History
History Cambuslang Park
Cambuslang Park dates back to 1913 and in 2013 will celebrate it’s 100 year birthday!!!
If you walk through the park you will come across various items that show the date of the park ranging from the dove coute to the war monument to soldiers who lost their lives in the first world war and the actual statue is modelled on the first soldier killed. The band stand area has been recognised for it’s uniqueness and the woodland area is home to some exciting and rare species not to mention the natural amphitheatre that is in the park’s ground and the preaching braes.
Girls Face
In the park there is a carving of a girls face. The story is that the girl fell and was killed, her father was so bereft that he carved her image in the rock. If you have any information, photographs of the face or stories please get in touch with us and we will add it to the page
May 2009 - Some information has come to us regarding the carving - the story was told that the girl was playing tennis and that she went to retrieve the ball, fell over and was killed. The carving apparently was quite new in 1930
Borgie Glen
The Borgie Glen, is a tree lined ravine, containing a network of pathways
Drinking from the Borgie Well for some was considered a dangerous thing to do since it was reputed to bestow rather than cure madness
A drink from the Borgie, A bite of the weed
Sets a’ the Cams’lang fouk, Wrang in the Heid
The Borgie Well stone reads:
The Borgie Well here, Ran Many a Year
Wells wane away
------ ------
Brief too—man’s stay
Our race alone abides
As burns purl on
With mirth or moan
Old ocean with its tides
Pace longest day
Join hands and say
(Here where once flowed the well)
“We hold the grip, Friends don’t let slip
The Bonnie Borgie Dell”
Come guard this dell and guard this stone
Because, because both are your own
1879
The Work / Wark
“The Cambuslang Work or ‘Wark’ in the Scots language, (February to November 1742) was a period of extraordinary religious activity, in Cambuslang, Scotland. The event peaked in August 1742 when a crowd of some 30,000 gathered in the ‘preaching braes’ – a natural amphitheatre next to the Kirk at Cambuslang – to hear the great preacher George Whitefield call them to repentance and conversion to Christ. It was intimately connected with the similar remarkable revivalist events taking place throughout Great Britain and its American Colonies in New England, where it is known as The First Great Awakening.”
“The Minister of Cambuslang was an unlikely person to have organised this remarkable event. He was Mr William M’Cullogh. Early on in his career as a Minister he had confessed to a friend that he envied those who had felt called or converted to Christ. To him these feelings were completely alien. In addition although he was an extremely learned and studious person and conscientious pastor to his congregation, he was no great preacher.”
Reference: Above article taken from Wikipedia
Reverend William M’Culloch
“The M’Cullogh Manuscripts are considered by historians to be Scotland’s first oral – history project, according to Beebe. Complied by Reverend William M’Cullough, the 1,300 page, two volume text is a collection of first-person conversion narratives given in 1741-42 by 108 subjects of the Scottish ‘School of Awakening.’ The narratives provide a unique perspective from which to understand the spirituality of laity and clergy in 18th century Scotland.
Reference: Above article taken from WhitworthUniversity Press Release – Beebe 2006 Graves Award
A Cairn was erected to comemorate the above event - the plaque reads
Preaching Braes
Site of ‘Cambuslang Wark’
the great religious revival of 1742 .
In this place the Methodist
evangelist, George Whitefield
led congregations of many
thousands in prayer and worship
Friends of Cambuslang Park
March 2008
Please read below to find out general historical facts about the Cambuslang area
- Looking up to the Cross
- Looking down from the Cross
Cambuslang Mining
Not only has coal been mined in the local area but also a form of limestone known as Cambuslang Marble,
“The marble is interstratified with some of the coal seems at a depth of 200 feet. It has a beautiful dark grey or dark brown colour with whitish streaks and spots and is capable of a very high polish allowing it to be used for ornamental purposes.”
Reference: Above article taken from WhitworthUniversity Press Release – Beebe 2006 Graves Award
Cambuslang History
Cambuslang's name may be derived from its location on the banks of a large bend on the River Clyde. Cambus literally means bend of the water in Scots and lang means long. It may also mean long bay - the bend in the Clyde was once the highest tidal bay on the river before a weir was built at Glasgow more than 100 years ago.
The Latin derivation of lang suggests a curved bank of a fast moving stream and the Old Parish Church was built on such a bank of the Kirk Burn that flows into the Clyde a mile or so down river. The rectangular parish church, with its square central tower, also stands on a hill - the Anglo-Saxon Camb means a crest or ridge. Designed by Edinburgh architect David Cousin, the 'B' listed building, which has an impressive vaulted interior and curved gallery supported on cast-iron columns, was built in the Kirkhill area between 1839 and 1841 on the site of previous churches dating back as far as the 1680s. Construction of the chancel was started in 1919 to a design by Peter MacGregor Chalmers and was completed in 1922.
Going back further in time, it has been suggested that Cambuslang is near where King Arthur won the the sixth of his 12 famous battles around 508AD, as described in the ninth century Historia Brittonum, written by Welsh scholar Nennius. Cambuslang is also supposedly where King Arthur killed the outlawed sons of Caw, a local enemy of Arthur who was also buried here after his own death.
Of the few historical sites in the area, the most notable is probably Gilbertfield Castle, which was built by the Hamilton family in the early 17th century near Dechmont hill to the south of Cambuslang in the ancient barony of Drumsagard. By the 18th century it was owned by the retired soldier William Hamilton of Gilbertfield who translated the famous poem Sir William Wallace by Blind Harry from old Scots into English. The Braveheart movie starring Mel Gibson was based on the epic poem which was written in 1477, 172 years after Wallace was executed in the Smithfield area of London.
Another historic but less well known event was the evangelical phenomenon, the Cambuslang Wark in 1742. This was a massive religious event started by the local parish minister, Mr McCulloch, whose parishioners believed that a special outpouring of the Divine Spirit had taken place. Over a six month period, more than 30,000 people, many of them not even religious, flocked to the area to hear several thousand speakers.
Around this time the population was primarily weavers, colliers, masons and agricultural labourers but with the coming of the industrial revolution it became a major centre of heavy industry with coal mining, textiles and iron manufacturing. Along with most of the rest of the country, heavy industry died off in the second half of the 20th century but in the 1980s the town saw the start of a redevelopment of its derelict industrial areas, with the establishment of an Investment Park, South Lanarkshire College and Scotland's first indoor kart-racing track.
Taken from Community Matters Website
