Nae Streets in Drumchapel - Glasgow Life

INTRODUCTION
This book was written to celebrate 60 years of Drumchapel.
Camstradden Primary School and Glasgow Life Communities
created a Family Learning Group to develop a book on children’s
play and games from 1953 to 2013.
Stories have been written by present day residents of
Drumchapel, children of Camstradden primary school and we
have been lucky enough to get memories from folk who have
moved away and settled as far away as Singapore, Australia,
Hyndland and Ruchill!
We were delighted to be able to visit Drumry House and speak
to some of the older residents and gather their stories for the
book as well.
We have also been lucky enough to have James Kelman write a
short story about his time as a boy in a Drumchapel
We hope you enjoy the book and the fond memories of living and
playing in “ The Drum “.
3

GILLIAN’S DAD 1953
I moved to Drumchapel in 1953. It was like moving to the
country. It was surrounded by woods and fields and there were
still working farms on the go.
I was at secondary school and used to have to take the steam
train back to Hyndland Secondary School, as no secondary
schools had been built in Drumchapel in the early days.
All the boys wanted to do was play football and we did have
school teams. But here we were in all this open space and we
weren’t allowed to play football in the street. Of course boys
being boys we did anyway and ended up being chased by the
police on a Vespa scooter. They didn’t catch us though!
KINGSRIDGE SCHOOL TEAM CIRCA 1956
4

Drumchapel was still being built and there were lots of ancient
things being found in the ground. I remember my neighbour
David Hayman, (the actor); found a flintlock near where we
stayed
We used to go off on our bikes for the whole day up to the
reservoir or off to Faifley Golf Course.
We used to go off ferreting and fishing but at that time one of
the most popular hobbies for boys was collecting bird’s eggs. Of
course being in the Drum we were in the country.
Once we found a nest we’d climb the tree and take the eggs out
and put them in our mouth so they didn’t get broken when we
climbed back down. We’d wrap them in rabbit skin and take
them home and try to find out what kind of egg it was.
5

MY GRANDA’S STORY
I was 11 or 12 when I
moved to Drumchapel. I
stayed in Kerry Place.
I used to play with a
Gird and Cleek.
I’d go up to the Bluebell
Woods or into the
Garscube Estate and play. There was a big house, which had
about 20 or 30 rooms in it. The house was where the Linkwood
flats now stand. The entrance to the estate was on Drumchapel
Rd where the Donald Dewar Centre now stands. The gates to
the estate were called the Girnin’ Gates. A house stood just
inside the estate, which I take it, was for the grounds keeper.
The estate ran down into Knightswood where the pitches are.
Lady Garscube owned the estate. There used to be a burn
where the park in Kinfauns Drive is now.
There were no schools in the area. We had to go to school in the
west and northwest of Glasgow. It was only the primary age
children who got buses laid on to take them to and from school.
Some went to Northpark Street Primary in Maryhill, Whiteinch
Primary, Yoker Primary and also Temple Primary.
The secondary age kids got passes for the bus or train. There
was only one bus that went into part of Drumchapel which came
up Maxwell Avenue and down into Dalsetter Avenue where it
terminated. If that didn’t suit we would either walk to the train
station or walk to the Boulevard Roundabout for a bus and the
same on the way back from school. The first school to be built
was Drumry Primary.
6

There were no shops either. People had to rely on butchers,
grocers, fish, bakers and
fruit and veg vans to get
their shopping until the
first shops were built in
Ladyloan Place.
The first café was in
Linkwood. It was called
Clellands Café where the
teenagers would hang out
and listen to the jukebox. The owners had a daughter who was a
former Miss Scotland, Liz Clelland.
Behind Drumry Road was a farm and brick works. It was
demolished and they built Beatties Biscuits Factory, now also
gone.
St Lawrence’s Chapel hall used to run bingo nights a couple of
nights a week and the proceeds went towards the chapel being
built.
Alistair Gillies was the dentist at the bottom of Achamore Road.
He was also a well-known Gaelic signer who was on TV and sang at
the Mod.
When I was 14 I went to the BB. I also went to bible classes
and I used to be a Sunday school teacher in Halgreen while I was
still at school.
I left Drumchapel when I was in my early twenties.
Chloe Gibney Primary 7 2013
7

When I was younger
When I moved to Drumchapel in 1955 the first thing I noticed
was wide-open spaces, it was like being in the country after
leaving a single-end in Partick.
I fell in love with it from day one. I lived at 132 Drummore
Road. We had a great big field and The Bluebell Wood just
facing us.
One of our great pastimes was playing shops in the field. We
used to get flowers, old tin cans, empty packets of food and
anything else we could find. We'd wrap them in newspaper and
sell them to our friends. Of course we didn't use real money we
used stones and the shop that took in the most stones were the
winners.
A summer favourite was having a concert in the back, we would
rehearse for weeks. Some would, sing some dance, some would
say a poem, and the adults would come and watch us. We charged
3d to get in which included refreshments a glass of diluting
orange and the money was sent to charity, well what was left of
it.
In the wet weather we played up the closes, the
neighbours didn’t mind when we played nice with our dolls and
prams but that when that got boring the balls would come out
and we would play against the walls and sing all the wee rhymes
until Mrs Smith would come out shouting
“My man’s on night shift, go and play in your own close" and that
was the end of that, back out to play in the rain.
8

Hide n seek in the Bluebell Woods
9

Irene Shedden
I moved to Drumchapel in 1956 from Partick where we lived in a
one bedroom flat.
When we got to Drumchapel it was absolute paradise. There
were 18 children in my close, which meant there was always
someone to play with.
During the summer we would play outside and in Drumchapel
there were lots of places to play. There was always a game of
rounders going on somewhere with kids coming and going from
the teams as their mammys shouted them in for their tea.
Other outside games we would play were beds, using a peever,
(polished stone), hide and seek and kick the can.
My sister and I used to get one of my mum’s old stockings and
put a tennis ball right down into the foot and tie the stocking at
the top. We’d then stand against a wall and bash the stocking up
and down and from side to side, trying not to hit anyone at the
same time!
A really big thing for the girls was ‘scraps’. Swapping different
scraps for others.
10

My sister and I got a comic each every week. I got Girls Crystal
and my sister got Schoolfriend.
At home we often played cards and board games. I remember
we once had a game going on for 3 weeks. It only stopped
because mum needed the table back!
One of the strange things about Drumchapel at that time was
that there were no secondary schools built in the scheme. All
the kids travelled back to their old school and at Westland Drive
School, the boys would only go in the morning and the girls in the
afternoon. Unfortunately that didn’t last very long.
As well as no secondary schools there were also no shops. There
were plenty of vans though. There was the fish van, Co-op,
grocery and a barbers van, although when the barbers van
appeared all the boys disappeared!
Drumchapel was a good place to move to. There was a great
social life for parents and children; parents hanging out windows
and verandas, chatting away to each other or watching one of
the many ‘close concerts’.
11

The Livingstone Family 1960
Christine, Brian, Keni, and Julie-Ann
We lived in Drumchapel from 1960 until 1982 when we managed to buy
our own place. Firstly we stayed in 9 Airgold Drive, then at the bottom
of Inchfad Drive and finally in Cally Ave across from St Pius
Secondary School.
Julie-Anne went to St Pius Primary and remembers that the janitor's
wife used to make cakes on Fridays and she'd hand them out as they
left school. She also remembers the bakery that was next to the fruit
and veg shop on the corner in the shopping centre - we can't
remember the name of it.
The City Bakeries was along at the other end next to the bank. There
was also a hairdresser that used to be around the corner and up the
stairs. She also remembers her Granda taking her to play on the
rocket in the park at Hecla Ave end. She remembers playing Kirby and
3 sticks in the street; she loved the Chinese restaurant at the shops
and her Granda taking her to the chippy whilst waiting on her Gran
coming out of the bingo.
Used to love going over to the estate (it used to be the Garscadden
estate) - we rolled our eggs at Easter, we sledged in winter and played
there all times in between. As it was at the end of the street it was
the nearest open space to play on. There also used to be a frog pond
roughly where the old folk's home is at corner of Kinfauns Drive and
Garscadden Rd - It was a sad day when they began digging it all up to
build the high flats though we did have lots of fun playing in the lifts
and trying to avoid the caretaker!
The Garscadden burn turned into a swamp around that point too - at
least that's what we called it when we were children. There was an old
ruin at the top of the hill at Linkwood Ave and it apparently was a
crypt for the owners of the estate but I'm sure there was a grave
12

