Stories from 80 Years of Pollok Housing

Stories From 80 Years Of Pollok Housing

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Choose building dens Choose hanging out with mates

Choose school Choose important landmarks

Choose cats Choosedogs C h o o s e f a m i l y Choose playing out in the street

Chooseparks Choose woods Choose litter Choose community

Choose home Choose Pollok

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Introduction

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This booklet has been produced by the Village Storytelling Centre to celebrate the hidden stories of people living in Pollok. Marking the 80th anniversary of the first sod of earth being cut to build the Pollok Housing Estate, this project seeks to mark the lives of the people who have lived here and will live here in years to come.

This project celebrates 80 years of social housing in Pollok, exploring the ups and downs of a community that goes from strength to strength.

Despite difficulty and challenge, the voices of the people who live and work in this area reflect the immense love and care that they have for it. From new beginnings to the next 20 years, all the people that have been interviewed in this booklet have offered us a peek through the window of their lives into the impact that the local area has had on them. As Pollok looks to the future these stories provide a glimpse into the hopes, dreams and memories of the people who have shaped its past and will no doubt guide its future.

We hope that this booklet inspires you to share your own story. It has been pleasure to capture these stories from all local residents and we feel privileged to hear the many wonderful things that have happened over the years.

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This project has been funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund. www.villagestorytelling.org.uk

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The riv ers

Mov ing In

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thanks and acknowledge ments

We were young once

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woo ds and par ks the streets

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Moving in In 1937, Sir John Stirling Maxwell sold his 746,368 acre site to the City of Glasgow Corporation, marking the start of the Glasgow slum clearances and the buildingofnewoutlyinghousingestates.

He worked closely with the Corporation, creating a vision for Pollok that became a bold blue print for future social housing. The plan was to create a real community,key to which was low density housing, open community green space with additional facilities such as shops, schools and other amenities.

Since its completion,the areahas become home to tens of thousands of people, with several generations of families living in homes built in the pre and post war periods.

For many people who moved into the first houses built, a new house in Pollok was afresh start,anewhome,more space and new possibilities. How did it feel to first cross that threshold into your new home? Here’s two accounts‌

17 March 1947

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‘When our name came up for a new house, there was lots of neighbours being given new houses, our name came up and my mother was delighted. It was just up the hill on Ladymuir Crescent. On the day of moving, the local coal merchant arrived, not on a horse and cart, we’d moved on a bit, it was a lorry and the first thing I did was got the family pet, the cat Tibby and he put me in the cabin. Folk came down with furniture and started piling it on. One of my uncles was one of the last to come down to put a chair up and then he got on the back of the lorry.

Then the driver, my dad, my grandad squeezed me in the middle with my cat.

My other two uncles who we helping that day jumped on their bikes and came from Govan as fast as they could and we arrived in Pollok. I was looking about at all these gleaming new houses. Marvellous. The gardens were building site gardens, loose bricks here, scattered blobs of cement. They took me out, the cat and took me in. The uncle who had the big armchair brought that in left it by the side of the fireplace and sat me in it. So I’m watching everything that’s going on, all the coming and going. Then my dad says, ‘We’re going out for a beer, your mum will be coming up with the rest of the clan so you just hang on here’. I says, ‘Aye, it lets me have a look about’, so they absconded, I let the cat down.

A room for my mum and dad, a room for us boys and a room for my sisters.

Magic. When my mum arrived she said ‘Where’s the cat?’ So, I went to look and there it was, I kid you not, it was straddling the toilet doing the business. I wish I’d taken a photo. It was looking at me, ‘shut that door’. That was the flitting day.’

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June 1949

‘We came out to Pollok and it was another world, we were transformed and to come

along on this bus journey with uncle Arthur and Louise and the cat, and him telling his stories.He was a wonderful storyteller,telling his stories from when we left Eglington Toll til we got to the Greenbridge here in Pollok.

