Camlachie, Lanarkshire

Historical Description

CAMLACHIE, for a time a quoad sacra parish, including the village of Parkhead, in the parish of BARONY, suburbs of the city of GLASGOW, county of LANARK; containing 3654 inhabitants, of whom 2152 are in the village of Camlachie, 1½ mile (E.) from Glasgow. Camlachie parish comprised, besides the two villages, a rural district containing a few acres of well-cultivated land. On the bank of the river Clyde are the handsome mansions of Belvidere and Westthorn, both of modern erection, and commanding fine prospects. The village is in general indifferently built, the houses being mostly in the old style, with low ceilings and small windows. The art of letter-founding was introduced, and brought to great perfection, by Mr. Alexander Wilson, afterwards professor of astronomy in the university of Glasgow, who, removing from St. Andrew's to this place, established a foundry here, which was subsequently transferred to Glasgow. The population are almost exclusively employed in handloom weaving, and the manufacture of muslins, and in the immediate vicinity are several coal-mines, of which, however, one only is in operation, for the supply of the district. In the village of Parkhead is a post-office, under that of Glasgow. The parish was formed in 1838; the church is a neat structure, erected by the Church-Building Society of Glasgow, who now let it to a Free Church congregation.