too of someone's dog. Though it was a long time ago.... the stories we
used to make up about it. Unfortunately I also remember that it used
to be used as a toilet....yuck!
The Clinic - we used to go to the mothers club there. I guess it must
have been similar to mother and toddler and playgroup and there was
a large rocking horse in the main room at the entrance. Even when we
went there for vitamins and orange juice, we made a beeline for that
horse. The mothers used to go to a show every year in January -
Francie and Josie or a pantomime or something and I got to go too as
it was always around my birthday. I was at primary school then and it
made me feel so grown up!
We played games in the street - Kick the Can, Kirby, British Bulldogs
and the usual things like chap the door and run away. We also played
hide and seek, Cowboys and Indians and Cops and robbers. We'd get
homemade stilts; our dads would have to make them with wood but
we'd also get tin cans with ropes through them and use them too.
We'd play skipping ropes in the street and balls in the back close as
well as at school. There were other games we played (mostly girls)
that are kind of hard to describe. Like 'in and out these dusty
bluebells', 'I was going to the country, I was going to the fair' and
lots of others I can't remember the name of, but we had great fun.
At Halloween we all went out with our friends around the houses as all
the neighbours knew each other we weren't supervised - we had so
much freedom... and on Guy Fawkes night, after all the kids would have
been going around the bonfires stealing what others had so ours would
be the biggest and the best (oh the fights that caused!), the families
would gather together and we'd have fireworks and put potatoes in to
bake.
I remember when Coopers (later Fine Fare and many others) was at
the front of the shops in the shopping centre and upstairs it had a
cafeteria and it was such a treat to be taken there. John Menzies was
13

at the front too and upstairs was where the records were and you
could get the shop assistant to put one on and you would go into a
booth to listen to it.
This is Keni in the back green of 33 Fettercairn Avenue where
Gran lived in 1957
I used to love going to The Bluebell Woods- behind Peel Glen area,
with my friends; it was carpeted in bluebells and we'd pick bunches of
them to take home. It always felt like we had gone miles away into the
country and it was even better because we weren't supposed to go
there!
I remember when the swimming baths opened. We'd go there all the
time, especially in the holidays. Before they opened we'd either have
to go to the old ones in Whiteinch or Clydebank. It was amazing to
have a pie and beans in the cafe when we came out!
The 'shows' used to come during the holidays too. They used to be
behind the shops on Dunkenny Road before they were extended from
Arnotts up to the bingo then moved over to behind the Swimming
Baths later. They were the place to be and be seen as teenagers! ! !
What memories...
14

Tracy’s Mum – 1960s
When my mum was younger she used to play scraps in the
playground. She said it was fairy’s cottages, cherubs etc and you
used to look at each others books and put to the top of the book
which scrap you used to want to swap with. She also said that
they used to cause a lot of fights because some went missing.
When she was home she used to play round the middens and pull
out all the empty tins and bottles and play shops.
Also when she was younger she
used to play with a whip and
peerie. It was like a spinning
top and she used to put it on
the ground and hit it with a
whip.
She sometimes used to race
her friends with theirs along the street. She also used to play
marbles by placing the marbles in the holes of the stanks and
trying to hit the marbles out using other marbles. She used to
swap them with her friends too.
15

Our beach 1970s
Growing up, up the hill we played over in the fields; and down at
our beach. This was a sand pit down by the burn. Our beach was
so much fun we had buckets and spades. We built forts, dug
tunnels and had moats with water from the burn. We pretended
the burn was the sea, full of big fish and boats. We paddled in
the burn as well. We would catch stickleback fish; collect
mussels for their shells to put on our sandcastles.
We would also play over the field on what we called the Roman
Wall, which was a wall of big boulders. We would race up and
down the wall jumping from boulder to boulder then at the
bottom we would jump over the burn.
Living up the hill
we also played
round the water
tower that we
pretended was a
space ship.
We played round the backs at hopscotch or jumping from dyke
to dyke. We would climb on the coalbunkers and dreapy down
the other side. Sometimes we would pretend the bunkers were
shops or houses. We had a big seesaw, which my mum would put
out in the summer for us and we made swings on the washing
poles with rope and a cushion.
16

Games Outside
1970s
Outside we played skipping with ropes. Sometimes one rope or
two ropes together, chinkies – elastics tied together, marbles,
balls, football, tree climbing, peever/beds, chases, rounders,
jacks, Kirby and scraps. We played in the street and the school
as well as over the fields down the burn and sandpit. Jumping
dykes was also something we did as well as swimming.
We had a big tree in our front garden, which we climbed to the
top pretending to be monkeys.
We sang songs while skipping and playing elastics, jacks or five
stones and a small bouncy ball. Threw the jacks in the air,
bounced the ball and caught the jacks on the back of our hand.
17

We also played in the swing park with our dolls and prams or on
our bikes. In the winter we slid down the big hill towards the
sand pit on sledges if it was snowing. We played outside every
day unless it was very heavy rain. Then we played inside. We
played board games, Cludo, Ludo, cards/snap, Scrabble, Snakes
and Ladders as well as with our dolls.
We read as well;
books and comics.
We used to get the
Bunty, Tammy,
Mandy, Misty,
Beezer, Dandy,
Valiant and War
Lord comics every
week.
We also played
houses in the
summer. When the
school grass was cut
we would gather it
up and make piles to
represent walls and
rooms of our
‘houses’. We would
play with our friends
and dolls and prams.
18

My Brother
1970s
My brother used to have James Bond cars and he used to race
them in the hallway. He always played with his Star Trek laser
guns and hide behind parked cars to shoot the baddies. He loved
playing the Scalextrix with my dad and my dad always lost. He
used to play with his chopper bike or his space hopper out on the
pavement of the street.
His first computer console was the Atari
and all the family played pacman .
My brother also remembers playing football
with Pinewood Primary in a local school
league. He said Pinewood were pretty good,
but Blairdardie always beat them.
The worst score was when “we got tanked
24-0”
19

Back Close
by
Tracy McKenzie
Playing in the close it used to be myself and my neighbour up the
stair. On dry days we used to play hopscotch at the front of the
close writing numbers on the slabs. The amount of fights that
game caused was unreal!
On the wet days we played at the back door. We used to play
houses and we used to line out each room using our shoes and our
teddies as siblings. When I got a bit older we used to play
schools at the back door and a few more friends joined in. At
the top of the stairs near the back door was where the teacher
sat and the pupils sat at the bottom of the stair. When it was
play time the teacher opened the back door to the back yard and
that was our playground. When there was no one to play with I
used to play with the tennis balls against the wall in the close
and I had a really grumpy neighbour up the stair who always gave
me into trouble and my mum used to go out and fight with him
which I thought was funny.
When I was about 10 years old I joined Smokebusters and so did
a few of my friends and every Saturday we all met at the back
close to make no smoking posters and talk about how to get
people to stop.
20

My Castle
I used to go to Drumry Primary and play on the giant tree
outside the Jannie’s house next to the dinner hall. The tree
used to be my castle; there were different places to climb that
were different parts of the castle. It had the kitchen on the
ground, which had everything for the kitchen, and up the tree
were the bedrooms. Where the dinner school doors were was
where my pony used to live. I had to feed her and brush her and
sweep out the stable. Some days I was the Queen or I was the
Princess and it was either a good Queen or bad and we used to
just make the story up as we went along.
21

Games - 1980
I liked elastics – stretched elastic bands to jump over and climb
under.
Three Sticks-jumped between sticks and move them further and
further apart. I was rubbish at it because I’m so small.
Kirby- Football bounced between kerbs either side of the
street.
My big cousin had puggy machines in his bedroom, we used to
take all the tokens out of the money boxes at the back and
spend hours playing games!
These days I play board games with my children Alexander &
Erin that I played when I was wee. We still play Monopoly,
Jenga, Kerplunk and Connect 4.
We all played in the street-and we would chalk on the street and
closes so we could play hopscotch.
22

The Whitie
Coming home from school mum would say, "homework done,
change your clothes and out you go". So off we went to the
Whitie, our wee club, was
the best wee club in the
Drum. In the big hall we
had table tennis, snooker
and the toilets lol.
Oh the fun playing dark tig
in the toilets hiding in the
cubicles and under sinks. In the small hall we had arts and crafts
table and a Sega Mega Drive. At Christmas my mum and Paddy would
dress up as Santa and hand out presents to all
the kids at the disco.
During the school holidays we would have day
trips. We'd go to the Magnum Centre, Irvine,
for ice skating or swimming. Sunny days we
would be off for a BBQ to Balmaha travelling
by bus or train. We'd all sing our hearts out
all the way there and all the way back.
23

