THE VILLAGE OF EAGLESHAM

The village of Eaglesham is situated in East Renfrewshire, about ten miles south of Glasgow, to the south-east of Newton Mearns, south of Clarkston and south-west of East Kilbride. In 2011 the population of Eaglesham was 3,114.

At the heart of this beautiful place is the 18th century planned village. Many of its buildings are grade ‘B’ or ‘C’ listed but, as a whole, the village is ‘A’ listed.

In 1769 Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton, began the work of developing the old kirktoun of Eaglesham into an elegant planned village with two ranges of houses — Polnoon Street and Montgomery Street — built around the Orry. This area of common land was planted with trees and lawns and with a rivulet running down the middle, intended for the common good.

In the 19th century, the main industries were cotton spinning, weaving and farming. There were several cotton mills, one situated in the Orry employing 200 workers by around 1840, and the other on the nearby Millhall Estate at Polnoon.

The Orry cotton spinning mill, which had one of the largest water wheels in the country, burned down, was rebuilt and modified several times before destruction by fire in 1876 and was never re-built.

With the main industry gone, workers drifted away and the population declined to around 1,000 — a number similar to that at the time of the foundation of the new village in 1769.

In the early 20th century, the village was a resort for summer visitors from Glasgow. Most of the 18th century buildings including beautiful houses and churches, Polnoon Lodge — a former hunting lodge of the Earls of Eglinton — and the former 19th century coaching house, the Eglinton Arms Hotel, survive to this day.

• See a Short History of Eaglesham by Kenneth Mallard here.