Meeting of the Parliament 31 January 2017
I am glad to speak in this debate. The opportunity to talk about the constituency of Motherwell and Wishaw and its heritage is one that I truly relish. My first home was in north Motherwell, adjacent to Strathclyde country park and, as a youngster, I was fascinated by the Roman remains in the park.
It is believed that the Romans came to the Motherwell area in 140 AD. A garrison of some 600 soldiers was based overlooking the South Calder Water. In the 1970s, a bath house was discovered during the landscaping of the park, which revealed a carved drain cover that is thought to be one of the best in Europe. It is now housed in a museum in London, so it might be more than the Lewis chessmen that we seek to have returned.
The area is now protected for wildlife, which I am sure will have been of interest in our year of natural heritage, so further investigations are not possible at the moment. If members are interested, they might want to consult my colleague Gordon MacDonald, who I believe was involved in some of the research while studying archaeology. I was a mere wee lassie at the time.
The bath house is the only standing-stone remains of its type in Scotland and is open freely to the public, making it an attraction for children, dog walkers and tourists alike.
More recently, artefacts from the lost medieval village of Cadzow were found near the M74, during the excavations for the current motorway works near the Raith interchange. I was delighted to be able to attend the unveiling of the finds, at the edge of the motorway bordering Strathclyde country park, along with the then Minister for Transport, Keith Brown. The finds included two structures, coins, pieces of pottery and—not very politically correct for modern Scotland—smoking pipes. Archaeologists believe that they may be more than 1,000 years old and could finally identify the location of the lost village of Cadzow, which was the name given to a community on the edge of the River Clyde at the location until 1445.
The artefacts and structures were uncovered close to a memorial stone marking the former position of the 1,000-year-old Netherton cross—one of the earliest symbols of Christianity and one of the most valuable pre-Norman Christian relics in Scotland.
Warren Bailie, from Guard Archaeology, said at the time:
“Medieval remains rarely survive in industrial centres such as Glasgow due to widespread industrialisation of the nineteenth century, including mining, road and housing construction.
Very few medieval settlements have survived, so we’re delighted to recover and record such a rare and interesting piece of Scottish history.”
There is no doubt that Lanarkshire and some of our most valuable buildings have been ravaged by the industrial era. In my area, very few of the old houses remain, most of them having had to be destroyed because of undermining.
Also included in the Cadzow finds was a lead pistol shot. It was on the floor of one of the structures and is possible evidence that an officer involved in the battle of Bothwell bridge in 1679 may have taken cover in the then ruins of the buildings at Netherton.
That brings me to my next tale of intrigue and interest. Presiding Officer, you will know how I love my dog Coco and that I really enjoy a walk with her at Greenhead Moss in Cambusnethan. One of the most mysterious stories in the area concerns the discovery of a partially preserved body of a man in the peat bog in the 1930s. The remains consisted of decayed fragments of human bones, clothed in a wool jacket, shoes, stockings and a cap. A report on the finds in the Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society concluded:
“Laid upon the improvised stretcher the body was apparently carried over a considerable stretch of desolate bog and disposed of furtively—the burial in unconsecrated ground suggests a case of suicide; yet the slashed bonnet and shoe, indicating sword thrusts, seem to weaken this conjecture.
It cannot be stated definitely whether this killing episode was connected with the fighting induced by the religious disturbances prevalent in the district in the later part of the 17th century.
Nor can it be affirmed whether the victim was a military or civilian person. He did not belong to the very lowest grade of society. If a Royalist he was more likely to have been a foot soldier ... A dragoon in uniform would wear boots, not shoes, and his equipment, as described in the ancient records, was apparently of better quality and ... greater elaboration than that now discovered
If the victim were a Covenanter he may have been cut off unbeknown to his companions and his body, bearing wounds on the neck and foot, carried away secretly and probably in darkness by the aggressors and given a hurried burial”.
The dating of the body was done by a costume expert—a Mrs Helen Bennet of the National Museum of Antiquities—and, just like the stories of the chess men and the drain cover, its story involves a request for return: the central community council in Wishaw petitioned the Kelvingrove museum to have at least part of the remains returned so that they could be interred at the Covenanters monument on Greenhead Moss.
Motherwell is at the heart of Scottish history—so much so that it inspired one of the world’s greatest historians, Tom Devine—so I recommend to everybody to come to Motherwell, surrounded by history and castles. There is the historic town of Lanark, with its links to William Wallace, and there is New Lanark as well. The whole of Scottish history is there, including political history, as we had the first Scottish National Party member of Parliament in 1945.
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