Introduction
The M74 Completion Archaeological Mitigation project comprised of a phased programme of archaeological works undertaken in advance of the construction of the M74 Completion Project across the south side of Glasgow and in South Lanarkshire. This work was undertaken by HAPCA, a joint venture comprising Headland Archaeology Ltd and Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd. The project was divided into Phases and Work Packages.
Phase 1 comprised a programme of Historic Building Recording of 12 sites along the route of the new motorway.
Phase 2 comprised a 9 month programme of archaeological mitigation works undertaken between July 2007 and April 2008 including a series of evaluation (WP2) and subsequent excavation (WP3), three large scale open area excavations at the site of the South Laurieston Tenements (WP4), The Govan Iron Works (WP5) and the former Caledonian Pottery Works, Rutherglen (WP6). An oral history and public archaeology programme were run in tandem with the excavations and continue until 2009. This programme includes exhibitions, a publicly accessible archive centre, activities for children, a schools outreach programme, workshops and talks.
Phase 1 – Historic Building Recording
The sites were mostly 19th century and industrial in nature. Each site was photographed to record the external appearance of any buildings and the general setting.
The sites were:- Site 7 Gallowflat Railway Goods Station; Site 13 Southcroft Football Park; Site 31 St Andrews Works ; Site 35 Leyland Motor Works; Site 46 Eglinton Engine Works; Site 50 Smith Chemical; Site 57 Kilbirnie Street Motor Works; Site 65 Site of Fullarton House; Site 80 Marine Engineering; Site 107 Copper Works and Site 108 Eastfiled Ropery.
More intensive and detailed recording to various levels also took place at a number of sites which were to be demolished. Several of these sites were later subject to evaluation or excavation.
Phase 2 – Mitigation Works
Work Package 2/3 – Archaeological evaluation and subsequent excavations
Archaeological trial trenching was undertaken within ten land parcels along the route of the M74 extension.
These were:
In Tradeston - tenement houses and a public house (LP1); tenement buildings along Gloucester Street/Scotland Street/Kinning Street and a Engine Works and a subsequent Biscuit Factory (LP2); a row of tenement buildings on Kinning Street and the Kingston Lime Works (LP3); detached town houses with formal gardens, the Caledonia Foundry and other industrial premises (LP4); a railway carriage shed, connected to the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway (LP5).
In Port Eglinton - a section of the Eglinton Canal (LP6); Falfield Cotton Mills and the St. Mungo Soap Works (LP7); the Stromness public house (LP8); tenement houses (LP9).
At Fullarton: - the formal gardens of Fullerton Houses ( LP10).
The results of this program of trial trenching led into open area excavation of a number of the land parcels.
LP2 - The Kinning Street Engine Works and the subsequent development by the Kingston Biscuit Factory. Little archaeological evidence for the existence of the Kinning St. Engine Works was recovered during the excavation but the Kingston Biscuit Factory was better preserved with the layout of the factory identified.
LP3 - The Kingston Lime Works and the Kinning Street row of tenements. The general layout of the Lime Works was confirmed and two lime kiln bases were fully excavated. In the south-east corner of the site was a brass foundry built prior to the First World War. The Kinning Street tenements survived only as foundations and services.
LP4 - The Caledonia Foundry and the McOnie Engine Works. Excavation confirmed the layout and sequence of the two works and revealed a number of industrial structures and deposits.
LP7 - The Falfield Cotton Mill, the mill owner’s residence and the later St Mungo Soap Works. The internal layout and extension of the mill owner’s house, the significant expansion of the weaving shed and the technological development of the engine and boiler house were identified. In the south-west of the site a cobbled yard area and a building containing two bases for vats, possibly associated with the St Mungo Soap Works, were identified as marked on the Second Edition OS map of 1898.
Work Package 4 – The South Laurieston Tenements
An open area excavation was conducted on the site of tenements located between Devon Street and Turriff Street. The tenements had been demolished between 1960 and 1980. The documentary and historical map evidence detailed an early (pre 1860) flatted housing block and, among the later buildings, the Queen’s Park Terrace Tenements which were designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson.
The archaeological remains survived only at foundation and basement level with most of the Queen’s Park Terrace tenements having been ”grubbed out” during their demolition in 1980. The remains of the pre-1860 flats were located along with the later MacKinley, Devon and Pollokshaws Street tenements blocks. In addition, a series of out buildings, workshops and stores were recorded in the back courts with indications of original and improved sanitation installations. The western part of the site had been partly quarried and backfilled prior to the development of the tenements.
