Thatched weavers' cottages at Langside photographed by Duncan Brown c 1889. The Battlefield Memorial, erected in 1887-1888 by public subscription to mark the site of the Battle of Langside, is in the background.
In 1841 most of the twenty-four households in rural Langside consisted of handloom weavers and their families. This cottage industry had disappeared by the time of Brown's visit, in the face of competition from the large textile mills. The last of the former weavers' cottages were demolished around 1905 as the old village was swept away to be replaced by the new villas, tenements and terraced houses of a rapidly-expanding and prosperous city suburb, whose growth had been encouraged in the 1890s by new rail and tramway links to Glasgow.
Duncan Brown (1819-1897) was a talented amateur photographer whose work documents aspects of Glasgow life from the 1850s until the 1890s.
Reference: 55
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow School of Art Archive
Keywords:
Battle of Langside, Battlefield Memorial, children, handloom weavers, monuments, photographers, thatched cottages, weavers, weavers' cottages, women