"For every loaf, 12/6d" was how Willie McCulloch in one of his readings of long ago described a Cathcart grocery bill! Just how long ago can be judged from the price of the Glenlivet and also from the fact that this entertainer's records are now prized by the collector.
Towards the end of last century Cathcart had five public houses and four grocers' licenses. By 1920 there were still four pubs but only one licensed grocer. It was in this year that Cathcart went "dry" with the Local Veto Act of 1913. Since then polls have been taken in 1923, 1926 and 1965 but have resulted in no change.
The village stage or mail-coach inn stood quite near the Old Bridge - at Nos. 9 and 11 Snuff Mill Road to be precise. It was a two-storey white-washed thatched house with a garden where strawberries and cream were served as well as the usual refreshments. AlongSide was a row of thatched cottages, demolished in 1893 by Mr Robert Dick, the builder of the present villas.
This 300-year-old "howff", known as the "Wee Thack Hoose in the Glen" and later as "Granny Robertson's" for many years, was taken down and the license transferred to "Ye Old Hoose" at the corner of Crompton Avenue and Old Castle Road where on the entrance floor this name is still faintly discernible.
Thirsty folk may like to hear of the "Cathcart Arms" and the "Black Bull", both within a stone's throw of each other in Clarkston Road opposite Merrylee Road. Gow's public house was at 200 Clarkston Road. John McGaw's Post Office and grocery shop was licensed but in 1893 the "Southern Press" had this to say: "An interesting event took place in Cathcart when Mr McGaw's premises were purified by his whole stock of intoxicating liquor being carted away! Mr McGaw had seen the Light!"
The second grocer lost his licence when found under the influence in his shop, and another failed to get a renewal through some infringement leaving one shop with a licence (Petrie's or Simpson's in Delvin Road) until 1920. In that same newspaper of 1893 some interesting sidelights are thrown on Cathcart which must have been qUite a place! We read that the Cathcart Burns Club held their annual supper in the "Wee Thack Hoose" for the last time as the property had been condemned by the County Council. The Cathcart Curling Club with its pond in Mount Florida, and news items of the Cathcart Orchestra, Cricket, Cycling and Tennis Clubs, all told of a community working hard and playing hard.
The closing years of the century appear to have been outstanding for long dry summers and severe winters. Bonspiels were held at Castlemilk House pond - the last laird of Castlemilk, Captain Stirling Stuart, presiding with the Cathcart team led by Mr Henry E. Gordon of Aikenhead.
The horse-drawn buses carrying passengers who were exposed to all the elements were entertained by "Donnelly", one of the drivers - and obviously Cathcart's answer to MCGonagall. As a regular customer at "Granny Robertson's", none mourned its passing more than he. Here is his descriptive effort, reminding us of a Cathcart far removed from Glasgow where city dwellers used to rent a cottage to pass the summer months:
GRANNY'S AULD HOOSE IN CATHCART
Cathcart is famed for beauty -
Ay, famed a' roun an' roun'
But its auld romantic buildings,
Are nearly a' pu'd doon,
Tae mak' room for improvements
That go on day by day.
The landmarks o' the village
Are wearin' fast away.
CHORUS
The auld hoose, the auld hoose
Close to the auld brig end
O mony a happy nicht's been spent
At the auld hoose in the glen.
The auld hoose for three hunner years
A licence did obtain
And granny held it forty years
Without a blot or stain
And mony a loving couple
To the glen did aft repair
For it was a treat to get a seat
In Granny's garden chair.
You could hear the blacksmith's anvil ring,
An' the auld mill grind away.
An' the River Cart flow by the door
Whaur Granny used to stay.
Behind the hoose up on the hill
Queen Mary's castle stands;
It's the maist romantic village
To be found in a' the land.
Auld Granny she has passed awa'
Unto the ~olden shore;
The auld hoose tae will soon be gone -
We'll never see them more.
o' mony a native o' the place
Will breathe a heavy sigh
When they think upon the auld hoose
An' the days that are gone by.
Donnelly. 1893
(from Gartshore's "Memories of Cathcart")'
Roads used to be little more than bridle tracks but with the passing of the Turnpike Act of 1750 a new era began. The stage coach "clattered in" and new records of speed were made and broken. When coaches travelled at 11 m.p.h. with stoppages then it was time for old folks to shake their heads at the need for such speed.
The first toll house from Glasgow to Ayr was in Netherlee Road at the gate of the Macfarlane Engineering Co. The coach road ran past the "Wee Thack Hoose", etc., over the bridge, along Craig Road past the Black Bull, Bogton Farm, Netherlee, Clarkston, Mearns and on to Fenwick. The "old" or Great Road, Clarkston to Mearnskirk, was made a turnpike in 1750 and the "new" road, Fenwick to Ayr via Eastwood Toll, constituted a turnpike in 1832.
Now,it is the age of speed and concrete, the era of fly-overs, roundabouts, underpasses - with great changes forecast for Cathcart traffic-wise, causing not just the old to shake their heads.....