Dear green place

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Glasgow Green Drying Green

Jude at Travel Words is running a Life in Colour Photo Challenge this year, with the colour changing every month. For March it is green, and as Jude says “it’s easy to find shades of green in nature, but what else can you discover?” I’ll answer that question in a later post, but living in a city sometimes known as the dear green place with its own Glasgow Green I can’t avoid starting with that. And, as always, I can’t avoid including a history lesson along with the pictures!

Green is built into the name Glasgow, which is thought to derive from the Brythonic words glas meaning green and cau meaning hollow. Our oldest public park is Glasgow Green, where local citizens went to wash and dry their clothes from the time the land was gifted to the people in 1450 until the 20th century.

At first, women tramped their washing in large tubs, hitching up their skirts and petticoats, in what was known as Scotch Washing. This became an early tourist attraction, and English travellers in the 18th and 19th centuries commented on the brazen women of Glasgow Green. Later, wash-houses, or “steamies”, were built on the Green, the first opening in 1732 and the last closing in 1960, but the popularity of the common drying green continued up to the 1970s. The city’s bylaws still allow Glasgow residents the right to dry their laundry on the green, where a set of Victorian drying poles is maintained, though they’re seldom put to use these days.

I could almost get away with adding this to Andrew’s Monday Washing Lines challenge at Have Bag, Will Travel. However, there are no lines and no washing on the poles! To get over that, here’s a flashback shot from our October break in Cellardyke. The matching pegs and the carefully separated white washing should please him.

Scotland, UK , , ,

59 Comments »

  1. How wonderful to live in a city called the dear green place. Do you think it makes residents more appreciative of parks and public spaces in the city? It makes sense that before the advent of washing machines, or running water, women would congregate in a public place to do the washing, and of course laundry needed to be hung to dry.

    Jude

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  4. Hi Anabel, This is the first time I have heard about “Glasgow Green.” I appreciate the history lessons (only from you, Anabel, since you make them interesting)🙂 Intriguing about the common drying green. The flashback photo is picturesque and shares a snippet of actual life. Interesting post!

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  5. I walked (or marched) to Glasgow Green during my first ever visit to Glasgow. It was the end point of a demonstration during the black days of the woman with the handbag 👜. I remember it being a cold, grey Winter’s day. I’ve been back there since, a couple of times. On nicer days when it was certainly much greener.

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  6. Hi Anabel – love the washing lines … though probably wise they’re no longer in use – life has changed. Interesting history about Glasgow’s naming . St Patrick’s Day too for a Green Day … we are greening up down here … slow but sure – til the trees burst into green.

    As Jude says – the Cornish ‘glas’ … one I hadn’t come across – so thanks for that – Hilary

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  7. Hi, Anabel – Once again, I’ve learned so much from your post. I love the history lessons that you throw in for us. I’d love to see photos of the wash done with hiked-up petticoats. So interesting!

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  9. Anabel, I think you did get away with it 😉 I do enjoy learning more your history of Glasgow. You’re right thank goodness for modern technology!

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  11. Those Victorian poles would look great with lines of modern washing strung between them 🙂 When I was a child, and right up to 1979 when I moved here and had my own garden, it was common for people living in terraced houses to hang washing on lines strung across the back streets, in fact at one time most back yard outer walls had washing line pegs knocked into them. It was a great way to dry large things like blankets and sheets but you had to remember not to put anything out when it was bin day 🙂 🙂

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  13. That’s really interesting. I didn’t know any of that. I’m sure the poles could be used to hang art, pop up outdoor art gallery springs to mind. X

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  15. I can imagine if it was a windy day in Fife half that washing might end up in the harbour as they are usually exposed areas. Had a day there years ago during the Sea Queen gala and even the bunting was taking off into the air in places.

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  16. Such a fabulous history lesson, I love all your posts! And I love that drying green, such a shame there is no washing hanging up there. And I was chuffed with the use of the word glas – which in Cornwall is used to describe the colour of the sea – blue/green/grey. A great word. And it never occurred to me that it was the colour associated with Glasgow.

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  18. Yes, like Sue I appreciated the information, Anabel. Amazing the things one doesn’t know! Washing would look great on that green. I’m surprised someone hasn’t organised it 🙂 🙂

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  20. What a great story and what an unusual fit for the ‘green’ challenge. I’m so glad the washing poles are preserved in Glasgow even if only to be used as content for a blog!

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    • Thanks Mari! I’ve fixed your comment so it only appears once. We used the poles for a Women’s Library event once (I’m afraid I actually danced round one, not a pretty sight) and I think they have been used for other artistic endeavours, but I’m not sure they are ever used for their original purpose.

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  23. I love drying my clothes on a line but my hubby hates it. I like those Victorian poles and the shot you took it quite neat. How very interesting to learn some history here…those brazen women!

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  25. How interesting, that the name “Glasgow” derives from “green”. Thanks for the info. As to “drying green”: from my childhood I still remember an enclosed courtyard just around the corner from our house, where washing was just spread on the grass to dry. And I also remember – that from France – women doing their washing at the side of a river, by scrubbing the washing on the paved stones at the bank and beaating te washing on the stones.

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  26. Well, I’ve had a rare old history lesson here! Never knew Glasgow was ‘the dear green place’, love the story of the women doing the washing on the green, and those cheeky 18th century English bods seeing it as a tourist attraction! And then the Steamies came along Thanks fo th info!

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