The historic Glasgow area demolished to make way for new homes

Originally, the area was owned by John Walkinshaw of Barrowfield who was from a family of wealthy merchants.

What is now Calton was once known as the lands of Blackfauld, and was part of the rural Barrowfield estate which included Bridgeton.

From 1705 onwards, Walkinshaw planned to create a weaving community on the Blackfauld lands, a profitable industry at that point in time.

However, Walkinshaw’s support for the Jacobite cause (he fought in the 1715 uprising) led to his downfall, and he was forced to sell his lands.

Glasgow Town Council purchased them from him in 1723 but soon sold these to John Orr in 1730. The Orrs of Barrowfield gave their name to Orr Street in nearby Bridgeton, and under their ownership, the small Calton village expanded eastwards over time.

Although pottery-making was a sizable industry within Calton (with Tureen Street named after several potteries on the street which produced terrines or tureens), the area became most strongly associated with weaving and the cotton trade.

Backland at Wyper's Court (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

From early on, the weavers set about supporting and protecting their trade by establishing societies or incorporations. Within the City Archives collections is a minute book dating from 1725 from the Incorporation of Weavers of Calton and Blackfauld, as well as records from the Second Society of Journeymen Weavers of Calton by Glasgow, and of Calton Burial Ground at Abercromby Street which was set up by weavers in 1787.

A Calton weaver, Mr McLachlan, in 1916 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

What started as a cottage industry, with handloom weavers working from home independently and using local bleaching fields such as those on Glasgow Green, was taken over by bigger manufacturers who paid the handloom weavers, still working at home, set rates for piecework.

Unfortunately, as industrialisation progressed in the 18th century bringing steam powered looms, as well as competition with less expensive imported muslin, wage rates fell sharply.

Calton weavers, c1916 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Thousands of weavers took strike action against the new rates of pay in 1787 but after three long months some desperate weavers broke ranks and went back to work.

Violence erupted and magistrates called in troops to intervene. During one demonstration six weavers lost their lives, three shot dead by troops.

A memorial to the weavers who died now lies in Calton Burial Ground. Although the deaths halted the strike, it has been argued that the dispute set a precedent for workers campaigning for their rights, which continued throughout Glasgow’s history, as seen in the later Radical War of 1820 and in the Red Clydeside years, from 1911 to the early 1930s.

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By 1791, Calton had an estimated population of 6695. Such a sizable suburb required some management, so it’s not surprising that in 1817 it became a barony or burgh by royal charter with a provost, councillors and its own police force.

The burgh’s meeting minutes held in the City Archives show the councillors’ dealings with their watchmen, control of licensed premises, cases of fever and disease, sewage, admissions to the burgess rolls, and more.

A minute book held in the City Archives (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Weaving wasn’t forgotten, as the burgh’s coats of arms included three cats holding weaving shuttles in their mouths.

However, as early as 1833, discussion in the minutes had begun around unifying with Glasgow, and like other burghs adjacent to the ever-growing city, Calton was eventually amalgamated into the city’s boundaries in 1846.

Over the years concern grew over the poor condition of health and housing in Calton. The Corporation of Glasgow reacted in 1930 with the Calton Improvement Scheme.

More than 1000 slum properties were demolished within the former burgh. New tenements were built, replacing many notorious backlands, and many streets realigned.

The old weavers wouldn’t recognise much of the new Calton after the improvements, but perhaps the community spirit they helped to build still existed, as many residents refused to go to the new housing schemes offered by the Corporation, despite cheaper rents.