Name, - The name is obviously of Celtic origin, and is supposed to be a corruption of Baldruinick, signifying Druid's-town,-a supposition which some Druidical remains in the parish render highly probable. History, so far back as the thirteenth century, mentions the Galbraiths of Bathernock, a barony in the neighbour-hood, and seemingly a corruption of the original name; which family, ending in an heiress, the estate, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, passed by marriage to David, son of Lord Hamilton, and ancestor of the late Dr Francis Hamilton. Since that time, the proprietors have taken the title of Bardowie, from their residence in the parish. When the name Baldernock was given, is uncertain; but the original boundaries were very small, till the year 1649, when the eastern half of the parish, disjoined from Campsie, was annexed quoad sacra to Baldernock. The greatest length of the parish is four miles; breadth, three miles. Boundaries - In shape, it is a very irregular, three-sided figure; bounded on the west side, by East Kilpatrick and Strathblane; on the south, by the rivers Allander and Kelvin, which, here running in different directions, the former east, the latter west, meet and blend on the lower part of the southern border of the parish, separating it from Cadder. On the side fronting north and east, it is bounded by Campsie. Few parishes exhibit a surface or soil so exceedingly diversified. It consists of three very different stages, rising from the river Kelvin on the south towards Campsie; north, tapering at the east; and widening towards the west. The first stage contains 700 or 800 acres of rich flat dark-brown loam, seemingly a deposition of vegetable mould from the higher ground, and running alongside of the Kelvin. These grounds are commonly known by the name of the Balmore Haughs, most of which are possessed by proprietors whose ancestors, in feudal time; and at a very moderate rent, feued from the House of Montrose, and resided in Balmore, but who are now, in more peaceful times, scattered along the property. The second stage gradually ascends towards the north, and is pleasantly diversified by gently swelling knolls. It contains more acres than the first, and is clay soil over till, which, being mixed with heavy clay and stones, is hard and retentive of moisture. The third, or highest stage, is at bottom a light sharp soil over whin-rock, with a few patches of croft and moss land, but towards the height is moorish ground, rising more than 300 feet above the level of the sea,-whence there is a commanding prospect in all directions, especially towards the south. The whole of the parish has a southern exposure, sloping froth north to south. Its climate is exceedingly salubrious, its inhabitants free from disease, and many of them long-lived,-the united ages of fourteen of them amounting to 1150 years. Mineralogy - The minerals are coal, lime, ironstone, of various kinds, fire-clay, pyrites, and alum-ore. The different strata of these, when undisturbed by incidental troubles, follow, at a certain angle, the general elevation of the surface, with a dip to the south or south-east, towards the bed of the Kelvin. Towards the north-west and higher grounds, these strata are cut off by the primitive rock, but, towards the east, they join and form a continuation of the extensive coal-fields of Campsie. The general thickness of the coal and lime, wrought here for more than 150 years, is between 3 and 4 feet, and commonly found from 12 to 24 feet beneath the surface, covered with a mass of argillaceous slate traversed by bands of ironstone, and immediately above the lime by a stratum of calcareous freestone, which is a roof to the mines. Till lately, the ironstone principally wrought was the common argillaceous kind, found in layers of from 3 to 7 inches thick; but lately, there has been discovered in the coal mines of Barraston, the property of Robert Hendry, Esq. a more valuable species of iron-ore, long considered peculiar to the mines near Airdrie, where it was first discovered by the ingenious Mr Mushet about thirty years ago, and proves to be a combination of iron with carbonaceous matter, but richer in metal than any ore yet analyzed in this part of the island. The fire-clay is found in a bed of from 8 to 10 feet thick, and, for many years, has been manufactured into bricks of a very superior quality, in resisting the action of the fire. The local mines afford an inexhaustible supply of pyrites and alum-ore, which has induced the Hurlet and Campsie Alum Company to establish here a copperas work, as a branch of their extensive manufacture. *Drawn up by the Rev. D. Macintyre, A. M. Parochial Teacher, during the incumbency of the late Mr McEwen.