On the odd occasion when we weren't out on trips and the club was
closed, which was rarely, we'd play in the compound next to the club.
The club was in Peel Glen Park. The park only had a set of swings and
an old rusty chute. It was mainly flat concrete ground that we used
to play football, on or our bikes or playing One Manhunt. The best
hiding place was on top of the club roof. On the opposite side was a
grassy hill; great for playing soldiers and sun bathing.
The Whitie days at
Balmaha
24

Jamie McKenzie 2000
When I was younger I used to
play with my favourite toys like
Action Man. I was lucky enough
to have a Giant Action Man car,
which I loved. I was Action Man
daft and played everywhere and
anywhere with them. The best
Action Man figure that I
remember was the one you
pulled out his back and blow into
it to shoot out darts
I also had a big purple
and green snake. It
wasn’t a real one
though, it was an
inflatable! My dad and
me crawled through
the snake and played
tig.
I also remember going on a bouncy castle and waiting until it was
half deflated. I’d sit on one end and my dad would sit on other.
Then my dad jumped up and I went flying up into the air!
I always remember dad and me going up The Froggy on my white
and blue quad bike and doing figure of eights, round the
goalposts.
Talking about goalposts, I had two humungous inflatable
goalposts that were bigger than the bin shed out the back and
the ball I played with was the size of an exercise ball.
25

My Wii U. By Aidan Smith (2013)
I like to play my Wii U it is a games console. My favourite game
is Sonic all star racing the best bit about the game is that your
character can transform from a car to a boat and to a jet. My
favourite characters are Shadow, Sonic and Vice. I also like
playing New Super Mario Bros.
26

Taylor Mack 2013
I like to play in the park across the road. It is so big. There is a
baby park for younger children as well. At that park, there are
mushrooms, swings, seesaw and a lion, which is a seat and then
another seat.
In the big park there is a spider’s web, basketball pitch, climbing
stuff and monkey bars. I also like a pool in the summer.
This is a
picture of my
mum and her
pals playing in
the same
park in the
1990’s
27

My Games by Alexander Laybourn 2013
My big cousins gave me a 3DS as a present. It is a Mario DSI
play my DS in the living room and sometimes play it in my
bedroom. In my room I hide under my covers. When I put it on
the telly, my little sister thought that it was a movie.
28

My Bike.
I like playing on my bike, it is a red bmx. When I go out on my
bike I like to cycle to the park and my Gran and Granddads
house. The best thing about my bike is that it can go really fast
if I peddle hard enough. When the school gates are open I like
to ride my bike in there on the pitch and the grassy hills at the
side it is fun. I play on my bike by myself but sometimes I go for
runs with my friends. That makes it fun.
Here is a picture of my mum at Christmas in 1988 when she got
her first bmx.
29

My Den.
I have a den it’s a tree den and it's in my Grandas back garden.
It is a willow tree but we call it Gizmo. Inside the den is a
wooden bench to sit on that is screwed to the back fence of the
garden. The best time to play in my den is in the summer when
Gizmo is in covered in pretty green leaves. At the front of the
tree den there is a door that zips shut just like a tent door this
helps to keep my Gran’s dog Murphy out. As there are no leaves
on the tree in the winter you can see straight through the den
so it's no good for hiding in. The good thing about my den is that
as I grow so does the tree.
This is a picture of what it looks like.
Aidan Smith
30

Erin – 3DS Game
Erin has 4 games on her 3DS. They are called Mario Part 7,
Cooking Mama 4, Super Mario Brothers and Moshi game. She
doesn’t often play with it but when she does she plays in the
living room.
Erin’s bike
Erin got a big bike at Christmas no stabilisers on. Her bike is
purple with white bits. She rides it to school with her dad. She
got it in 2012. She plays with Shaun and Jessica.
31

Taylor Mack
I like to play on my mum’s iPad 2 when she is at work. My
favourite game is Cut the Rope. It is about a wee alien called
Omnom. You have to try to feed him candy. There is a rope
attached to the candy and you need to slide your finger to swipe
the rope and it falls into his mouth.
32

Scooby Doo
2013
Barry plays Scooby Doo in his room. Barry likes to play football
with Scooby Do in his room. Scooby Doo gets chased in a bush.
I play myself.
I play football with my two big brothers. I watch SpongeBob
and Tom and Jerry with Gerry.
Barry Primary 1 2013
33

Outdoor Fun Games
We go up the golf course and when the golfers are ready to hit a
shot we press a horn.
I like to play football with my cousin up at the pitch.
I play Garden Gnome with my mates we go up and chap a window
and when they look out we pretend we’re a garden gnome.
We play Timer as well
We go up and chap a door. Then when they come out we ask
them the time. When they go to check we shout “TIMER“ and
run away.
Gerry Primary 7 2013
34

Chloe G P7
I like playing with my football. I play football in school and am
the goalie. I play in a mixed team and a girl's team.
I love doing Tae-Kwon-Do. I am on a green tag and I got my
green belt on the 15 th March 2013.
I also love playing tennis. I play in school in the gym hall and
outside on the pitch. I also play tennis in Drumchapel Tennis
Club. I went there with my whole class and my teacher. I had to
play in my wellies because I forgot my trainers!
My big brother had a quad and I went on it with my mum. Then
he went on himself and went dead fast. I was standing there
and my jaw just dropped.
35

Eddie McKay, 78 years old.
Drumry House
I lived in Partick as a child. I lived in a tenement in Partick as a
boy. There were always lots of kids around to play with.
Football was my game. Each street used to have their own team
and we’d play against each other. Sometimes you got into
trouble for playing football in the street. Where else could we
play?
You used to play in the close and as you got bigger you were
allowed to venture further.
I would play Ludo and Snakes and Ladders with my family and my
favourite toys were my train set, my football and my lead
soldiers.
When we played outside it was usually our pals from the street.
We had tow sets of pals, street pals and school pals because we
all went to different schools.
A lot of our toys were homemade or second hand, but nobody
cared. As long as we had bikes we could go off all day and
sometimes we’d go camping in Yorkhill Park and spend the whole
summer up there.
We would tie doors together and chap the doors all the way
down the close, leaving only one untied. What a laugh!
Another game we played with the girls was ‘chase, catch and
kiss!’ That was good fun. There were always card games on the
go and I would hide my winnings in my shoe so no one could find
it. I still do!
36

Betty Crawford
When Betty was younger she used to play tennis balls against
the wall. She said that they weren’t allowed to play after 9
o’clock because the men gave us into trouble because of the
noise and they had work to go to. She also played skipping ropes
out in the street with her friends but can’t remember any of the
songs. She used to have a teddy, which was her favourite, and
the other weans got a doll and then as time went on they got
more like a pram and doll.
She never went to the Girl Guides but her boys went to the Boys’
Brigade.
She went on a Sunday school trip down Ayrshire way.
37

Meg 84 years old
Meg had two brothers and a sister, all close in age and played
together, as well as with school friends.
She played balls in the close and remembers a rhyme involving
“the ladies in tight skirts can’t do this”
She went to Possil High School and was a member of the Girls’
Brigade at her local church, St. Marks.
38

Chinese Jump the Rope
Equipment;
Chinese ropes
3 or more players.
Rules:
1. Put the ropes around the ankles of 2 people .
2. Put some one in the middle.
3. Get them to jump in and out of the ropes and at the
same time sing [Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales in
side monkey’s tails].
4. When they say tails get the person in the middle to
jump on the ropes.
5. If they land on the ropes move the ropes up and as
long as they land on the ropes keep moving the ropes
up, until it reaches your neck.
6. If they miss the ropes they are out.
7. The winner is the person who gets the highest.
By Caitlin Gamble.
39

Marbles
Introduction: my name is Euan and I’m going to tell you how to
play marbles.
You will need: marbles, at least 4 players and a pen or some
chalk.
Instructions:
1. Draw a circle.
2. Players place 4 marbles in the circle
3. Players try and hit a target marble or an opponents marble
4. The player with the most marbles at the end of the game wins
5. You can either play for keeps or just for fun
Euan
40

Hide and seek
If you have ever played hide and seek you would know how to
play but here is some instructions in case you don’t know how to
play.
Equipment needed: Big area with lots of hiding spaces and lots of
people.
Instructions:
1. Get a het
man.
2. The het man
counts to a
number with
their eyes
closed also no
peeking.
3. Everyone else hides.
4. The het man looks for them.
5. The first person that the het man finds is then het.
6. The het man now just does the same as the last het man and
the person that was het hides with everyone else.
Ciaran Kearney
41

