Cambuslang

Cambuslang is in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West Constituency for elections to the House of Commons at Westminster.

Gerard Killen won the seat for the Scottish Labour and Co-operative Party in the June 2017 election,[13][14] replacing Margaret Ferrier of the Scottish National Party who had won in 2015.[15][16] In the 2019 election, Ferrier re-gained the seat.[17]

Cambuslang was originally in the Glasgow Rutherglen Constituency for the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. In 2011 the boundaries were redrawn and the new constituency renamed simply Rutherglen, despite its boundaries taking in not only Cambuslang but also Blantyre.

In the 2016 elections, Clare Haughey won the seat for the SNP with 15,222 votes, giving a majority of 11.4%, replacing James Kelly who had been elected both in 2007 and 2011.[18] Kelly remained in the Parliament as a 'list member' elected on a regional proportional representation basis.

Administratively, the town centre is within the Cambuslang West ward of South Lanarkshire Council,[19][20] which has a population of around 15,000.[21] Taking another ward encompassing the eastern parts of the town into consideration,[22] its overall population was approximately 30,000 in 2016. With neighbouring Rutherglen's figures being very similar,[23][24] the many services and amenities shared between the towns should provide for 60,000 residents, many assessed as living in economic hardship.[25]

• Recent elections:
  • 2003 South Lanarkshire Council election
  • 2007 South Lanarkshire Council election
  • 2012 South Lanarkshire Council election
  • 2017 South Lanarkshire Council election

Cambuslang Park spans 27 acres (11 ha) encompassing the contrast of open parkland and the Borgie Glen, which is a steep tree-lined ravine, containing a complex network of pathways. The park also features a pond, sports pitches, war memorial (depicting a soldier in a kilt),[30] woodland areas and the Bandstand, which is a natural amphitheatre, near where the famous Cambuslang Wark took place in the 18th century.[31]

Primary schools (2019-20 pupil roll in parentheses:[32]

• Cairns Primary School (284)
• Hallside Primary School (271)
• James Aiton Primary School (149)
• Newton Farm Primary School (431)
• Park View Primary School (209)
• St Bride's Primary School (297)
• St Cadoc's Primary School (131)
• St Charles' Primary School (380)
• West Coats Primary School (393)

• Cathkin High School[33] (1066)
• Trinity High School[34] (1100)
• Rutherglen High School (additional support needs)[35] (103)

Some parts of Cambuslang are within the catchment area of Stonelaw High School, which is situated in Rutherglen, the adjoining town.[36][37] Uddingston Grammar School, one train stop from Cambuslang on the Motherwell via Bellshill line, includes Newton Farm Primary in its catchment.[38]

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service headquarters and training centre, Cambuslang

Cambuslang College of the Building Trades was a specialist college established in the mid-twentieth century but it gradually expanded to teach other trades and academic subjects. It became Cambuslang College of Further Education in the 1960s, and went on to open a campus in East Kilbride, as well as facilities in Hamilton and Wishaw. A substantial annexe remained in Cambuslang on Hamilton Road, by now located in the former Gateside School.[39] Reflecting its wider geographical coverage, it became South Lanarkshire College in 2000. In 2008, the Cambuslang campus closed and all South Lanarkshire College facilities were moved to a new, custom-built campus in East Kilbride.[40]

South Lanarkshire College has links with University of the West of Scotland, Hamilton Campus, a degree-awarding higher education institution, 3 miles (5 km) away in Hamilton, so that local students can progress through to degrees.

As well as hosting the headquarters of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish national training centre for firefighters is based in Cambuslang (having previously been located in Gullane, East Lothian).

There has been a Parish school in Cambuslang at least since the Reformation, and probably before that. The schoolteacher was appointed and paid by the heritors, though he also charged fees. Free primary education came with the Education Act for Scotland (1871).

Cambulang's original public school (1882) became Cambuslang College of the Building Trades and then subsequently a nursing home.

The original Cambuslang Public School can be seen on Greenlees Road, where it is now Greenlees Care Home. It had been for some time the Cambuslang College of the Building Trades, which became part of Cambuslang College (now South Lanarkshire College ). An even earlier school is now a Gospel Hall in Bushiehill Street.

Cambuslang Subscription School 1848, now a Gospel Hall

The Cambuslang Subscription School of 1848 provided basic education to the children of miners and weavers in return for a few coppers. It was attractive to those who did not like the influence of the gentry and the minister on the parish school.

