I’m no Indiana Jones. And I’m not an archaeologist either. But I think I’ve solved an archaeological mystery.
The Camphill fort is a large circular earthwork atop Queen’s Park, almost 100m in diameter. The rampart is now much eroded, and the surrounding ditch has been filled in for a road or path, but it would have been a substantial structure in its day. For years archaeologists have pondered its origins.
There was a time (a few days ago) when I was blissfully unaware of the existence of Moray Park. It was a neighbourhood that appeared and then disappeared, and is now long forgotten like some Glaswegian Brigadoon. Even those few who knew of it weren’t sure where it was.
So it’s time to reveal the story of Moray Park.
When modern Strathbungo was first developed in the 1860s-1880s it was given the fancy name of Regents Park. This persisted into the early 20th century, but finally lost out to Strathbungo, and is largely forgotten. Like the street names, it refers to the Regent Moray (Regent Park Square, Moray Place), who fought Mary Queen of Scots (Queen Square) at the nearby battle of Langside.
Building stalled following completion of Princes (now Marywood) Square in 1884, leaving a large plot of vacant ground to the south between Marywood Square and Titwood Road. I had assumed it remained farmland or waste ground, but this was Moray Park, and it had a rather more interesting history, particularly for sports fans.
Sometimes it’s the little details that are of interest, but easily passed over during renovations. Here’s an account of one day’s finds.
While repairing a floor in the house after some central heating work, I found a fragment of card in amongst the rubble between the joists. It was an old train ticket, from Maxwell Park to Glasgow Central. Issued by the British Railways Board, it looked ancient, but only carried the date of 8 November, and no year.
This was an Edmondson train ticket . It was invented by the station master at Brampton on the Newcastle to Carlisle line, and widely introduced in 1842, replacing hand written tickets. It came to be adopted all over the world, but to my surprise was only withdrawn in the late 1980s, when it was replaced by the modern orange and cream credit card sized ticket. I also found a 1979 copy of the Evening Times stuffed into a gap in the wall, so maybe the ticket wasn’t quite so ancient after all.
However the same day a neighbour told me of a find amongst the joists in his attic. It was a Strathbungo beer bottle.
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