The Game of Life
A Board Game
Players 2 to 6
Age range 9 to adult
Skills required are counting and reading.
You have to make money and choose what to do at different
times in your life.
Who ever has the most money
at the end wins so you need to
try and get lots of money
before the end.
That is how you play The Game
of Life.
Jamie R
42

from an old Drumchapel boy
Kids in Drumchapel
I was seven years old when my family flitted to Drumchapel.
This was sixty years ago. We came from Govan. I soon made pals.
Some came from places like Maryhill, Cowcaddens, Partick and
Whiteinch. This was the first time we saw grass that was not in a
park. It was the first time we saw a bath in a house. It was the first
time we could roam away beyond houses, streets and roads. We
wandered deeper and deeper into the countryside. We found places to
swim and hills to climb. There were no adults giving us rows and
tellings-off, except only a farmer or gamekeeper.
Drumchapel was the best place for playing ever. No place was
better in the whole of Scotland. We thought that. Only one place
might have been better in the entire world. That place was the Wild
West in America, the land of cowboys and indians.
I had four brothers but no sisters. This was the 1950s. There
were two schemes in Drumchapel. One Scheme and Two Scheme. I
lived in One Scheme up the top flat in 86 Glenkirk Drive. It was the
best view of all. It looked across to the Old Kilpatrick Hills on the
left (the west) and the Campsie Hills on the right [the east]. If you
looked in between them on a clear clear day you could see one of the
highest mountains in Scotland. It is called Ben Lomond. Some
people in Drumchapel could even see the edge of Loch Lomond.
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from an old Drumchapel boy
At the start of the Campsie Hills was a single very big mountain.
It was known as ‘Dumgoyne Hill’. Drumchapel kids did not call it
Dumgoyne. We called it ‘the Camel’s Hump’. We wanted to climb to
the top. One day I did climb to the top. By that time I was a dad and
had wee girls of my own. They came with me and their mum.
In 1953 there were no good shops in the whole of Drumchapel.
Mothers had to go on the bus or the train to bring back vegetables,
groceries and butcher-meat from the shops in Glasgow and
Clydebank. In Glasgow the main places they went to were Maryhill,
Cowcaddens and Partick. They had to buy enough food for a whole
week. The mothers came home laden down with heavy bags. Boys
and girls waited to help them carry the bags home.
Sometimes vans drove round the streets in Drumchapel selling
different food things. We had fish-vans, bread-vans, butcher-vans
and vans selling fruit and vegetable. The bread-vans sold cakes and
biscuits too. Some boys and girls had plenty of biscuits and did not
need any more. Their mothers and aunties worked in Beattie’s
Biscuit Factory and they brought home piles of broken biscuits. The
biscuit factory was beside where the B & Q store is at Drumchapel
Shopping Mall.
The best vans of all were the chip-van and the ice-cream van.
The chip-van sold fish and chips, sausages and haggis suppers. In
One Scheme the ice-cream van was owned by the driver Alex
Verrecchia. His family owned the University Cafe in Byres Road.
Some of this family still own the cafe. It sells great fish and chips
today and makes good ice cream.
45

from an old Drumchapel boy
Sixty years ago there were no schools in Drumchapel. Not even
one. But it was not just a long long holiday, we still had to go to
school. Boys and girls went to all different schools. At 8.30 am every
morning all the primary school children in the whole of One Scheme
used to go down to where the wee shops are on Glenkirk Drive.
Many buses came to collect us. They took us to schools all over
Glasgow. We went to these different schools for a year.
I went to Temple Primary in Fulton Street, near to Anniesland
Cross. In the old days there was a great picture-house at Anniesland
Cross. It was called the Gaumont and was beside the railway station.
Later on they changed its name to the Odeon. Then they closed it
down and made it into flats for people to live in. Kids in Drumchapel
liked it better as a picture-house.
On the same street going up to the canal there was a factory
called Sloan’s Dairy where bottles of milk were made. We saw the
lorries passing the school gates. The drivers backed them into the
entrances. Inside were hundred of bottles of milk all stacked on
crates. The men lifted the crates on to the lorries.
There were great big doors along the walls of the factory. They
had big heavy gates to block the entrances. Chains were joined at the
corners of these gates to roll them up. We called them roller-gates.
The chains hoisted them up and lowered them down. Men jerked on
the chains to start it rolling. If they did not do it right the roller-gates
did not work.
At dinner-time we went outside the school playground. Me and
my pals played at the entrances to the milk factory. We watched the
46

from an old Drumchapel boy
men. They shouted at us not to come too close. Sometimes the men
were not looking and we skipped in. One boy stood on the bottom
edge of the roller-gate and another boy jerked the chains to hoist it
up. The boy who was standing on the gate went up high. A man saw
us and shouted. The boy jumped off. We all laughed and ran back to
school.
Temple Primary was a good school. There were forty three kids
in my class. We played football in the playground. The best thing
was the dinner-school. It had the best cooking. The steak pie was
great and so was the caramel cake and custard.
The winter was very cold that year. Heavy snow fell and lay
thick on the ground. One morning we waited for the buses to come
and take us to all the different schools. The buses never came. We
played at snow fights in Glenkirk Drive and then went home. Lucky
for us most mothers were in the house.
Next day we hoped the snow would stay so we would miss
school again. But even with snow we never missed football.
Sometimes we played and the ball turned into a big snowball. If it
was snowing very heavily some boys did not come out to play.
Maybe there were only four. We could till play a game of football
two against two. If there were only two boys we played ‘heidies’.
One boy a side. We had a goal each and headed the ball to score a
goal. Only heads were allowed to score.
The year after we went to Drumchapel the schools were ready
for the children. In One Scheme we had two primaries. One for
Protestants and one for Catholics. The Proestant one was called
47

from an old Drumchapel boy
Stonedyke Primary. The Catholic one was at Belsyde Drive. I had
Protestant pals and Catholic pals.
*
Stonedyke Primary was made of tin. It was a smashing school. I
was lucky because there was a wee path went up to Cloan Avenue
from beside my close at 86 Glenkirk Drive. So I was not late very
often.
When it was raining hard we heard the rain pattering off the
walls. We liked that school very much. It had a good playground and
a real-size football pitch. The pitch was not made of grass but of a
thing called ‘red blaze’. ‘Red blaze’ was like hard dust. We ran fast
to get the ball. When we fell down our arms and legs got scraped and
bled. But it was still good for playing. The pitch sloped down. If we
kicked the ball too high it bounced away down and went into
people’s backs.
The name ‘Stonedyke’ was taken from the farm that was on top
of the hill up on Canniesburn Road, halfway between Pendicle Road
and the corner of Kinfauns Drive. Here were cows and cattle before
the Lawrence houses were built.
There were other farms in Drumchapel back when we flitted
there. Another one was farther along Canniesburn Road and round
the bend past Pendicle Road. The road here goes up a wee hill before
getting to Westerton Avenue. On the right hand side going up the
way as a field and cattle graxed on it.
48

from an old Drumchapel boy
Along down Canniesburn Road was another farmhouse with its
barns. They were right in the middle of Canniesburn Toll
roundabout. There was a toty bit of grass there for the cattle graze.
The farmer led the cattle across the road to fields.
Across the road was another one of our favourite places. This
was a picture-house called The Rio. We saw good movies here.
Years later they demolished this building. Nowadays it is a block of
flats for people to live in.
There were two other farms in Drumchapel. One was very near
to Camstradden Primary.
Turn the corner off Canniesburn Road where it meets
Drumchapel Road and it takes us into Kinfauns Drive. Go along
Kinfauns Drive to the bend in the road, just about Goyle Avenue.
Here was a farm called MacGregors Farm. They sold milk.
More and more flats were being built and more and more people
were coming to live. The farmer and his family moved away. The
house and barn were left standing. Nobody was in it for a long time.
Big boys went there. They climbed in the windows and climbed on
the roofs. Soon all the windows were smashed. Fires were started and
things all broken. It was very dangerous. Wee kids never went into it.
People thought it would fall down on their heads.
After a long while workmen came and knocked down the
buildings. Other workmen came and built new flats. It was part of
Three Scheme. The streets were called Tallant Terrace, Tallant Road
and Goyle Avenue.
49

