Cambuslang on old maps

"Claude Somers’ ancestors had been bondsmen to the Dukes of Hamilton. Aged 14, his father, Hugh, had left the family cottage to live in a Cambuslang farm town. It was a group of black houses in which labourers were housed. They worked upwards of twelve hours a day with only milk and oats to eat. Persecution as protestants made their lives worse. His father, for attending a field preaching on Dechmont Hill, had been put to the horn. He was chased over the moors, like a stag, captured, tried and executed." This is a quote from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024). 

John Claudius Loudon's birthplace

Jane Loudon tells us, in her Life of her husband, that 'JOHN CLAUDIUS LOUDON was born on the 8th of April, 1783, at Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, the residence of his mother's only sister, herself the mother of Dr. Claudius Buchanan (the author of a work entitled Christian Researches in Asia). This was written shortly after his death and without her customary attention to detail. The date of his birth was given as 1782 in the Encyclopedia of Gardening. The place of his birth is inexact. 'Cambuslang' could mean 'somewhere in the Parish of Cambuslang'. The Roy Map shows a ferm toun called Cambusland ferm toun. Or, if Alexander Buchanan was a teacher in the Cambuslang Parish School, it could have been near what is now called Cambuslang Old Kirk. The above maps show Cambuslang as it was in c1750, and as it is today.  The Roy Map (left) was surveyed 1747-1750. Red text shows the Whitfield Amphitheatre (later called the Preaching Braes), the Old Kirk on Kirkhill and the ferm toun labelled Cambuslang, which may be where Claudius Buchanan and John Claudius Loudon were both born. The lines which look like hatching on the Roy Map are the strips of ploughed land known as Run Rig in Scotland and Ridge and Furrow in England.

The Roy Map of Cambuslang

In the second half of the eighteenth century Cambuslang changed from the condition shown on the Roy Map of Lowland Scotland (c1755) to its condition on the Richardson map (1795). Claudius Buchanan (born 1765) and John Claudius Loudon (born 1782) lived through this period. The Cambuslang section of the 1755 map shows a late medieval landscape with runrig cultivation strips. A few dwellings are clustered near the church. It is thought to have been built in the 6th century but the oldest record of its existence is in the 12th century. Its location, on Kirkhill, is likely to have been central to small clachans and isolated cottages. This is how it appears on the 1755 and 1795 maps, both with a clachan near the church. The 1859 map shows a new village beside a new railway, with Cambuslang Farm in the same position as on the older maps. Now the site of Teamsport Go-Karting, my assumption is that this is where Buchanan and Loudon were born. ‘Cambuslang Town’ does not appear on the earlier maps.

Pre-Improvement Landscape (c. 1755)

In 1755, Scotland was predominantly rural, with agriculture organized similarly across the lowlands and highlands. Cambuslang, like much of Lanarkshire, was characterized by a dispersed settlement pattern of fermtouns. These small communities included tenant farmers, farm servants, and cottars, who worked together in a mixed farming regime.

• Fermtouns: These were clusters of dwellings with irregularly shaped fields and runrig cultivation. Fields were rarely enclosed, and the landscape was marked by open fields with scattered plots of arable and pasture land.
• Agricultural Practices: Farming was inefficient, relying on traditional methods. The use of infield and outfield systems, where heavily manured infields produced successive grain crops and outfields were used until exhausted, was common. Livestock management required significant labor to prevent animals from straying onto crops.
• Living Conditions: Dwellings were basic, often single-roomed longhouses with thatched roofs and no chimneys. Families built their own homes, and housing conditions were generally poor, with muddy floors and minimal protection from the elements.

The Improvement Movement

By the mid-18th century, the improvement movement began transforming Scottish agriculture, starting in the lowlands and gradually spreading. Landowners, motivated by the prospect of higher rents and inspired by Enlightenment ideas, led these changes. Improvement involved reorganisation of land, introduction of new farming techniques, and better infrastructure.

• Single Tenancies: Multiple tenancies were phased out in favour of single, long-term leases to tenants who were expected to be more motivated and skilled. This shift aimed to increase productivity and foster investment in land improvements.
• Enclosure: Fields were enclosed to better control livestock and implement crop rotation systems. Enclosure also facilitated the introduction of new crops such as turnips and potatoes, which improved soil fertility and provided better livestock feed.
• Technological Advances: The use of lime and other calcareous manures supplemented traditional dung, enhancing soil quality. Improved ploughs and ploughing techniques replaced the inefficient Scots plow, and drainage systems were introduced to reclaim marshy land.

Changes Reflected in the 1795 Map

By 1795, the landscape of Cambuslang had been significantly altered by these improvement practices.

• Consolidation of Farms: The scattered fermtouns had largely disappeared, replaced by individual farmsteads. These farmsteads were more systematically organised, with enclosed fields and improved infrastructure.
• New Crops and Livestock: Crop rotation and the introduction of green crops and manures had increased productivity. Livestock management was more efficient, reducing the need for constant labor to prevent animals from straying.
• Population and Settlement Patterns: The population increased due to higher food production. Villages emerged as new centers of habitation, providing homes for displaced cottars and farm servants. These villages often included housing for rural tradesmen and laborers, reflecting a shift from dispersed rural settlements to more concentrated communities.

Impact on Society

The improvements brought significant economic and social changes. Agricultural productivity and incomes rose, benefiting landowners and leading tenants. However, the consolidation of farms and displacement of sub-tenants and cottars had human costs. Many former residents had to seek new livelihoods, either as labourers in the new villages or in burgeoning industrial centres.

Cambuslang statistics

In 1755 the population of Cambuslang was 934 persons and in 1791 it was 1288 persons. Of the 1288:

• 337 were below 10 
• only 40 were over 70. 
• 40 were born in the Highlands and Western Isles; 
• 193 were married couples; 
• 44 were unmarried households; 
• 132 were servants (male and female); 
• 62 were colliers; 
• 182 were weavers and spinners; 
• 36 were tradesmen; 
• 677 resided in six villages; 
• 611 resided in the the country (as farmers and cottagers); 
• 12 were retailers of British spirts; 
• 3 were grocers; 
• 7 were carters; 
• 3 were gardeners; 
• there was one thatcher, one surgeon, two midwives, one schoolmaster and 1 minister. 

His Grace the Duke of Hamilton owned two thirds of the land and was was the only non-residing heritor. The parish benefited from its proximity to Glasgow which, since the union with England in 1707, had grown rich on importing tobacco from the American colonies and was fast industrialising. Between 1750 and 1790 the land rent of the parish grew from £1000 to £2850. Every farm had croft land, used for vegetables, and field land, used for cereals. Manure was bought 6 miles from Glasgow and sold at 2/6- per cartload. Potatoes were a new crop. Small ploughs were drawn by 2 horses and large ploughs by 3 horses. 

In 1750 the roads had been narrow and rough, scarcely passable with carts in summer, and in winter so deep as to be hardly passable with horses. By 1790, the parish had 'good roads passable at all times for both carts and horses'. In 1750 the wages of a day labourer were 6 to 7 pence/day so. For 300 days work a man earned about £15. By 1790 this had doubled. Apprentices were usually unpaid in rural areas but were often paid if they lived in towns and were skilled. Sunday was a day of rest.