Palacerigg - Times Past

In partnership with the Glasgow Times, our archivists are exploring Glasgow's fascinating history. This week, Irene O'Brien writes about Palacerigg Labour Colony.

Not far from Glasgow sits a piece of land with a fascinating history, dating back to the days of the city’s army of unemployed.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the country was in the throes of wide-scale unemployment, which in 1905 led to an Unemployed Workmen’s Act. This triggered the establishment of Distress Committees across the UK, including by Glasgow Corporation, to help alleviate the hardships caused by unemployment. The unemployed were not eligible for poor relief and the threat of starvation was very real.

The Distress Committees were expected to find work for the unemployed but did not have the funds or any means of raising such funds for the large numbers needing assistance. Glasgow decided to establish a farm or labour colony for Glasgow’s unemployed; an option suggested in the legislation. The same solution was adopted by Edinburgh and various English cities.

In 1907, Glasgow paid £7250 for the large and active farm at Palacerigg and Blackmyreknol, about two miles from Cumbernauld station. It comprised an area of just under 600 acres, 200 of which were arable land, the rest being moorland and rough pastures. It was relatively well suited to the purpose of a farm colony but required work to bring it up to the required standards. 

A superintendent was appointed and by 1908 there were almost 600 men working to prepare the colony. They were kept busy planting trees, making roads, digging drains and quarrying stone.

As there was not yet any accommodation at Palacerigg, they had to travel to work daily. Every morning a special train took them from Buchanan Street to Cumbernauld Railway Station. During 1908 three dormitory buildings were completed, each including a single room for the orderly in charge and six sections each with five beds providing accommodation for 90 men.

Only men with dependents were eligible. They required a good reference from their last employer and each colonist had to agree to accept the work given to him. In return they received food (two meals daily), lodgings and a laundry service; 6d a week for tobacco; furlough every second Saturday afternoon to Monday morning, with return fare to Glasgow.

The wife or mother received 8s per week for their own maintenance, and 1s 6d per week for each child. The total payment for the dependents was capped at 14 shillings a week.

Initially it was thought that men would work for eight weeks and be replaced by another 90 men. But, with rapidly escalating employment in 1908, the Committee was swamped with work requests and felt compelled to take on many hundreds as relief workers, transporting them by train. Every morning at Cumbernauld Station, 800 men would disembark and march up the hill to start the day’s work – cutting peat, reclaiming moorland, and growing various vegetables.

The scheme was still in development, but the original intention was to make the place as self-supporting as possible, by farming, market gardening, brickmaking (there was good fireclay in Palacerigg) and other industries. The colonists were also to be involved in reclaiming land and in afforestation.

Palacerigg was initially bought as a stock farm, but within two years the sheep and cattle were sold to concentrate on peat cutting and the cultivation of vegetables. Unfortunately, most of the land was poor so an ambitious land reclamation programme began. Hundreds of daily workers played a key role here by building a railway line, roads, and ditches for draining fields.

From 1907 to 1912, the area of land under cultivation rose from 16 to over 200 acres. Ninety acres were reclaimed, and 4 miles of roads were built in just 18 months.

In 1921 it was proposed to extend the buildings to take 300 residents instead of 90 but in the next year the government grant was withdrawn. The Distress Committee and the residential aspect of the colony ended in 1930. The scheme was transferred to the Public Assistance Department of the Corporation.

From 1930 to 1945 up to 288 acres of land in Palacerigg were advertised for let. As the depression of the 1930s tightened, unemployed men were brought again from Glasgow, but this time by bus. Up to 26 coaches arrived every morning. In 1946 Glasgow sold Palacerigg.