II - Civil History The proprietors are numerous, and the soil has often changed its landlord. The principal heritors at present are, Messrs Glassford of Douglaston; Hamilton of Bardowie, Marshall of Levrockhill, Sitrling of Keir; Gray of Gelnorchard; Lennox of Woodhead; Hendry of Barraston; Gordon of Craigmaddie, &c. Parochial Registers. - The Records of session bear date 1690. The have been very irregularly kept. Antiquities - On the heights of the parish, and towards the north-west, the ruins of a tower of unknown size and antiquity, and once the mansion house of the Galbraiths of Bathernock, lie behind Cragmaddie, the seat of H. Gordon, Esq. On the farm of Blochairn, are several oblong and circular cairns, memorials of ancient feuds, were, tradition says, in a battle with the Danes one of their princes was slain. These cairns consist of heaps of loose stones thrown on a circumference, someitmes of eighty yars, beneath which are parallel roes of flags upon edge, there or four feet wide, and divided into cells, six or seven feet long, lidded with flags; and some of them contain, when opened, large coarse urns, with pieces of human bones. Near this, a mile north from the church, on the same property, are the Auldwives Lifts, consisting of three stones of similar size standing on a flat of about 100 paces in diameter, surrounded close by each other on the earth. The third, probably at first a regular parallelopiped, and still approaching that figure, is placed on the top of the other to, and is eight feel long, eleven broad, six deep, lying nearly horizontally with a small dip to the north. In a sequestered eminence, once surrounded by a grove of oaks, the stumps of which are still visable, these stones are said to resemble, in figure and position, other Druidical monuments, and their name to correspond with that of the lifted Stone Ireland, mentioned by Cambden, and those in Poitiers in France called peirres levees. III - Population The population has, for some time, been decreasing, an is still on the decline. In 1794 the population was 620. 1801 796
1811 806
1821 892
1831 805 This decrease arises from double farms, the farmers doing all by piece-work, by their children, and keeping as few servants as possible; also from the diminution of hands employed in weaving. Persons Under 15 years 279
Betwixt 15 and 30 257
30 and 50 120
50 and 70 110
above 70 39
Bachelors above 50 years 8
Widowers do. 11
Unmarried women above 45 14
Blind, insane, &c.. 12
Proprietors above L.50 per annum, 27
Inhabited houses 150
Number of Families 163
Avgerage no. of children each 2
Average no. of births 20
Avg. no. of deaths 12
Avg. no. of marriages 7
The great business is agriculture. Of the few weavers, many in harvest are thus employed, and most of their children have chosen it instead of the loom Males employed in agriculture, 90 Males employed in manufacture, 21
Male servants above 20 years, 21 In retail trade, . . 21
Female do. . 32 Professional men, . 4
Male servants under 20, 16 Others not included, . 12
Arable ground, 3100;
Wood, 240;
Roads, water, &c., 462;
Total imp. acres, 3800 Rent - Average rent of arable land per acre L.2. Cow's grass, from L.4 to L.5. There is some land, in the low grounds, rented at L.4 per acre Raw Produce - L.
Oats 584 acres, yielding 3504 bolls, at 16s. per boll 2083
Wheat 183 1464 at L.1, 8s. 2049
Barley 43 315 at L. 1, 2s 346
Potatoes 170 5950 at 11s. 3272
Beans 21 126 at 16s. 100
Pasture 1100 at L 1, 10s. per acre, 1650
Hay 335 yielding 46150 stones, at 70s. per 100 1615
Turnip 42 1260 tons, at L.1 per ton, 1260
Fallow 20 acres
L.12377 13 0 Average annual output for three years, lime and coal:
Lime, 4400 chalders, at 12s. per chalder, 2640 0 0
Coal, 7760 cart loads, five loads each, at 7d. per load, 1131 13 4
L.16149 6 4
Assuming for labour, &c. two thirds, 10766 4 2
L. 5383 2 2 The farms are small, enclosed, in the lower grounds, by hedges, and in the upper, by stone dikes. The rotation in cropping gene rally is, 1 One year's oats from lea;
2. Potatoes drilled with dung;
3. Wheat;
4. Clover and ryegrass in hay. Afterwards, pasture for two years. Draining is a good deal practised, especially where the proprietor occupies the land. In this, a few spirited landlords assist their tenants; and the drains are generally deep narrow casts filled with stones, and running into a main drain substantially built. Still much remains to be done in this way. Leases - Leases are generally for nineteen years, and are considered favourable for the farmer. The common Scots iron plough is used; but frequent cropping, and fine, not deep, furrows, render it highly probable, that the old custom of having three or four' horses yoked in the plough, instead of two, will be adopted, especially in the upper and tilly parts of the parish, as the crops are by no means so heavy as in former years. In the