from an old Drumchapel boy
Three Scheme stretched round Kinfauns Drive beyond Merryton
Avenue to Kinclaven Avenue and Blackcraig Avenue. From there it
went onto Linkwood Drive then down the hill to Southdeen Avenue,
then back along to Kinfauns Drive. So it was like a lassoo, the way a
cowboy throws a rope, and all the flats and houses were in the
middle. A great footballer lived here. His name was Danny McGrain
who played for Celtic. He was in the 234 Boys Brigade football
team.
Another one of Scotland’s best players was Pat Crerand. He
played for Celtic and Manchester United. His girlfriend lived near
Tallant Road. One day Pat Crerand came to visit his girlfriend. His
pal was with him. His pal was Denis Law. We thought Denis Law
was the best player in the world. Boys saw them getting off the 105
blue bus that went along Kinfauns Drive. Before long all the boys in
Drumchapel knew this. Everybody rushed to Tallant Road to see if
we could see them.
Another footballer lived in One Scheme. He stayed in Cloan
Avenue. This was across the back from my house in 86 Glenkirk
Drive. He was a good player. His name was Alec Harley. He played
for a team from the old days called Third Lanark. England and
Scotland were playing football at Hampden Park. After the game
some players came to his house at Cloan Avenue for a party. One
was Jim Baxter of Rangers. We thought he was great. Boys said
another player was there too. He was a famous English player called
Johnny Haynes. People said Jim Baxter was leaning out the window.
Boys went to look at that window, just to see it.
50

from an old Drumchapel boy
The janitor at our new school was called Mister Knox. He had a
smashing big dog called Glen. Its fur was golden brown and white.
The janitor had a son who was in my class. He had great bikes. I still
see him now. He lives in a street near Summerhill Road.
*
In number One Scheme I had pals who lived beside me on
Glenkirk Drive and our everyday place for playing was down the hill
where we lived. We called it ‘the field’.
At the top of the top of hill we gathered. Then we started
running. You could not stop running once you started. Some boys
and girls fell while running. We had to be careful. It was a very steep
hill and it was swampy at the bottom with piles and piles of jaggy
nettles.
All different nettles grew here. The worst nettles were the ones
that left wee blisters. We searched beside the jaggy nettles for big
docken leaves. If you wiped the docken leaves on the stings it made
it a bit better. We carried docken leaves in our pockets in case we got
stung by jaggies. In the swamps there were special grass that had
shoots. We pulled the insides out the shoots. Thsee inside shoots
were tasty to eat. There were leaves we ate too. We just chewed them
and spat out the bits. We were very careful about the one we chewed.
Maybe now it is just poison.
Halfway down the hill from my close at 86 Glenkirk Drive was
the biggest boulder in Drumchapel. We called it ‘the big boulder’. If
51

from an old Drumchapel boy
we played games of hide and seek the ‘big boulder’ was always the
den. One of our best games was called “one man hunt”. Everybody
hid everywhere and one person was het. The het-man had to hunt all
the rest. But each person he caught joined the hunters. This game
went on all day. Sometimes you had to be careful If you were too
good at hiding and nobody caught you. When you came out of your
secret hiding place nobody was there. The other boys and girls had
all gone home for their supper. They forgot you were still hiding.
That happened to me.
We wondered if the ‘big boulder’ guarded the secret entrance to
a cave from the olden days. We wondered where the cave would lead
to and there was treasure down there. One of my pals heard a story
from his grandpa who heard a story from his grandpa. This story said
that the cave was the secret hideout of the bravest leader and the best
fighter of all the Gaelic Clans. He alone put the big boulder there to
cover the entrance to his secret cave. His name was Fionn MacCuill
and he was with the warriors of Erin.
The warriors of Erin [Ireland] and the warriors of Alba
[Scotland] were cousins and fought the same enemies. In Erin
[Ireland] their Clan names were O’Donnell and O’Neill. In Alba
[Scotland] their Clan names were MacDonald and McNeil. The
McNeills were great singers too. One of the best is a woman called
Flora McNeil. She is now an old lady but is still singing. She lives in
Glasgow. Many of the old McNeil Clan are found in the islands of
the Inner Hebrides. One is called Barra. The MacDonalds were the
biggest clan in all of Scotland. Their main place was the island of
52

from an old Drumchapel boy
Isla. Their Chief was called the Lord of the Isles. Some Kings of
England and Britain did not like the MacDonalds. Their Clanspeople
had to leave Scotland. They went to America and to Canada.
Me and my pals wanted to find the secret hideout of the brave
Fionn MacCuill. We tried to push the big boulder. Ten of us boys
and girls tried and tried to push the ‘big boulder’. It would not budge
even one inch. We never saw into the cave.
If we ran too fast past the big boulder and on and on down the
hill, we landed right in the water. There was a burn here. This burn
was deep in places. It went through the middle of the field. Away on
one side was my street, Glenkirk Drive. Away on the other side was
Southdeen Avenue. But when we moved into One Scheme
Drumchapel there was no Southdeen Avenue. The workmen were
just beginning to build it.
On this side of the field we had a good place for football. In the
summer we played other games. Rounders was the best. We played
cricket too. It was not so easy to play cricket. People needed a lot of
stuff for that game. Wickets, stumps, bails and bats and special balls.
The balls were very heavy and solid. They were dangerous. Once a
boy threw a cricket ball to one of my pals. My pal was to catch the
ball. But he forgot he was playing cricket. He thought he was playing
football. He jumped up and headed the ball instead of catching it.
The ball went clunk on his head and he was knocked unconscious.
We had to go away up to his house and tell his mother. She took him
to the doctor. But he was okay. The doctor said the boy had a hard
head. Maybe he had made a dent in the cricket-ball instead.
53

from an old Drumchapel boy
Rounders was a better game for children. We only needed a
tennis ball and a tennis racket. Our jerseys too. We took them off and
laid them down on the grass to make the bases. Boys and girls played
rounders together and all ages could play. The best player was a girl
called Maggie. She was my pal’s big sister. She was better than any
of the boys. Whoever was captain and won first choice always chose
Maggie for their team.
Sometimes the ball was smacked so far by the big boys and girls
that it landed in the burn. We had to walk on stepping stones and
balance down to lift it. Some stones were wobbly and our feet
slipped in. One time it happened to a boy. He went back the way and
sat down in the water. We were laughing at him. It was not funny for
him. When he got up his trousers were soaking wet. He had to go
home to get changed. But his mother kept him in, and it was not his
fault.
*
If it was raining the burn was fast-flowing. Sometimes the water
overflowed the banks. On the One Scheme side of the burn there
were not many trees. The other side was Southdeen Avenue. That
made it Three Scheme. There were plenty of trees and bushes on the
Three Scheme side.
These trees were great for climbing. Big boys climbed the trees
and found a good strong branch. They had a long rope. They
wrapped the rope round their waist or shoulders and climbed the
54

from an old Drumchapel boy
strong branches. They crawled along and tied the ropes round and
round the branch to knot it tight. Then they lowered the rope down
from the branch.
This made the best swing ever. We called it a rope-swing. Kids
swung on them way across the burn from one side to the other.
Sometimes another boy or girl jumped onto the swing, and then
another. When that happened we all slipped off and landed in the
burn. Our socks and shoes were soaking wet. If it was tea-time we
had to go home like that. Squelch squelch the whole way.
We also climbed high up the trees and took spars of wood with
us. Up there we built a tree-hut. We jammed the wooden spars into
the elbow sides of the branches. We tried to make a platform. We
wanted this as a den. We could climp up there and hide out. This was
good when big boys were chasing us. Sometimes we were cheeky to
them. We shouted names at them and ran away. If they chased us we
had to hide.
Other boys who chased us came from a Squatters Camp. They
were angry to see us crossing the burn. We tried to find a tree with a
huge long branch. We found one so long that it stretched across the
burn. We could crawl right along the branch, holding on very tightly
until it dropped down over the other side of the burn. If boys were
chasing us we could climb up the tree and escape along that long
branch. The weight of our bodies dragged the branch down over the
burn. We dreeped down the other side and ran away.
In some places we jumped the burn or else put down stepping
stones so we could get across. We had to run fast across if we were
55

from an old Drumchapel boy
being chased. We were careful not to fall into the burn. Some did and
got so soaked they had to go home. Their mothers gave them into
trouble.
The burn was great for fish. We caught wee toty ones. They
were called ‘baggy minnows’. The best ones to catch were goldfish.
Their bellies were golden or red in colour. There were not many
goldfish and they were hard to catch. If you caught one you could
swop it. Another boy would give you five baggy minnows for one
goldfish.
We caught the fish with our hands. We lay along the bank of the
burn, lying on our fronts, and reached down our hands into the water.
We cupped our hands together and waited for a fish to swim over the
top. Then we pulled our hands up fast. That was the way we trapped
the fish.
We did not kill them. We kept them in a jar or else let them go
free again. We put the fish back at the exact spot we found them.
They had their pals and family swimming in the same place. We did
not want them to get lost.
We learned not to catch sick fish. Sick fish had white stuff
growing round their necks. Some we called ‘ghost-fish’. If we saw
one we shouted: A ghost-fish! We knew not to hold one in case it
was poisoned and we caught the poison.
In early Spring we looked for frog-spawn and took some home
in empty jars. We waited for the frog-spawn turning into tadpoles. If
it did not turn into tadpoles we went back down to the burn to catch
some. We gave names to the tadpoles we caught. Then we set the
56

