Sandyhills is an area of the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and has fallen within the Shettleston ward of Glasgow City Council since 2007.
The area is bordered by Shettleston to the west, Barrachnie (part of Baillieston) to the east, Mount Vernon to the south-east and Tollcross to the south-west; it is separated from Springboig to the north-west and Barlanark to the north-east by the North Clyde Line railway. A golf course bearing the Sandyhills name forms much of the southern boundary. Most of the area's streets are named after towns and villages in Perthshire.
History The pattern of urban growth in the area has led to an irregular tract of land being referred as Sandyhills today. It was originally a small settlement beside the Tollcross Burn, on the road (now the A89) east from the village of Shettleston in Lanarkshire, and took its name from the extensive country estate of the same name located to the south; both features are clearly marked as Sandyhills on William Roy's Military Map of Scotland (1755).Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-55 (Lowlands), Explore georeferenced maps (National Library of Scotland)
The wider area became known for mining in the 19th century, with two pits in the immediate area (part of the Mount Vernon Colliery)Sandyhills, Gazetteer for ScotlandHousing Conditions of Miners: Barony, Scottish Mining Website sited where Blackford Road and Crownhall Place are today.OS Six-inch 1st edition, 1843-1882, Explore georeferenced maps (National Library of Scotland) The coal was exhausted by the turn of the 20th century, but Sandyhills survived on the periphery of Shettleston, where several other industries became established leading to its growth in size and importance.Industrial Revolution: 1770s to 1830s: Neighbourhoods: Shettleston, The Glasgow StoryHistorical perspective for Shettleston, Gazetteer for ScotlandGlasgow, Shettleston, Canmore Among the oldest buildings in the area are a set of row cottages and the adjacent tenement block containing the 'Gables' public house,The Gables, Old Glasgow PubsThe Gables is open again, Secret Scotland, 2 March 2018 and a terrace of sandstone houses on the opposite side of the road.OS 25 inch Scotland, 1892-1905, Explore georeferenced maps (National Library of Scotland)
Railways provided links in and out of the area for workers and industry, with Mount Vernon North the closest station between the 1880s and the 1950s. Sandyhills Church is located in this area, with the original premises dating from 1900 replaced in the mid 1980s.Sandyhills Parish Church, The Scottish Military Research Group, 14 February 2011 Shettleston was one of several outlying areas which became part of Glasgow in 1912;Second City of The Empire: 1830s to 1914: Neighbourhoods, The Glasgow Story however the older part of Sandyhills remained in Lanarkshire (along with Mount Vernon, Baillieston, Springboig, Carmyle, Fullarton and Foxley) and would remain in the Bothwell constituency until all were absorbed by Glasgow in a reorganisation under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.(UK Parliament constituencies from 1950 (initial review), Boundary Commission for Scotland
The southern part of the Sandyhills House estate (which was part of the 1912 transfer to Glasgow)Ward 37 (Valuation Rolls: List of Wards 1913-1914), The Glasgow Story had been converted to a golf course in 1905,History of our Club, Sandyhills Golf ClubSandyhills Golf Club (Glasgow City Archives, Deposited Collections, 1925), The Glasgow Storyspw053451 SCOTLAND (1937). General view, Springboig, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 1937. An oblique aerial photograph, taken facing east, Britain From AboveGlasgow, 233 Sandyhills Road, Sandyhills Golf Course, Canmore and in the early 1930s a housing scheme was constructed on the north-west part of the estate, essentially being a continuation of the contemporary and near-identical 'garden suburb' development south of Shettleston Road which extended to Ardgay Street at the Tollcross Burn.Shettleston Housing Scheme, Dictionary of Scottish Architects Centred around Amulree Street,Wellshot Laundry (Glasgow City Archives, Deposited Collections, 1922), The Glasgow Story this suburban area has changed little since it was builtOS National Grid Maps, 1944-1967, Explore georeferenced maps (National Library of Scotland) and is where Sandyhills Bowling Club (1930)About, Sandyhills Bowling Club and Sandyhills Post Office 364-374 Amulree St, 1934, Virtual MitchellPolice still seeking man who tried to rob Sandyhills post office, Evening Times, 15 April 2017 are located. These streets are separated from the Tollcross district to the south by a recreation and parkland area, previously a quarry and the Glasgow Corporation's factory producing foamslag - a housebuilding material derived from steelworks slag (demolished 1981).Precasting Factory, Tollcross (Glasgow City Archives, Department of Architectural and Civic Design, 1946), The Glasgow StoryFoamslag factory, Amulree Street, Dictionary of Scottish Architects This park's grass football pitch, used by several local teams, was subjected to vandalism on several occasions in the 2010s.Quad bike vandals wreck football team's pitch in Glasgow's East End, Evening Times, 8 November 2018Vandals cause grass pains for Glasgow East End football club, Evening Times, 27 July 2019
The city's need for new accommodation in less space accelerated after World War II, with the remainder of the Sandyhills House estate, including the mansion itself (dating from 1853),Sandyhills Park, Gazetteer for Scotland converted to housing using two vastly different approaches: 205 temporary and quickly-built prefab dwellings, and four 22-storey tower blocks containing 528 apartments,Sandyhills House Development, Dictionary of Scottish Architects which upon their completion in 1968 became a landmark for the area.Balbeggie Street Flats (Glasgow City Archives, Deposited Collections, 1968), The Glasgow StoryGlasgow, Sandyhills. General view (1989), Canmore Since the demolition of the Derby Street flats at Hilltown, Dundee in 2013, Emporis and the Bluevale and Whitevale Towers and Red Road Flats in Glasgow two years later, the Sandyhills blocks in Balbeggie Street and Strowan Street have held a distinction as the tallest inhabitable buildings in Scotland eastwards of those in Springburn (Martello Court in Edinburgh is 5 metres shorter).