We got here and he takes us up the road, the back of the church there to Templeland Road, there’s a garden! And then we go through this door and a great big living room with windows to the front,windows to the back,and a garden at the back as well!

I was in seventh heaven.’

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The Rivers As people moved into their new homes a new

playground emerged for the children and families.

Freshair,greenspacesandnaturedefinedthisnew and exciting place to live. As the White Cart river twists and turns its way through Pollok, it is joinedbyLevernWaterandBrockBurn.Thesethree

rivers echo with the sound of laughter as the

people from Pollokpastand presenthave splished and splashed their way through childhood. The

following stories reflect the youthful nature of this estate,the importance ofchildhoodmemories and howthe rivers have been an importantsource

of joy despite being around long before the first house was finished on Pollok estate.

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‘We all used to swim in the burn. They made a swimming pool in Govan, Harthill. You went there to get your bath. It was too far away, you needed your bus fares, then [money]to get in and then for your pie and Bovril… So it was a lot of money whereas you could make diluting orange, pieces and spam or chopped pork and take them down to the burn...

Of course it was cold but you didn’t care. Loads of people would gather round there.’

‘We used to paddle under the bridge. See the bridge at Corkerhill, when it was summer. That first year when we came up was a lovely summer. The water was just about that depth. There were nice wee stones and we used to paddle there. My mum didn’t mind that because it was shallow. If you went on the other side of the bridge it was deep and I couldn’t swim so I never went near it.

We paddled at this wee bit.’

‘I was a tom-boy, always climbing into trees and getting into trouble.

I would hang-out at the waterfalls, down at Bonnyholm. The waterfalls have all been altered, but at that time it was a good waterfall. I used to go down there and fish for tiddlers and things like that, and climb up through the roots of trees.’

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‘My mother bought me new sandals. These brown Clarks sandals. My pal and I were crossing the falls so I took them off and put them beside me. Why? One of my sandals fell into that side of the falls which was deep. I just stood there. “My sandal!” And I asked some of the boys there if somebody could but nobody could get it. I had to walk home with two socks on one foot and my other sandal on the other… stupid things you do when you’re nine.

I get home and I’m just scared to tell my mother. I says “Mum, I’ve lost my sandal…” She said “Where did you lose your sandal?” “At the waterfall…” “WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT GOING TO THAT WATERFALL?” Anyway, my dad came back with me. He gets in with shoes and socks off and he’s in but you couldn’t go down to that side because it was deep so he got a big stick but you know, he couldn’t even reach the bottom.

So that was me taken home and my mother says “You’ll just need to spend the summer in your old school shoes”. It was the beginning of the summer holidays.

But that following weekend, she went and bought me a pair of white sandals. It was terrible but it was worth losing the brown ones!’

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‘My brother was fishing with the boy up the stairs, at the river. You know, down at that right hand side.

I was standing at the bank, watching them and the bank gave way and I ended up in the middle.

My brother came out. He couldn’t swim either but he was a bit bigger than me so the two of us were going like this… to try and get in. We got in, he goes up the stairs and granny was watching us. She had just finished washing all the floors and us two came dripping in all over the place. Well… my brother got it.

When my mum came in from work, she said “You do realise they could have drowned?”’

‘This bit of the burn was the most dangerous part. It used to grab you in. I don’t know if it was weeds and stuff. But people died here. You weren’t allowed to go down the bend but at the waterfall there was always lots of kids to keep an eye on you.

There was a bit here called the beach. The beach. It was about the size of a double bed. It was sand and dirt and it sort of molded itself into a bit of a beach, so when you were going tadpole hunting there was a flat bit that you could stand and sit.’

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‘I had a friend who lost a dog in the river. It was icy. It was a boxer pup.

I remember it was a winter night and my friend took her dog down to the river. The ice broke and she never got the dog back.’

‘The swans used to nest on the river there, on the White Cart. And as I was coming home from school one day, I saw boys throwing stones at the nest and I was furious.