from an old Drumchapel boy
tadpoles free in the burn. Weeks later they turned into frogs. We
went back down to the burn and shouted the names of the tadpoles.
We hoped they would remember their ‘tadpole’ names and come to
see us. If we made pals with any of the frogs we could take one in
our pockets into school. That would give us a laugh with the lasses.
In the long grass down the hill we caught crickets. We waited
and were very quiet until we heard one making their special sound.
They knocked their knees together and that is what made the sound.
We parted the grass where the sound was coming from. If we saw it
we sprang onto it with our hands to trap it. We put the crickets into
jars. We also found wee mice down the field. These were different
mice to the mice we got in our old houses before we came to
Drumchapel. The ones in the field had fatter bellies.
*
Our burn came from under Kinfauns Drive, coming over from
Bearsden. There was a huge wide pipe deep under the road. It was
good for doing echoes. Boys went down into the big pipe. They
climbed through from one end to the other. The pipe went
underneath Kinfauns Drive and buses and lorries went over the top.
We heard the deep rumbling noises and hoped the pipe walls would
not cave in.
We called it the pipe-tunnel. It was a circle and very difficult to
climb through. Boys fell in the water. There was a special way to do
57

from an old Drumchapel boy
it. You had to jam the sides of your shoulders and arms onto the top
sides of the tunnel.
The tunnel was circular. It curved at the top. You could not
stand inside. The burn flowed through. There were stepping stones
outside. You stepped on them to come inside. You wedged the sides
of your legs and ankles against the side walls of the tunnel. Your
head bent forward. Then you pushed your hands flat against the top,
and moved along very slowly. It hurt your ankles a wee bit and gave
aches in your shoulders. But boys managed it without their feet
falling into the water. If people fell in water splashed the tunnel wall
and made it too slippy.
We followed the burn in the direction opposite Kinfauns Drive.
This led the way back along through the middle of field down from
Glenkirk Drive. Along from here is the street called Belsyde Avenue.
When I was bigger I got a job as a paperboy and delivered
newspapers round Belsyde Avenue, Boon Drive and Arcan Crescent.
In One Scheme the best boys’ football team was the Arcan Dynamo.
The best big boys’ team in Drumchapel was the best in the
whole of Scotland. That team was the Drumchapel Amateurs. All the
best players played for them. The man who ran this team was
Douglas Smith. He was the Captain of the 2nd Boys Brigade. This
company was in the White Church at Garscadden Road. The other
BB in One Scheme was at the Congregational Church in Essenside
Drive. Their Minister was a woman called Mrs Shedden. Their BB
was the 142nd Company.
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from an old Drumchapel boy
My Dad was a BB officer in the 142nd and he taught the boys
how to do morse-code and semaphore. Morse-code is how soldiers
and sailor make up words by tapping out short sounds and long
sounds. If there is danger they tap out the warning signal SOS. Three
long taps, three short taps, three long taps. Semaphore is a different a
code altogether. Semaphore uses two flags. A soldier or sailor holds
a flag in each hand and can make up different letters by the way they
move the flags.
Boys under 12 joined the Lifeboys. We called it the ‘Lifies’ and
played all different games. My pals who were Catholics did not go to
the Lifies. They had a club called the Boys Guild. One time they
smuggled me in and I got a game of table tennis.
Boys and girl liked playing table tennis. My Dad was good at it.
He ran a table tennis club for boys in One Scheme. Me and my
brothers played it in our house. My mum was good too. We had a
table in the living room that pulled out. Sometimes my pals came in
and we had big games. My Dad would like to have seen how
Drumchapel table-tennis players became the best in Scotland.
At the corner of Belsyde Avenue and Boon Drive was Belsyde
Primary School. All my pals who were Catholics went to this school.
Beside it was a great field for big games of football. We called this
field the ‘cornfield’. You looked over the hill here right down onto
Drumchapel Road. There was a Chapel for Catholics on one side and
a Church for Protestants on the other. Behind them was Drumchapel
railway station.
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from an old Drumchapel boy
Nowadays there is a wee row of shops here. In the old days it
was all a big nursery. A nursery was where you could buy potted
plants, flower-seed, fruit and vegetables. It is a wee bit like Dobbie’s
out in Bearsden, or else like B & Q Garden Centre.
If you go along Drumchapel Road one way it changes to
Garscadden Road and leads down to Great Western Road.
Everybody calls it the Boulevard. A boulevard usually has grass
growing down the middle of it. Sixty years ago the tramcars went
down the middle of it instead. The trams had their terminus at
Blairdardie, beside Cloberhill Primary School. My Dad went there as
a boy.
We thought Great Western Road was the best roads in Scotland.
It went from St George’s Cross right out past Loch Lomond and up
through Crianlarich. It goes right up to the Highlands from here,
through the high mountains by Glen Coe.
Great Western Road goes another way. This is through Arrochar
then onto the long steep road called the Rest and Be Thankful. You
see here the old road that the Highland cattlemen used to drive their
cattle down from the Highlands. They were quite poor and did not
have much food. When they were hungry they pricked the veins of
their cattle to let out wee drops of blood. They mixed the blood with
oats and called it a ‘blood pudding’. They ate that blood pudding to
keep them going till they got to the market.
*
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from an old Drumchapel boy
If you go the other way on Garascadden Road past the White
Church it leads to the corner of Kinfauns Drive and Drumry Road.
Before you get there the road turns a bend and here was a private
road blocked off by iron gates. These gates had their own name.
They were called the ‘Girnin Gates’. They guarded the entrance to
Garscadden Estate and were made out of twisted iron and painted jetblack.
Kids thought they were a bit creepy and angry-looking. An
angry-looking face is a ‘girnin’ face. People said the gates were
always ‘girnin’. The Girnin Gates blocked a wee private road that led
into the mansion house. The rich people who lived there closed the
heavy gates to stop people running in to look.
Garscadden Estate was made for adventures. Kids in
Drumchapel all had their own ways of skipping in. We were not
allowed to go through the Girnin Gates. Nobody was allowed. Only
the ones that owned the big mansion house. This was a rich family
called Colquhoun. Other people out of this family owned the land all
round Loch Lomond. They owned the land all round Dawsholm Park
and Kilmardinny too. They owned other land all round Aberdeen.
They were a very rich family. They bought the land and did not like
people walking on it.
If you look up from Garscadden Road you see a high-up street
on top of the hill. This is Belsyde Avenue. It overlooks the Estate.
One of my teachers from Stonedyke Primary lived there. She was a
good teacher. Mrs Douglas was her name. We all liked her. She told
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from an old Drumchapel boy
my mum I would be a good pupil if I did not talk so much. She said I
was a complete blether.
Down the other side of Belsyde hill was the same field joining to
Glenkirk Drive that had the burn flowing through the middle. This
burn separated One Scheme from Three Scheme. On the other side of
here was Southdeen Avenue. The burn inbetween flowed into
Garscadden Estate. This was our secret way to skip in.
We followed the burn along. There were bushes, weeds, hedges
and all different trees. It became the thickest ever. The trees were the
thickest. Bushes and weeds were all tangled. This was the start of
‘the woods’. Jaggy nettles were everywhere. Nobody in Drumchapel
could see into Garscadden Estate because of the woods. It was
difficult to find a way through. When you got along near the Estate
there was a fence. We had a way and the fence helped us. We crept
along at the sides of the burn then came into ‘the woods’.
The woods was the boundary of the Estate. The rich people also
put a fence round it. The fence came down inside the woods and
stopped above the burn. But we were kids and were wee. We could
crouch down very low and sneak in underneath. If it was hot weather
we did it another way. We took off our socks and sandshoes and
waded through the water.
We had to creep carefully when we were inside the Estate. Kids
from Drumchapel were not allowed. The people who owned the
Estate had their big mansion house in the middle. It was called
Garscadden House. There were apples trees and pear trees growing
in an orchard nearby. We were always starving and trying to find that
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orchard. A man tried to catch us. He was a servant for the rich
family. He was called the Gamekeeper. A big boy said he had a rifle
and was looking for kids from Drumchapel. If he found any hiding in
the bushes he would shoot them or else send for the polis.
We crept in among the thickest bushes so he would not see us.
Some things were scary. There was a narrow path high up against the
side of a big wall. It was very dark here with the thick bushes. My
