Mabli Hall writes:
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the 20th May, members and friends of GWL’s East End Detective group gathered at the Mercat Cross to try out a mini taster of the walk that will eventually become the Women’s Heritage walk around the East End of Glasgow. This was the second day of GWL’s Festival of Museum events and it was heartening to see the Walk booked to capacity.
I am one of twenty or so people in this group who, for the last few weeks, have been busy choosing topics and depositing research results into the mysterious and magical ‘Dropbox’ we share on our computers. Now that we are half way through the project this was a chance to transfer the results into the field, so to speak – a chance to refine information and produce a script; a chance for some of us budding tour guides to practice telling the story out loud; a useful opportunity to decide on the best route and resting points, and to anticipate the risks of taking a group of people on a walking tour.
I had volunteered to be one of the speakers, and after recovering from the nervousness of speaking my piece on a street corner on the Gallowgate I was able to enjoy the relaxed and supportive atmosphere of the group and appreciate the walk itself. It was a walk full of variety. The contrasts of time and place dipped us into a mixture of centuries from the sixth to the twentieth and guided us through many different settings.
We started out at the hub of the Mercat Cross with the city merging from the four quarters. We walked along the Gallowgate passing legendary pubs, the famous Barras Market and the Barrowlands, mingling with locals and bargain hunters. Then through the leafy expanse of Glasgow Green before ending up gazing at the elegant and formal architecture of the church in St Andrew’s in the Square.
The women who were brought to life at each of our eight stops also represented a wide spectrum of experiences – we had a saint, an architect, a sculptor, an artist, persecuted witches, a local entrepreneur, a community activist, factory workers, a suffragette, murderers, and a poetess and muse.
I learned that Enoch is a variation of the name Thenew, mother of St Mungo, and so St Enoch was in fact a woman and her festival is on 18th July.
Along the way I wondered about two women in particular – Edith Burnett Hughes (1888-1979) who designed the Mercat Cross and was Scotland’s first female architect, and Maggie McIver (1880-1958), the Barras Queen and responsible for the building of the Barrowlands – they were born only eight years apart, their legacies within a short walking distance of each other and yet their worlds, their backgrounds and culture must have been miles apart.
At Glasgow Green there was a poignant moment looking at the breathtaking Templeton building – its magnificence masking a tragedy involving 29 women and children.
This walk sparked my imagination and sowed the seeds for further investigations – a great medium for history to pass through and a way to enjoy some gentle exercise as a bonus!
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