And me, I just saw them all off and said that there was no way that that was happening. So I then protected the nest, and made sure that the swans and the cygnets were safe.’

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‘We used to build a swing next to the river and you’d let go and fall in the river and I can remember that you’d be swimming around and then as you’d swim back the rats used to run along the embankment and it never bothered you because you’d just jump in again. I remember the year that it was absolutely stifling and one of my pals went in and when he came out we were all shouting, ‘Oh my god, he’s covered in leeches!’ So my dad had to heat a poker up in the gas oven and he burnt all the leeches off him. The swans used to chase you as well and attack you if you went near the river, they used to chase you along Linthaugh road.’

‘You know what else I remember? The burn. See my mum lived at Crookston Castle, so my brother and friends and stuff, used to go down the side of the burn and go under the bridge. But, we kept getting leeches in our wellies. And of course my brother, typical boy, wanted to burn them off, and tried to burn the leeches off and set my wellies on fire. There must have been treads or something around the edge of my wellies, because the leech was stuck [on my leg] and he was trying to burn the leech and set the leech on fire. I think he burnt my leg actually… They were like wee half worms, they were tiny, they weren’t very big. But then when they get full up, because my brother put one on to see how long it was before it fell off, because when they’ve had their fill they just fall off and he kept it on, and this thing got really fat. It was huge! It looked like a slug, so it went from this skinny wee pencil thing to this slug, and he was like I don’t feel so good.

And I was like, I’m not surprised.’

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Woods and Parks As the water brought life and laughter to the people of Pollok the trees and woodlands thatonce covered this entire stretch of land still provide an epic playground for children and adults alike.Pollok,Rosshall and Househillwood Park have all provided green spaces as the houses and streets of Pollok were being built all around. These stories reflect their importance to all ages from children to teenagers to parents, and help us remember the importance of green spaces and places to play for everyone.

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‘We used to play behind McGills Primary School, where the old water tank was. We’d play hide and seek in the woods.

We’d play soldiers. We’d crawl like soldiers and use bricks as grenades, throw them at our brothers. We used to shout, “INCOMING” and we’d all duck because it was a brick and if you got hit with it, you got hit with it, if you know what I mean.’

‘My woods was the Bluebell woods at Bonnyholm where the waterfalls are. See where the new houses are and there’s a new swing park. Going through there and going through the Moss circus, we’d get all the bluebells there. We used to go for raspberries and everything. There was like a wee ditch at the beginning of the woods and there was a wee river that went down into the big river. We used to play in there and go and get brambles and raspberries. We used to climb up the trees.’

‘This was called the wee woods. There were paths on either side, people used to cut across. We’d play chases and hide and seek. These were the big woods, this is where the big boys would be winching and drinking. So that was bad for us to go there so we’d say there was a bad man there. The bad man was up there. The big woods would stretch all the way to Lyoncross road. That was quite a distance to travel as a youngster.’

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‘ ‘Pollok Country Park, we love there. We go there all the time, especially now we have the little one. I think it’s great. It’s a huge, huge park and it’s great for kids. And often on a Saturday morning, the three of us will go up and do the Pollok park run…. It’s a great atmosphere, we’ve got loads of friends there. It’s just a good thing to get [my boy] involved in from an early age. I mean he doesn’t run. He’s in the pram and we push him. But it’s a good thing to get involved in.

On average there’s about 400 people there on a Saturday morning running at half-nine. You’ve got serious club runners, you’ve got joggers, walkers, families. On Christmas Day they organise it as it well, and you’d think because its Christmas day no one would turn up, but it’s a good turnout. We often go on Christmas morning because it’s fun, and it’s a great way to start the day, and people go dressed up and there’s mince pies and tea and coffee and that afterwards. ‘

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The caves. I used to go to the caves with my friends. We used to sit and have a drink in there with my friends.

It was one night when we were all out drinking and we were having a good night when one of the boys fell into the water. The pond. You can imagine it. It was good times. He was that drunk.

Then the police came out and we were kidding on that we were at a party in Pollok but we were actually just walking about.

They told us to go home but we said we lived in Penilee when we actually lived in Pollok. It meant that we could go to the garage and then come home.’

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‘Rosshall Park. I go all the time. There’s this tree where I used to play a lot as a kid. It’s nostalgic.

If you get the word ‘tree’ and get the word ‘magic’ and mix them together. You get ‘Magitree’. I used to do running there and I go cycling there every so often. I go through there to get to my Auntie Mo’s.

The trunk of the tree is really thick, there’s a wee puddle over there and it’s surrounded by fallen leaves so you can’t actually see the ground you’re standing on. There’s a bit of rock and some squidgy stuff, like mud.

I’ve taken people there and they’ve stood on the rock and slipped over into the squishy stuff, which is pretty funny. The branches go up and across and they fall back down again so it is enveloping all around you, like a cloak. And I thought, ‘How’d they do that, is it magic?’ In winter, the leaves have fallen off but it’s not bright. There’s a feeling of ominousness. It’s not creepy because it’s safe but it’s not something you would see as safe unless you were inside it. It’s shady.

In summer it blooms and garlic plants grow all around so there’s a really nice smell. There’s always a bird or two when you first go in there so you always hear fluttering. The leaves are really thick and every so often there’s a wee peep of light just coming through and it’s really bright.’

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‘I like Pollok park because when I was in P6 we went to Pollok house and we all dressed up as characters from the Victorian age and this was when I had my favourite teacher. He left that year. It was the last trip that my class and my teacher had. I like Pollok House because it’s generally pretty fun. I had one of those hats that the stereotyped French wear. I had a waistcoat had these tartan trousers and a shirt and bow-tie.’

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The Streets The streets of Pollok have a unique way of bending and snaking their way around the undulating landscape of this former private forest. They loop, swirl and curve around boulevards of Braidcraft and Brockburn Road. These streets hold stories not only of fun and play but also gang violence and vermin. These stories reflect both the positives and negatives that have been caused by the infrastructure of these new streets.

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‘Whenever the tennis came on everybody played tennis because on Linthaugh Road there was no houses in front of you, it was just grass and a grass verge, so everyone used to get tennis rackets and we’d used that as a net.

We used to mark it out with chalk. And I remember the year there was no chalk, so I used my mother’s tin of emulsion.

Straight onto the road. I remember the police coming up to have a word with me, and I told them there was no chalk left so I just painted it on. It was there for a long time but it eventually went away.’

‘On my street there’s lots of nice people; Cooper’s Nana lives down the street, my friend Eva lives across the road and Lewis, who isn’t from my school, he lives across the road as well and we play. There’s a lot of things that go on in my street. There’s the shops. Anthony and Fletcher were in the shop and a man with a gun threatened them. But he’s never come back.’

15 23 Food for thought

‘It used to flood a lot. Levernside was really bad, used to see people out in their canoes, that’s how bad it was. Every year it would flood. People would come and collect you in their canoes and take you to the shops. Then take you back. Devol Crescent would flood, people would be out in boats. They’d take you just around the corner where there is no flooding.

They’ve built up [the banks] now, it doesn’t come over anymore.’

‘Do you remember the valley behind the old Leithland primary school. That’s where a lot of the kids played. The valley. We’d just hang about. Play hide and seek, chase, tig, just typical kids games. It was really good. You were up high and could see all Pollok. It was brilliant. It ended up that there was a lot of teenagers going up and drinking. And that put a stop to it.

There was always a fire up in the valley.’

‘There’s a street that’s too long on one end and too long on the other and it looks short on one side but it’s not.

And it looks shorter on the other side. Ok, ok, so here’s my house. So I’m walking down down to the Storytelling Centre and I’m thinking, ‘That way’s long, and that way isn’t’. But it’s not the case. So it takes longer than expected. And that’s why I miss my bus. It’s longer than I think it is.’

‘I know they’re vermin [rats] and they’re disgusting but we played amongst them. The only time it was really bad was when there was a strike from the midden men. The bin men went on strike when we were wee and the army had to come in to lift the rubbish at the time but the streets were filled with rubbish. So the rats used to come across from the river and in the morning before we left the house to go to school my dad would go out with a pole and batter the close with the pole and the rats would all scurry. But he’d also go out with a shovel, kill them, scoop them up and lift them into the bins.

They were starting to bite people then and that’s when the army got involved.’

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‘Recently we had to get litter pickers in our school because everyone is dropping litter again.

I volunteered because I respect the school and I want it to look nice for all the wee ones joining.

I don’t want them to leave because everybody drops litter. It’s really upsetting – you don’t expect that off the big ones! They need to set an example.’

‘It used to be bad for fights. Brockburn road was bad for that, fighting every weekend. Really bad. Quiet now.

Now the tenements are away. The Bushwackers and the Pollok young team. They used to fight every weekend on the bridge. You couldn’t walk across the bridge at some points. It’s very quiet now, you’re not scared to walk around the streets any more. I remember that you couldn’t let the kids out. You’d get jumped walking to the shops. If they didn’t know you they’d jump you.

They wouldn’t care what age you were because I remember my son was heading over to the Chinese to get chips and curry sauce and they stole his food off him and everything because they all used to hang around on the bridge. You’d be terrified to walk along the bridge. You don’t get that anymore.’

‘You don’t get that anymore’, is a key phrase usedbymanypeopleonthisproject.Although Pollok itself developed a reputation in the 70s and 80s as a place not to venture, it is important to note that everyone who we spoke to who lives and works in Pollok felt thattheywerestillfightingthisreputation andwantedtherestofGlasgowtoknowthat Pollok was on the whole a friendly, happy and welcoming community.

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Gone but not Forgotten There have been many changes in Pollok sincethefirstgrasswascuttomakeway for social housing 80 years ago.Time has moved on and so have manyof the people and places that were first built as part of this redevelopment.These snippets of stories show us that change can be good and itcan be bad.There are lessons to be learned from what we miss and what we are glad to see the back of.

Food for thought 218 6

The Bundy The Bundy took its name from the Corporation Clock situated on the Barrhead Road. These clocks

were a means by which Glasgow Corporation were

able to time their bus crews as they had to clock on at intervals on their route. The Clippie was responsible for this task. This housing estate on

the Peat Road Roundabout, The Bundy, was a place

fewpeople can forgetand had a reputation in the area - it is perhaps unfairly remembered. It has

now been replaced by developments around Peat Road roundabout.

‘The Bundy, it was not a place you wanted to venture at night.’ ‘ There was the Crew and the Cross. You couldn’t cross the road because there’d be fighting in the street.’

‘The Bundy was a place where Silverburn is now. It seemed to be where a lot of tougher people who lived there. There was a gang from the Bundy and they used to fight people from the town and they used to fight them in the gorbals.

There was the 50 gang, the 9 gang, the 21 gang, the Bushwackers. Across in Brockburn Road, this is the Cross, and as soon as I come across to here I’m in the Crew. When the Bushwackers are fighting the Pollok Young Team, that’s here. You don’t see much about the Bushwackers or the Crew and the Cross anymore.’

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Bellarmine School On the site ofSilverburn,Bellarmine Schoolstood

for over 40 years before moving to become St Pauls Catholic High School.

‘Bellarmine was a huge thing in the area. It was a big school, particularly their drama and their arts department was exceptional. It was bigger than every other place, kinda, round-about here at the time, so everybody kinda came from wide and far. They got big budgets. Winnie Dean was the person who was in charge of it all, and she really just took it over, and it was fabulous. Jerry Dougherty who was my soupies [teacher], he was really good as well so… as I said, it did really flourish.’

I remember going along with my mum, when she was registering me, because we were moving [into the area].

And I remember thinking it was a posh school because they had the long, pleated skirts and everything, like the Hutchie. I mean I never wore one of them, but I just thought “oh my goodness, this is so posh.”

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19 Stories of Recovery

The Pollok Centre ThePollokCentre,builtin1979,satwhereSilverburnShoppingCentre

stands now. For many, the Centre provided an important space for intergenerational gatherings, chatter and a place where the whole

community was welcome. On the whole people felt that this had

been lostwith the building of Silverburn,a place thattheyfeltdid not primarily serve people from the local community.

‘It was great. A lot better than Silverburn. Lots of shops.

They had a big market. Lots of different places. Lots of cheaper places. It was good for meeting friends. Having a gab.’ ”Do you remember the toilets?”

“Yep, toilets outside. Chemist, Farm foods, the bingo hall, there was two markets really, there was one big market at the back that used to be the co-op.”

‘There used to be a clock. Used to go off every hour. I loved watching the clock with my sister. As a child. Every hour.There was a lion in the middle and two wee birds that would tweet. I’m sure there was a clown. Every hour on the hour, that would go off. The kids used to like it. They’d stand round and watch it. It had seats so you could sit. In a square. You could just sit and watch the clock. People would get their sausage rolls from Greggs and sit and watch the clock.’

‘A friendly, casual sort of place. It had a clock, as you came in the shopping centre there was a structure holding up and they had stuck upon the top of arches. And it was one a bit like the Nuremberg one, a cheap version of that. And at the quarter it went - ding dong, and a couple of dings shoot like that, but at the hour it went - ding dong, ding dong, ding dong. And the group of little animals all did things: stood up, sat down. They weren’t madly exciting, they weren’t as good as Nuremberg, they didn’t go in circles, but they moved. And every hour you would find grandparents with tiny toddlers in a great row all transfixed. And then it would start – ding dong, ding dong, the lead up and the children go, ‘It’s coming! It’s coming!’ And everybody would rush, and on the hour, ‘Whooooooh!’

21 29 Amusing musings

We Were

Young Once Pollok has always been an area for families.Parents with children given the opportunity for a new start. Now those same children who moved into the first houses are grandparents but one thing that’s always been evident as you walk through the streets of Pollok is the young people that call this place home.

We were young once and these stories are from allthree generations ofPollok residents

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‘We were always out, we went to clubs. We used to go to Connie’s disco. I went in the afternoon because that’s when the young ones went, then when you got older you were allowed to go to the older one. It used to be a local DJ called John Burns, Burns’ disco. Everyone from Pollok went to that disco at the chapel hall. It ran for years and years and years. It was good.

I remember going with a long dress on. And after the disco we’d walk to the nearest chippy to get a bag of chips and a pickle. Mosspark chippy, it was the only one open on a Sunday.

I was about 16 when I stopped going.’

23 31 Stories of Recovery

‘So that was me until I was 25. I loved it up here, I really loved it up here because we went about in a crowd. There was three girls, one came from Govan, one came from Dowrie Crescent and I was Househillwood. The boys all worked on the railway but they all lived on the other side, Brockburn Road and that.

Money was short but the boys always seemed to go to the pictures more than us, we went more to the dancing.

Then we’d go on a Saturday night, maybe a Sunday night they would come to my mother’s house and we’d just sit and play games, play guesses. It was like, I know a man, and you gave the initials, somebody would say, ‘Is he a producer? Is he a director?’ Like a guessing game. Or we’d play cards.’

‘The other house we went to was wee Mrs. Grey’s.

She stayed in Levernside road before you came to the shops and of course you always left about 10 o’ clock because nobody stayed out to twelve or anything like that then. But what we used to do to Mrs Grey was when we left she would say, ‘Shhh, don’t be too noisy.