St Cadoc (c 497 – c 570), also called "Cadow" or "Cattwg", reputedly founded a monastery on the site of the present Old Parish Church in the later sixth century. He is the patron saint of Cambuslang, where there is a modern primary school named after him. His feast day is 25 September. In medieval times, Cadoc was called on for help by (among others) deaf people and those suffering from cramp.

He was a Celtic saint – previously, a Prince of Glamorgan – who brought succour to the native Christians against the invading Saxons. Cambuslang is at the northernmost reach of the Welsh speaking Brythons, so he may well have visited here in his wanderings, or in an effort to secure help against the Saxons. He had travelled to Ireland, to Brittany (to visit the Welsh-speaking monks there), Rome (the centre of Western Christianity) and Jerusalem (from where he brought back two altar stones that had touched the Holy Sepulchre.

The Europe he walked through was being battered by the barbarian invasions, so it is not improbable that he managed to reach Cambuslang. However, as no mention is made in the legends of an expedition this far north, it might have been a disciple, or a pilgrim returning from Glamorgan with a relic, who established the church at Cambuslang. Cadoc was cut down, while serving Mass, by a Saxon raiding party at "Benevenna", most probably near Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.

St Cadoc was prestigious enough in his lifetime for local chiefs to have recourse to him to settle disputes. This reputation lasted well into the Middle Ages, where solemn bonds and oaths were sworn over his (or his followers') remains. Just before the Reformation, a wealthy Cambuslang notable expressed in his will a desire to be interred "with the ashes of St Cadoc", in the Parish Kirk.

David Dale (1739–1806) was a Scottish industrialist and philanthropist. His efforts to establish a cotton-spinning factory at Flemington failed but he was very successful as co-founder of the New Lanark Mills in 1786. Dale owned the estate of Rosebank in Cambuslang, which he used as a summer retreat from his townhouse (reputedly still standing) in Charlotte Street Glasgow and to where he retired and lived until his death. The estate was sold after his death to the Caledonian Railway Company, which divided it in two to accommodate the new railway. The half to the north of the railway line, including Rosebank House, eventually became Rosebank Industrial Estate. The southern half was sold to Thomas Gray Buchanan, a Glasgow merchant, related to the Buchanan who established Buchanan Street in Glasgow, who established a country retreat at Wellshott House, but his son Michael sold off the lands to build suburban villas in the 1860s.

Rev Dr James Meek (1739–1810) was Minister of Cambuslang from 1774 until his death.[45] He had been Dean of the Chapel at Glasgow University, when the Rector was Edmund Burke and the professors included the philosopher Thomas Reid. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1795. He wrote the entry for Cambuslang in the First Statistical Account of Scotland.[46] The cool, objective account in his report of the Cambuslang Wark remains the prime historical source for that event. He kept a detailed "Journal and Register of the Weather..." for each day over 29 years, with remarks on weather and events throughout Britain and the world. This Journal is still quoted in modern histories of the weather. He is buried in the Old Parish Church kirkyard, just inside the gate.

• William de Cambuslang (died 1361), Bishop of Dunblane (1347–1361)
• David Beaton (c. 1494 – 1546) was Rector of Cambuslang from 1520. He was appointed to this post by his uncle, James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, and was a prebendary, which means he lived off the tithes and never lived there, leaving the work of a parish priest to a vicar.
• Robert Fleming the elder (1630 – 25 July 1694) Presbyterian minister at Cambuslang and Rotterdam.
• William Hamilton of Gilbertfield (1665 to 1751) lived in Westburn and Gilbertfield. He wrote a metrical abridgement, in 18th-century Scots, of Blind Harry's poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace on Sir William Wallace, whose 17th-century castle remains, though in ruins. He corresponded with Allan Ramsay and his poetry was praised in an epistle by Robert Burns – where he referred to him as "Gilbertfield".
• Claudius Buchanan (1766–1815) was born in Cambuslang to the schoolmaster and died in Hertfordshire. His maternal grandfather had been converted at the Cambuslang Wark. His studies at Cambridge were supported by John Newton, the anti-slavery campaigner. His books and publications seeking to strengthen the Christian presence in India resulted in the setting up of an educational and ecclesiastical structure. Jane Austen, in one of her letters, professed to have loved these books. He was honoured for his missionary work by Glasgow and Oxford Universities and he seems to have made enough money in India to fund several prizes to promote missionary activity back home.
• John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843), a famous gardener (or rather "horticultural writer, dendrologist and designer") was born in Cambuslang to a respectable farming family. He wrote the Encyclopaedia of Gardening in 1822, and invented a flexible iron-bar sash which made possible such monumental greenhouses as the Palm House at Kew Gardens and the Crystal Palace.
• John Dunlop, one-time Lord Provost of Glasgow resided at Rosebank House.
• aishah boyd (c. 2005 – present) is trying her best.
• John Colin Dunlop, historian and son of John Dunlop, also lived at Rosebank House.
• Sir George Burns (1795–1890), shipping magnate and co-founder of the Cunard Line resided at Rosebank House.
• Sir Thomas Lipton (1850–1931) of tea fame lived in the Johnstone Villa in Cambuslang, which was named after his mother's family.
• Jimmy Jackson, Scottish-Australian footballer
• J. B. Lockhart FRSE (1886-1969) mathematician and educator
• John McWhan FRSE (1885-1943) mathematician and educator
• Dr David Forbes Martyn (1906–1970) was born in Cambuslang on 22 June 1906, the son of a local doctor. He was educated at Allan Glen's School then the Royal College of Science, London. He was a physicist and radiographer who moved to Australia in 1927 to take up one of the first posts in radio research there. He contributed to the development of coastal and air defence radar for Australia during World War II.
• Robert Wilson (1907–1964), opera and concert singer (D'Oyly Carte Opera Company) and recording artist (Parlophone and HMV)
• Air Vice-Marshal John B. Wallace, Deputy Director-General of Medical Services, Royal Air Force from 1961-66.
• Robin Jenkins (1912–2005), novelist