Work Package 5 – The Govan Ironworks
Excavations at the Govan Ironworks comprised three separate sites. The two areas located within the site of the former Govan Ironworks were; the Lower English Buildings (two rows of workers cottages) and the Foundry. The third site lay immediately to the west of Cathcart Road, along the western boundary of the main site.
The Govan Ironworks were established in the 1830s by William Dixon of Calder for the manufacture of bar iron and the production of iron castings for steam engines and general engineering products. The Foundry is likely to have developed at the same time.
The Lower English Buildings were cottage style accommodation for the workers, presumably built around the same time as the foundry. Both the Lower English Buildings and the Foundry are shown in some detail on the First Edition OS town plan of 1857/8. The Second Edition OS town plan (1892-4) shows the Lower English Buildings but not the Foundry, suggesting it had ceased operations by this date.
On the west side of Cathcart Road the early maps depicted two putatively domestic properties. It is likely that this land was also in the ownership of the Dixon family.
The Lower English Buildings
Excavations revealed two rows of housing; a long row of approximately 15 cottages to the north and three buildings containing four cottages each to the south of the site. All the cottages were single story with two rooms, each with a hearth and a box bed. In addition three circular brick washhouses and three hand-pumps were excavated in the central area running between the two rows of buildings.
To the east of the site there was a service yard with a cobbled floor, stables and barns.
During its latest phase this site appears to have been used as a training ground for the Army in World War II. Small amounts of munitions were uncovered during excavation and several of the cottages appear to have been modified into shelter-type structures.
The cottages are thought to have been named in relation to the experienced English workers who were moved to Glasgow to head the Works. Oral history combined with the archaeological evidence has given invaluable insight into the mixed ethnicity of the occupants of the buildings and their social-cultural background.
The Foundry
The primary build of the Foundry occurred in the 1830’s included a complex of structures. A flue/duct system was constructed prior to the main buildings which re-cycled gas produced from the coke kilns to power machinery on site.
Major structures identified included evidence of a bank of coke kilns shown on the First Edition OS map, a Moulding Shop contained two cupola furnaces, several machine bases and a sand moulding floor for castings and a Turning Shop contained the remains of a possible finishing pit, brick-lined structure used to house a large lathe for finishing casts.
The Boiler Shop and Smithy both contained a series of small brick built smithy pits.
Cathcart Road West
The archaeological features at Cathcart Road West can broadly be placed into three main phases:
Phase 1 - A series of retaining walls were identified. The area may have been the gardens or light industry area for the main household of the Dixon’s, which was located just to the north of the site’s boundary.
Phase 2 - One large building is shown on the site on the First Edition OS map of 1857. The excavation identified only one room of this building with a second building identified immediately to the north.
Phase 3 - Later map editions and archaeological evidence appear to show the “making down” of these properties, that is a process of piecemeal sub-division and addition, perhaps associated with conversion to more commercial uses.
Work Package 6 – The Caledonian Pottery Works
The archaeological excavation of the former Caledonian Pottery Works at Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire comprised open area excavation of the factory buildings and trenching through the pottery dumps located to the rear of the factory.
The Caledonian Pottery company moved to Farmeloan Road, Rutherglen in 1870 and constructed a purpose built pottery factory adjacent to what is now the west coast mainline railway. The large scale industrial factory had railway sidings to bring raw materials in and take finished products out, workshops, packing yards, banks of kilns and an area to the rear of the factory reserved for the dumping of mis-fired pots and ashes. The firm traded under the name Murray & Co and at the time of the move was producing a large range of stoneware and earthenware items. The pottery was largely demolished in 1928.
Murray appears to have been a highly innovative owner and from the time of the Pottery’s move to Rutherglen had carried out experiments on using coal gas to fire the kilns. The main drive for the construction of gas-fired pottery kilns was the massive reduction in coal use and potential increased productivity of the works. In 1892 a patent was granted for continuous gas fired kiln system.
The excavations identified the complete complex of workshops, yards, railway sidings, clay processing tanks, boiler rooms, steam engines and several phases of kiln development and building. There was clear evidence for the gas fired kiln system shown in the patent.
To the rear of the factory the pottery waster dumps identified clear episodes of dumping of mis-fired pottery and fuel waste for the life time of the factory. These dumps were approximately 6 metres in depth and spread back across the entire land not occupied by the pottery buildings. New products and export markets have been identified from the material recovered from the dumps.