knee cracked against a big piece of stone. I looked to see what it was.
It was a gravestone. Aaah! We ran away. But then we stopped and
went back to look. I read what it said on the gravestone. It was not
for a dead person but a dead dog. This dog was a man’s favourite pet.
After it died the man buried it and put a gravestone there in its
memory.
We found another grave later. This one was marked by a
gravestone as well and it was near a wall. It was in memory of a
man’s favourite horse. If you climbed a tree you could get onto the
top of the wall and dreep down the other side. It was an old stable.
On this other side of the wall the workmen were building new flats
and houses. The street now built here is called Southdeen Road. If
you walk along here and turn left up Linkwood Drive from here it
takes you to the top of a steep hill. All the time going up here if you
look over the left then this is where the old Estate was. Going down
the other side of Linkwood Drive are the skyscrapers.
*
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from an old Drumchapel boy
Stories about Garscadden Estate go back hundreds of years. The
Estate stretched over from Linkwood Drive, down through the back
of Southdeen Road and Southdeen Avenue, over to Belsyde Avenue,
and then down to Garscadeen Road leading to the other end of
Kinfauns Drive, just at the corner of Drumry Road.
This is near the old shopping centre, close to the library on
Halbeath Avenue. See across Dunkenny Road from here. This is
Halgreen Avenue. My big brother had a newspaper job here when he
was a boy. When he stopped doing it I took it over. It was my first
good newspaper job.
Another farm was down past the swimming pool on Drumry
Road, by the corner of Dunkenny Road. In the old days a ‘dun’ was
the name of a wee fort on a hill. We wondered if one was here in the
olden times and if there was a Clan Chief called Kenneth.
Sixty years ago here was a big grass field. Every summer the
farmer let a carnival come for two weeks in June. We called it ‘the
shows’. It was the same carnival as went to Glasgow Green. In the
winter the same carnival went to the Kelvin Hall. Nowadays it is the
one that comes to the SECC.
In the old days it went round to where people lived. When it
stopped in Drumchapel it was just there at the corner of Drumry
Road and Dunkenny Road. Boys and girls thought it was great when
‘the shows’ came. We went everyday. We could not pay the money
to go on things all the time. We just listened to the music and had a
laugh with the lasses.
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Across from this field was a big barn. In the barn the farmer had
used a famous old stone to help make the barn wall solid. That old
stone was put there hundreds of years ago. It had a connection to
Robert the Bruce and a famous document that was signed there at
Drumry in the 14th Century. The barn was demolished. What
happened to the old stone? Maybe we could find it. Maybe it was in
Garscadden Estate.
Other things from history happened in Drumchapel. Kids
wondered about the names Drumchapel and Drumry. Was this a
place where people played the ‘drums’? We discovered it was
nothing to do with music. ‘Drum’ was a word from the Gaelic
language. That was the same as the word ‘burn’, meaning a wee
stream. My Grannie spoke Gaelic and she could tell me. ‘Drum’
means a ‘hill’. There were plenty of hills in Drumchapel. Probably
there was a church on a hill. In the old days of Robert the Bruce
‘chapels’ and ‘churches’ were the same because Catholics and
Protestants were the same. Maybe there was a church at the top of
Linkwood Drive.
We wondered if stagecoaches went along Drumchapel Road and
Drumry Road. We wondered if Highland kilties came chasing the
Redcoats. Rob Roy MacGregor roamed the country past the
Stockiemuir Road. Did he come to Drumchapel? Maybe he did.
Mary Queen of Scots was in the dungeon at Dumbarton Castle. A
train takes you there in ten minutes from Drumchapel Railway
Station. Maybe she passed through Drumchapel when she came to
fight the battle at Langside.
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from an old Drumchapel boy
Kids in the north of Glasgow were lucky. Rob Roy McGregor
was there. They had a road and a place called Robroyston.
‘Robroyston’ means Rob Roy’s town. They had William Wallace
too. He came to Springburn and stopped there for water. In
Balornock there is a road that has his name. It is called Wallacewell
Road. That means the ‘well’ where Wallace stopped for water.
‘Springburn’ is a name meaning water. ‘Spring’ is water coming out
the ground. ‘Burn’ is from the Gaelic language and means a wee
stream. So Springburn is where people came for water. The men used
to bring the cattle down from the Highlands to the market in
Glasgow. Maybe they stopped at Springburn to let the cattle drink
some water.
We liked to hear the old stories. Some were creepy and we
shivered hearing them. But it made games good for playing. For
some games we had Kilties fighting against Redcoats. The Kilties
were the Highlanders and the Redocats were the English Army.
Some of the stories were daft. One boy’s big brother told us the
real name for Drumchapel was Trumpetchurch. We believed him.
But then he told us he was going to a sandy beach at Sugarjackets for
his holidays. We knew he was not going there at all but to a place
called Saltcoats.
Another story we liked from the olden days was the wealthy old
man who lived behind the Girnin Gates. He and other rich people
were all in his mansion house. They were eating big piles of food and
drinking lots of whisky. Some ate so much food and drank so much
whisky that they fell asleep at the table and were snoring. This
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wealthy old man was like that. People thought he was asleep. But he
was not snoring. They looked at him again and shook him by the
shoulder. He was dead. Oh poor old man, they said. But they just
carried on eating his food and drinking his whisky. When we played
in the woods at Garscadden Estate a lassie told us she saw his ghost.
*
Drumchapel was a good place for playing and having
adventures. We played games where exciting things happened. We
walked out the Stockiemuir Road. Maybe we would find an old
dagger that belonged to Rob Roy. Or maybe his cutlass. Imagine
finding a cutlass. We knew about the big battle at the old Castle at
Drumclog. That was near the Waterworks past Milngavie. Nowadays
you go into Mugdock Country Park and walk to see it.
The field between Glenkirk Drive, Belsyde Avenue and
Southdeen Avenue had the burn and the old Estate. We travelled
much farther than that. We went on long treks into the Old Kilpatrick
Hills. We had different ways for going. We called these long treks
‘going on a hunt’. We planned for it. We said to our pals. “Come on
we’ll go on a hunt next Tuesday!”
One way we went out to the country was past Camstradden
Drive and past the Bluebell Woods, right up the steep road into
Bearsden. It took us through to Drymen Road. We only went this
way when it was the middle of the summer holidays. We walked and
ran.
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It was better if we had bikes. We never went only with two pals.
We waited till we had about six. Sometimes bigger boys came with
us. Maybe we had two bikes between six boys. Two boys went the
bikes. Two boys got ‘backies’. The other two boys just ran beside
them. Then they changed ‘backies’.
We took our swimming trunks and a sandwich too. We called
sandwiches ‘pieces’. We ate a piece on jam. That was bread with jam
on it. Sometimes we were very hungry and dug a turnip out a
farmer’s field. We wiped the soil off the turnip. One of the big boys
had a knife. He cut off the thick skin of the turnip. These turnips
were very white inside. The big boy cut a wee slice of turnip off and
gave it to other ones. It was juicy and chewy to eat.
Carrots were best but we did not find many. Other times we
found a tree with wee apples growing. These were called ‘crab
apples’. We ate them but they were very hard and not very tasty. If
we ate too many we got queasy stomachs and needed the toilet.
There were proper apple trees too and pear trees. We looked for
them. They were in people’s gardens. Sometimes apples and pears
dropped off them. We lifted them up. If we were very hungry a big
boy shook the branches. Apples dropped off and we could lift them.
Some boys climbed the trees to get apples.
We trekked miles along the Stockiemuir Road until the golf
course. We stopped before the wee road that goes along the side of
the golf course beside the Allander River. There was a wee loch here
where we swam. It was not deep. It had big weeds and rushes at one
end. We had to be careful our feet did not get tangled up. That wee
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from an old Drumchapel boy
loch is not there now. The farmer drained it away to make a new
field for cattle to graze.
We went away along the wee road at the side of the golf course.
It goes over a bridge and up round a bendy road. There is a big gulch
at the side. It was steep and dangerous. Only big boys went through
the railings here. We walked on up the bendy road. It was too steep
for bikes to go. This road takes you out beside Mugdock Country
Park. This is the way into the Castle at Drumclog field where the
battle was. In the old days.
It was not a country park in the old days. When we went we just
went in if we wanted. One time there we found an old zoo from
bygone times. If you go round Mugdock nowadays you can see
where animals were kept locked up in cages. The best pond for
tadpoles is the Gallows pond.
On the other side of the road from Mugdock Country Park was
