What's New
These are summaries of recent articles added to the website.
Click on the blue link to go to the relative page.
April 2024
Local History Programmes on CamGlen Radio
The series of local history programmes on CamGlen Radio entitled Halfway to Burgh has been running since 2017. We've added links on our website to enable you to listen to programmes in the series.
February 2024
History of Blairbeth House
Prompted by a request from Australia by the last resident of Blairbeth House, this is the story of one of Rutherglen’s vanished mansions, from its construction in the 1790s to its demolition in the 1950s.
It focuses through time, on the lives of the house’s colourful occupants, which included a leading Georgian silversmith, a Victorian lighthouse builder and the manager of Glasgow’s first department store. Click here.
November 2023
Rev. William Black
To mark Remembrance Day this year, this is the story of Rev. William Black who became minister at the Munro Church in Rutherglen on the eve of the Great War. He became a Chaplain to the Cameron Highlanders and was killed in action in 1917. To read Rev. Black's story and to find out something of the history of the Munro Church, Click here..
October 2023
Rutherglen Mining Memorial
After several delays due to Covid and other factors, Rutherglen's mining memorial was finally unveiled last week. The unveiling event was a great success. Click here to find out how the day went. The article contains some great pictures and a video of the unveiling.
September 2023
Boundary Stones in Overtoun Park
Two Heritage Society members had ownership of three Rutherlgen boundary stones which had become displaced from their original locations many years ago. We decided that these stones be located permanently in Overtoun Park, and we completed this exercise on 4th. September. We put a blog entry about this on the website. Click here to read it:
August 2023
Pte. Alexander Watt
Alex Elliott of Tempe, near Phoenix, Arizona, tells the story of his grandfather Alexander Hunter Watt of Rutherglen. Wounded at the Battle of Arras while serving with the Royal Scots in the Great War, Pte. Watt survived to serve his country again in World War II as a member of the Civil Defence Corps. Click here to read the article.
May 2023
Our Annual Report
The Heritage Society's 2023 AGM was held on 20th. April at which the Convener's annual report was submitted to the members. This illustrated report summarises the diverse activities which we undertook in the 12 months to the end of March 2023. We have placed a copy of the report on the website. Click here to read it.
April 2023
Sgt. William Beattie
Clyde FC historians Gordon Sydney and Gordon Mason tell the story of the only player for the club to be killed in World War II. Click here to read about Sgt. William Beattie.
History of Scottish Milestones Talk by Bruce Keith
Author Bruce Keith gave a talk in Rutherglen Library to the Heritage Society about the history of Scottish milestones and waymarkers on 28th. March.
Click here to read the blog page.
March 2023
Boundary Stones Survey 2022/2023
The Heritage Society has just finished its latest inspection of the boundary stones which remain around Rutherglen. To find out how it went and to see photos of some of the boundary stones we took during the inspection Click here
Police History Talk by George Barnsley
George Barnsley of the Lanarkshire Police Historical Society gave a talk in Rutherglen Library to the Heritage Society about the History of Policing in Lanarkshire on 23rd. February.
Click here to read the blog page.
The son of Air Marshal Sir Harry Burton sent us some photographs of his father which we have added to his Famous and Notable Ruglonians web page.
Click here to see the updated web page.
January 2023
Football History Talk by Robert Harvey
A blog about Robert Harvey's football history talk given in Rutherglen Library on 19th. January 2023. Click here to read the blog page.
December 2022
Rutherglen Reformer and Cambuslang Journal Football Match Reports 1876-1886
This is a true labour of love by Robert Harvey of Football Memories Scotland. A football man to his core, Robert spent many hours scouring the archives in Glasgow's Mitchell Library, seeking out reports of football matches in the formative years of football in Scotland. These have been compiled into a book.
This was in an era when visiting teams were referred to as 'the strangers', and was before the establishment of the Scottish Football League in 1890. .
Click here to view an electronic copy of the book.
November 2022
10th. Anniversary of Rutherglen Heritage Society
2022 is the 10th. anniversary of the foundation of Rutherglen Heritage Society. This article looks back at the early years of the Society and includes contributions from some of its founding members along with some excellent archive photographs. This is a slightly expanded version of the feature which appeared in the Rutherglen Reformer on 12th. October 2022.
Click here to read this article.
Background map by Charles Ross, 1773, reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland