Old photograph of Speirs Bridge Road in Thornliebank, Glasgow, Scotland. The village now a suburb of Glasgow, first made its appearance on Thomas Richardson's map of 1795 and was, at the time, referred to as Thorny Bank, a title believed to have been inspired by the substantial number of thorn trees that were prevalent in the area. In 1789 it was a little street of cottages but it had grown by 1845, to have a population of 1366. This was largely due to the Crum family, who established and ran the Thornliebank printworks. John Crum founded the works in Main Street in 1778 to print locally woven linen. Walter Crum who was in charge by 1819 was a chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society. He replaced spinning and weaving by calico printing with bleaching, and turkey red dyeing. This work brought immigrants from Northern Ireland. Walter's son Alexander Crum who took over the printing works was a major philanthropist supporting housing, education, and leisure facilities in the village. He also provided funds for the village club and Thornliebank Parish Church. Alexander Crum was Member of Parliament for Renfrewshire from 1880 to 1885. After his death he was commemorated by the Crum Library which was designed by the Scottish architect Sir Rowand Anderson and formally opened on 20 March 1897.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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