Rutherglen Heritage Society
AGM 29th. April 2021
Report by the Convener on the Activities of the Society 2020/2021
2020 Priorities
The items discussed as priorities for 2020 at the Management Committee Meeting held immediately after the last AGM were held in abeyance due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Management Committee Meetings
Five meetings were conducted online, mostly via Zoom.
Rutherglen Mining Memorial and A History of Coal Mining in Rutherglen and Cambuslang
These two projects were materially impacted by the pandemic, although the mining history book was printed. Construction, installation and unveiling of the mining memorial will proceed when circumstances permit, as will the launch and distribution of the mining history book.
External and Community Activities
We attended meetings of Lanarkshire Heritage Forum held online. We were to host the October meeting of the LHF, but this was postponed, as were the annual Landemer Day celebrations in June at which we normally take a stall. A talk on the subject of Rutherglen Then and Now which we were due to give to East Kilbride History Society in May, was postponed indefinitely.
Clyde Gateway expressed great interest in our idea of erecting a display board showing information about the boundary stones and will give consideration to reproduction boundary stones being placed at Toryglen to replace some of those lost there over time.
Membership
During the year, we welcomed 7 new members, taking our total membership to 17 people, an increase of 7 since the last AGM. All of those who applied for membership this year did so via our website.
Website
As our external activities were curtailed this year, much time was devoted to expanding the content of the website. New articles added include features on Overtoun Park, Rutherglen’s Horse Fairs, Clydebridge Steelworks, Bankhead Pond and Rutherglen Academy’s Ballads Club. Many thanks to all those who contributed material and to those who assisted with editing. An Editorial Sub-Committee was established to review material submitted for inclusion on the website.
Victorian public health pioneer James Burn Russell, cricketer Archie Jackson and John Brown Wishart, DCM, were added to our Famous Ruglonians section. The largest piece added to the website was a feature on Rutherglen’s boundary stones and burgesses based on information from a notebook belonging to Jasper Brown, Town Officer for Rutherglen in the 1920s. A sub-committee which met online, was established for that project.
Our website had 5,054 visits in the year to 31st. March 2021, compared to 2,735 the previous year. 89% of this year’s visits came from within the UK, the remainder originating largely from Australia followed by the USA and Canada. The website has 127 subscribers, an increase of 94 during the year. The top three most visited pages were: 1. A-Z of Rutherglen Then and Now, 2. Famous Ruglonians and 3. Whites Chemical Company.
David Jackson
We were saddened by the death of David Jackson who passed away unexpectedly on 3rd. November. David was an ex-member of the Heritage Society and had an unrivalled knowledge of the history of Rutherglen. An obituary was placed on our website.
Carrick McDonald
Convener, Rutherglen Heritage Society. 29th. April 2021
In February, we had an article about local burgesses printed in the Rutherglen Reformer (picture left). In March, we provided information about boundary stones to author Stephen Millar for inclusion in his forthcoming book Secret Glasgow.
Also in March, we contacted Clyde Gateway regarding their proposed creation of a community park at Toryglen and expansion of the existing Malls Mire Community Woodland, making them aware that there were boundary stones in the development area.