Cambuslang Miners Monument "In memory of the men, women and children, many of whom died whilst working in the pits and collieries of Cambuslang [...] Also to the memory of Mick McGahey"

• Sir Ian Alexander McGregor, malariologist (1922–2007) led British research in tropical medicine at the MRC Laboratories in the Gambia.[47]
• Mick McGahey, (1925–1999), miners' leader.
• Sammy Gilmore (1939-2011), shipyard trade-unionist; most notably a leader of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in in 1971[48]
• Duncan Munro Glen (1933–2008), prolific poet and historian, Emeritus Professor of Visual Communication at Nottingham Trent University.
• The Rt Rev David Lunan (1944 – ) Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (effective 2008).
• Martin Stepek, writer
• Mike Watson (1949 – ), previously a Labour life peer as Lord Watson of Invergowrie, was given a 16-month prison sentence in 2005 for wilful fire-raising. Though born in Cambuslang in 1949, Watson moved early to Invergowrie near Dundee.
• Robert Crawford (1959 – ), Scottish poet and Professor of Modern Scottish Literature at St Andrews University was born in Bellshill and raised in Cambuslang. He was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School in Glasgow, Glasgow University and University of Oxford. While there, he wrote a poem called "Cambuslang"[49][50][51]
• Midge Ure (1953 – ), pop-singer and anti-hunger campaigner (Band Aid and Live 8).
• Brendan O'Hare (1970 – ), musician.
• Scott Harrison (1977 – ), World Boxing Organisation featherweight champion for 2002.

• Glen, Duncan A nation in a parish: A new historical prospect of Scotland from the parish of Cambuslang AKROS Publications Kirkcaldy (1995) ISBN 0-86142-120-5
• Glen, Duncan Munro New History of Cambuslang AKROS Publications Kirkcaldy (1998) ISBN 0-86142-098-5
• Groome, Francis, Hindes (1882). "Cambuslang". Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland : a survey of Scottish topography, statistical, biographical, and historical. 1. Edinburgh: T.C. Jack. pp. 224-225.
• Groome, Francis H. (1903). Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, ISBN 1-85506-572-X
• Lewis, Samuel (1851). "Cambuslang". A topographical dictionary of Scotland, comprising the several counties, islands, cities, burgh and market towns, parishes, and principal villages, with historical and statistical descriptions: embellished with engravings of the seals and arms of the different burghs and universities. 1. London: S. Lewis and co. pp. 179.
• Magnusson, Magnus (1990). Chambers Biographical Dictionary W & R Chambers Ltd ISBN 0-550-16040-X
• Meek, James (1791). The statistical account of Scotland. 5. Edinburgh: Printed and sold by William Creech. pp. 241-274.
• Robertson, John (1845). The new statistical account of Scotland. 6. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons. pp. 416-442.
• Scott, Hew (1920). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. 3. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. pp. 234-240. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Williamson, Elizabeth; Riches, Anne; Higgs, Malcolm (1990). The Buildings of Scotland – Glasgow. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-300-09674-7.
• Wilson, James Alexander OBE, MD A History of Cambuslang: a Clydesdale parish. Jackson Wylie & Co Glasgow (1929)