Nowadays managed by Glasgow Housing AssociationRead all about it as high flats get a library, Evening Times, 5 December 2008 which oversaw a refurbishment and recladding in light blue in the late 2000s,Your View: Multi flats are a great place to live, Evening Times, 11 March 2008 soon followed by another reclad in white due to dampness problems which resulted,GHA's Statement of Intent about Future Maintenance and Repair Work, Glasgow Homeowners' Campaign, 6 April 2011 the towers far outlasted the prefabs96 multi-storey blocks are saved; £83m revamp plan... but worst will be demolished, The Herald, 7 September 2006 which were replaced by a landscaped park at the base of the towersThe lost part of Sandyhills Park, Secret Scotland, 14 April 2014 and some permanent houses closer to the older part of the neighbourhood on the main road.Sandyhills Flats (Glasgow City Archives, Department of Architectural and Civic Design, 1950), The Glasgow Story
From the late 1970s onward, much change happened to Sandyhills' low-rise housing stock as part of the wider GEAR (Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal) project. Both the Glasgow Corporation-managed housing and the SSHA estate (known locally as the "steel estate" - owing to the buildings being constructed using the Atholl steel system) were substantially refurbished. Properties were re-wired, re-plumbed and coal fires were replaced with gas central heating, and in the case of the steel estate - externally re-rendered. In 1990, the site of the former "prefabs" at the foot of the Sandyhills House tower blocks was redeveloped with brand new social housing - these were among the last properties to be planned by the SSHA prior to its dissolution into Scottish Homes.
The Lizzy Lodge was a pub situated between the tower blocks and the golf course in an isolated late 19th century sandstone villa;The Elizabeth Lodge, Old Glasgow Pubs the business was earmarked for closure in the late 2000s due to the economic downturn,Jobs go as time called on 15 pubs, BBC News, 12 September 2008 with the building destroyed entirely a few years later.Strange case of the Sandyhills Golf Course access gate, Secret Scotland, 5 May 2013
The construction of the 'Farmington' private housing development north of the main road (on the site of Sandyhills Farm, and the path of the old railway line to North Mount Vernon which had since been removed) in the late 1980sStatutory List of Public Roads (page 589), Glasgow City Council, 5 July 2019 was the most recent major stage in the growth of the area. In 2012, the police beat covering Farmington had one of the lowest crime rates in Glasgow.Crime on your street - Glasgow's safest police beats, Evening Times, 11 October 2012
Economy and transport
Although most local industry has long since ceased,Modern Times: 1950s to The Present Day: Neighbourhoods: Shettleston, The Glasgow Story there is still an industrial estate in the east of Shettleston (once a rope works), adjacent to a hypermarket (once an iron works specialising in machinery for the textile industry)1886 Illustrated Advertisement for J & T Boyd Shettleston Iron Works Glasgow, The Textile Manufacturer, 1886 (via AbeBooks)Glasgow, 629 Old Shettleston Road, Shettleston Ironworks, Canmore which provide employment opportunities, along with many small businesses operating in that district and Tollcross; the largest building in the area by floor space is located towards Baillieston: a storage and distribution facility,Macfarlane fires starting gun on Bullet Express tie-up, The Scotsman, 1 July 2016 built on the site of an old chemical works which produced tar.Shettleston Oil Works, Museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry
Sandyhills is also within commuting distance of central Glasgow via public transport - although the North Mount Vernon station and line have gone, there are four stations in different directions within a mile ( and on the North Clyde Line, and and on the Whifflet Line). Shettleston Road and Tollcross Road are both bus corridors with frequent services towards the city centre via Parkhead.
There are four schools in close proximity to Sandyhills: Wellshot Primary and St Paul's Primary to the south-west towards Tollcross Park, Eastmuir School (for children with special educational needs) to the north at Barlanark, and Eastbank Primary School on Shettleston Road, directly beside St Paul's RC Church (affiliated to the school of the same name). Wellshot, based in an imposing 1900s building that is something of a historic landmark in the areaWellshot Secondary School (Glasgow City Archives, Department of Education, 1970s), The Glasgow StoryWellshot Rd (c.1964), Virtual Mitchell is a feeder for Eastbank Academy in Shettleston along with Eastbank Primary, while St Paul's is linked to St Andrew's Secondary.
See also Glasgow tower blocks
References