lower grounds, less manure and labour are necessary. Great crops are there always certain, and fallow has been known to produce twenty bolls of wheat per acre. Before the embankment of the Kelvin, all this was greatly counterbalanced by inundations, the flood-mark in the Balmore Haughs being 245 acres; but this is now greatly remedied by a substantial embankment and a tunnel on the mouth of a small rivulet running into the Kelvin from the heights, and, like the Kelvin, during very heavy and constant rains, or a rapid thaw, descending with great impetuosity, and occasioning great damage to the banks, or often breaking them. Ploughing begins early in February, and a Ploughing Society, instituted some years ago, has produced some good effects from competition. Upon the whole, however, the condition of farmers and their farms is worse than it was fifteen years ago; since which time farming has gradually deteriorated. V.-PAROCHIAL ECCONOMY. Glasgow, the nearest market-town, is seven or eight miles distant, from and to which, there is neither coach, post, nor carrier, which is against the diffusion of useful knowledge and information: letters, books, newspapers, and other communications being either not received at all, or read at an immense trouble and expense. A new line of road, leading from the Balfron line to Glasgow, through the west end of the parish, has long been talked of, is surveyed, and is soon likely to be formed There will then be two good turnpike roads, one running the length of the parish from west to east, the other the breadth of it, leading from Balfron road north, to Allander toll south-west, and thence to Glasgow. Owing to the diversified surface or the parish, many other roads are necessary, so many that it is impossible, by the conversion of the statute labour money, to keep them in repair Ecclesiastical State - The church, built in 1795, for 406 sitters, and still in good repair, is by no means conveniently situated, standing in the north-west part of the parish, a mile and a half from the centre. This is also the most thinly populated quarter, and about three miles distant from some of the parishioners. The living is 63 bolls of oat-meal, L33 in money, the Government bounty,----a manse, built in 1803, substantial and in good repair, 11 acres of glebe, and 7½ of these arable. The present incumbent, the Rev. John Pollock, was admitted in 1838. His predecessors were, the Rev. H. Moncreiff, admitted 1836; Rev. J. McEwen, 1804; Rev. Dr Cooper, admitted 1783; the Rev. Messrs Taylor, Carrick, Colquhoun, and Wallace, who was admitted at the Revolution, 1688. 72 families, 240 persons of all ages; 174 Communicants, belong to the Established Church; 30 families to Dissenters. There are 3 Episcopalians, 8 Catholics, and 30 families, that go to no place of worship Education - The parish schoolmaster has the legal accommodation, and the maximum salary. The school is sufficiently commodious, and within reach of the whole parish, being a mile nearer the centre than the church; but the ill repair and dangerous state of some of the roads, render it unavailable to many. Reading, writing, and a little arithmetic, constitute the whole of the education of the people. Most of the children get little time even for these, and there is no great desire for more. The average number of scholars is 50 The parish contributed L.50 to the Lunatic Asylum in 1813, and previously to the Infirmary of Glasgow, to which they have the common right. The Baldernock Humane Friendly Society was instituted in 1783; approved of by an extraordinary general meeting, March 28, 1809; confirmed according to Act of Parliament, and has a stock of L.500. Late decisions, finding members liable for life, and compelling some, who had withdrawn, to pay up accounts, while they have retained many members contrary to their own inclination, have induced others to keep back; and entrance to the society is now rare. This society has been a blessing to many, and, were it encouraged, would continue to be much more so than it is. Poor - The poor's roll has, for some time, been on the increase. The average number of paupers, for the last three years, has been 18; average sum to each, L. 4 per annum. The funds are, L. 20 per annum, being interest on bond of L. 500, accumulated by donations and savings, and average collections per annum, L.16, 10s. 9d.; annual expense, L. 64; annual income, L. 36, 10s. deficiency, L.27, 9s. 3d Fairs - Bardowie fair is held 6th June, for sale of milk cows, and showing stallions. It is the only parish fair, and it has almost dwindled to a shadow. Ale-houses - There are seven ale-houses in the parish, and a distillery erected some years ago. Fuel - Fuel is supplied from the coalworks in the parish, with a very few exceptions, where it is got from the neighbourhood of Glasgow by the Canal. February 1841
|