one of the best lochs we ever had for swimming. It was very deep
and good for diving. If you could not swim it was better not to go
into it.
*
We all liked swimming a lot and we went to Whiteinch Baths,
Maryhill Baths and Woodside Baths, and two baths in Govan,
Harhill Baths and Summerton Road Baths. Our favourite baths was
at Clydebank. All the swimming pools had diving dales in the old
days. Clydebank Baths had two other good things: a springboard and
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from an old Drumchapel boy
a chute. Clydebank had a good picture-house; the La Scala. The red
bus went from Drumchapel. The terminus was at Peel Glen, beside
the ‘big tree’. One time I did a newspaper round at Summerhill Road
and down to the end of Peel Glen Road, just by the same tree. I made
good tips off people.
Everybody knew the ‘big tree’ at Peel Glen. Underneath the
branches stood a man who was a bookie. Some of our dads put
money on horse races. The bookie at the big tree took our dads’
money for bets. He had to watch out for the police. They would not
have liked him doing it. We called the police the ‘polis’ or else ‘the
cops’.
For one of our best ‘hunts’ we went to Peel Glen. We had to
walk over the hill from One Scheme, up Linkwood Drive then along
Kinclaven Avenue. We crossed Kinfauns Drive and down into
Summerhill Road. We passed the big tree and away out Peel Glen.
We had to watch out. Fast cars came and drivers were not careful.
Children got knocked down.
Along this way was a big red bing. This was a hill made out of
huge piles of stones and red-coloured dust. It was very dangerous
and nobody ever climbed it. All the stones and dust would fall down
on their heads and smother them to death.
Round the bend on the road past here there was a ‘Squatters’
Camp’ near the glen. Sixty years ago there were two Squatters
Camps in Drumchapel. One was here at Peel Glen. The other one
was near to Camstradden Primary School.
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from an old Drumchapel boy
At Peel Glen we passed by the Squatters Camp and kept walking
until we got to Duntocher Road. We went along the left side from
there. We cut along a wee road to the right. This led up a slope to a
farm, and passed by a pig-pen. We saw the pigs. They were very big,
very fat and very muddy. Pigs are dangerous. We left them alone and
walked on to the end of this road. From here we walked on across the
moor and into the countryside.
This was the real highlands to us. Rob Roy and the kilties went
here when the Redcoats were hunting them down. Then a man came
and chased us. He was a Gamekeeper. He had a rifle and shouted he
was going to fire it at us and get the police.
We ran away. We found a great wee loch to swim in. There
were big boulders at the side. That made it good for diving and
jumping in. But this water was the coldest ever. Even on the hottest
day this water was freezing.
One boy took an old frying pan out his mum’s kitchen. Another
boy brought sausages. Another boy brought eggs to fry. Another boy
brought pieces on butter. One of the big boys brought a box of
matches. We got boulders and dry wood and made a wee campfire.
We cooked the eggs and sausages. forgot to bring cooking oil and the
eggs and sausages got burnt and stuck to the bottom of the frying
pan. We had no forks and no plates. One big boy had a knife. He
waited until the the eggs and burnt sausages were cold. He scraped it
off the bottom of the frying pan. He put it into our hands and we ate
it. We thought it tasted okay. It was a good laugh too.
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from an old Drumchapel boy
We found a great place up a steep hill called The Whangie.
There were great big boulders and rocks to climb here. We reached
as high as possible and could see everything for miles. It was the best
view ever.
But we could not see Drumchapel.
*
One big hill in Drumchapel is across from the junction at
Summerhill Drive and Kinfauns Drive. Behind here the hill leads up
to Jedburgh Avenue and Rozell Avenue. In the old days there were
no avenues there, no roads and no drives. Only there was this hill. It
was the biggest of all. We called it the ‘big hill’.
Going up the ‘big hill’ from behind Kinfauns Drive was the
other Squatters Camp in Drumchapel. Men, women, children and
elderly people lived here in huts and old caravans. They were very
poor and no houses to go to. People called them ‘squatters’. It was
not a nice name. Other names for them were ‘tinkers’. People
thought that was not a nice name either.
A better name for them was ‘travellers’. Some liked travelling
about Scotland and did not want permanent homes. They travelled
from place to place. They bought things and sold them. They mended
pots and pans. They sharpened people’s knives and tools. When
farms were there in the old days they did work for the farmers. They
picked raspberries and strawberries for making jams and cakes. They
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helped the farmer pull turnips, carrots and potatoes out of the soil.
They did other jobs when they could.
The best fighter in Drumchapel was a big boy from that
Squatters Camp. We called him Geromino. He got his name from the
famous Indian in the Wild West. We saw a picture about the real
Geronimo.
The big boy from the Squatters Camp was like him. He had an
axe in his belt. He and his pals came along our field and our burn.
They said it was their field and their burn. They did not like us being
there. If they saw us they chased us. They hoped the new people
flitting to Drumchapel would just go away. But we were not going
away. Instead more of us were coming. The workmen arrived to
build more and more houses. We had Scheme One, Scheme Two and
now Scheme Three and Scheme Four. Soon there would be no space
left for the Squatters Camp.
One day me and my pals sneaked past the Squatters Camp and
climbed up to the top of the ‘big hill’. It was very exciting.
Nowadays this is where Jedburgh Avenue and Rozell Avenue stand.
Sixty years ago there was nothing there at all except for one thing.
That one thing was an army camp. Right on the very top of the ‘big
hill’. It was a great adventure to go there.
The army camp was surrounded by barbed wire. Kids found a
place to lift the barbed wire at the bottom and sneak in underneath. If
you were not careful the barbed wire cut your hands and legs and
ripped your clothes.
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There were no soldiers left in the camp except one sentry. There
were huge guns there known as anti-aircraft guns. Enemy airplanes
might be flying to drop bombs These huge guns had turrets and very
long barrels for firing up to hit the enemy airplanes before they could
drop the bombs.
The anti-aircraft guns were left over from the 2nd World War.
My father had been a soldier in that World War. He was in the 8th
Army. He worked the radio receiver in an armoured car. We did not
tell our fathers and mothers we were going there. They would have
given us big rows.
These huge guns were covered over by great big sheets of heavy
tarpaulin. We lifted the edges of the tarpaulin and crawled under.
One boy gave another boy a puddy-up. We called it a ‘puddy-up’.
Frogs jump high. A name for a frog is ‘puddy’. If you get a ‘puddyup’
it is the same as getting a ‘jump-up’.
I held my hands clasped together. My pal put his foot on my
hands. He put a hand on my shoulder to balance. When he was
balanced he reached up as high as he could go. His foot was still
standing in my clasped hands. I pulled up my hands to help him.
Then he reacher even higher. He grabbed onto the long barrel of the
gun. Then I let go my hands and he swung on the barrel. The next
time we changed places and it was me who got up to swing.
One time a sentry was there. We heard him coming along
whistling a wee tune. We hid underneath the tarpaulin. We waited till
the sentry was away on the other side. We crept out up the barbed
wire, and crawled under. We ran down through the long grass to
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from an old Drumchapel boy
escape. But boys from the Squatters Camp were there. They captured
me and another boy. They took us into the camp. Lucky for us we
did not see the boy called Geronimo. After half an hour the boys
from the Squatters Camp forgot we were there. We just looked out
the hut. One of the women just smiled at us. We ran away.
Soon more workmen came. They built all the flats in Three
Scheme. That was the end of the Squatters Camp. The people
brought down all their huts. They gathered up all their possessions
and flitted away to another place. We did not see them go and did not
know where they went. One day we went over to see. All we saw
was a big empty space.
Down at Canniesburn Toll a good picture was coming on at the
Rio Picture House. The kids in Drumchapel went to see it. The
picture was called Calamity Jane. The best person in it was Jane
who was like a real cowboy. She sang good songs. In one song we
changed the words. Here is the verse we sang:
Take me back to the Green Hills
the Green Hills of Drumchapel,
where the Squatters fight
nearly every night
in the Green Hills of Drumchapel
the end
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CAMSTRADDEN PRIMARY SCHOOL
Alexander Laybourn
Barry Ferguson
Erin McKenzie
Aidan Smith
Taylor Mack
Chloe Gibney
Gerry Ferguson
Primary 7 class 2013
Miss Gordon
Mrs Coyle
Gill Laybourn
Karen Mack
Tracy McKenzie
Amanda Smith
Liz Smith
Parents, friends and family of the children .
GLASGOW LIFE COMMUNITIES
Ann McFarlane
SPECIAL THANKS TO JAMES KELMAN FOR “KIDS IN
DRUMCHAPEL”
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