I don’t want my neighbours complaining.’ So we would all eight of us go outside the gate, ‘[hushed] Good night Mrs Grey, good night’. Once we got outside the gate we started shouting, ‘GOODNIGHT MRS GREY!’ She used to go mad. She’d say, ‘You’re not getting back!’, but it was all great fun, it really was great fun.’

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‘I accidentally rode into the river once. I got very wet.

I have this cousin, he’s in high school. I was at the edge of the water and he was cycling on the inside of the path.

He decided to turn his bike suddenly, not to bash me but to joke and I thought he was going to crash into me so I turned my bike and I fell in the river. I skidded sideways but decided to save my bike but I got very soggy because it was quite deep. I bruised my leg.

Guess what, I came home wet. It was hilarious.

Even though I was freezing and soaking and there were tadpoles everywhere and I was terrified.

My cousin was laughing at me but I just sprayed him with water from my bottle.’

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‘What the children wore at the school was quite fascinating!

At lunch time she came home and said, “I can’t go back to school, everybody is laughing at me.” What was the matter? Why? It was something to do with what I was wearing. Right, what were they wearing? What were the girls wearing? The girls were wearing skirts with jumpers and socks. What my daughter was wearing, which was absolutely the norm for the city centre, was an outgrown toddler dress which went over the top as a tunic.

And leggings down to the bottom. So warm, covered up from top to toe, but a variation on a Pakistani salwar kameez outfit. Right.

And it was using up outgrown outfits and keeping you warm from top to toe. Right. And she just got hooted out, so I had to go out and get her a skirt, and a jumper and socks. And she was frozen for the first six months till she got used to it.’

‘I was the youngest and had two brothers, so my middle brother, I had to play with him, there was a year and a bit between us so his pals were my pals. Whatever they played, I played. We used to play down the River Cart and my oldest brother, when the pitch and put closed down, he took all the wood from there and took it to our close. Outside the back door he built us a den. My dad carpeted it and my mum put curtains in it. My mother would boil us eggs, we’d always sit in the den and eat boiled eggs.’

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This project would not have been possible without Pollok Community Centre, Cllr David MacDonald, Peter Savage, Iain Mulholland, Irene O’ Brien, The Mitchell Library, Gordon McDonald, the storytellers, Crookston Community Group,LittleAngels,LittleAmigos,Kidding On, Say it Ain’t Sew, St Paul’s Catholic High School, St James Lunch Club and all our volunteers, and everyone in the community who were generous enough to share their stories with us and who make this community what it is.

Thank You

Pollok Looking Forward This booklet is merely a starting point to Pollok 80/20.

With this work we have attempted to scratch the surface of the stories and memories that lie at the heart of this community. We recognise that everybody has a story to tell along with hopes and dreams for their home. We hope that this booklet has brought about reminiscences of your house, your street and your community. Pollok 80/20 seeks to not only look back but to look forward, learning from the mistakes of the past but also celebrating and building on the positive community experiences that have occurred since that first sod of earth was lifted in 1937.

This booklet is a living document and we hope that it has inspired you to share your story and your passion for this area. But how?

This booklet has been produced alongside an interactive map, which is filled with audio stories from the residents who live and work in this area.

Take a tour of the Pollok area and listen to the stories of the local residents by visiting www.villagestorytelling.org.uk If you wish to provide your own tale or share your hopes for the future then contact The Village Storytelling Centre on 0141 882 3025 or email us on info@villagestorytelling.org.uk. We’d love to hear from you.

Pollok 80/20ŠTheVillage StorytellingCentre.Allrightsreserved.

PublishedbyThe Village StorytellingCentre,2017.

Thisprojectwasfundedbyagrantfromthe Heritage LotteryFund.

The Village Storytelling Centre is a Scottish Charity [SCO35527] and a company limited by guarantee [268124]