THE  BANNERMAN  SCULPTURES

© Baillieston Born 'n' Bred 2024

Back in 2002 I spoke with the Head Teacher of Bannerman at that time, Mr Duncan*, and he knew nothing whatsoever about the precast concrete sculptures at the main entrance to the School. He was left no information on the meaning or history on them by the Architect Charles Bannerman  or The Sculptor Charles Anderson, which in my opinion  is really bad form as there is absolutely no point in spending which in 1973/4 would have cost  around ~£6k (todays money £100K) . As a side issue Mr Duncan was also disappointed on the naming of the school to and said he  would have preferred it have been named after something in the area,  to either "Baillieston High School". "Garrowhill High School" or as many old Bailliestonians would have preferred "Scott-Maxwell High School" after John Maxwell Scott-Maxwell  (d.1951) who owned the land it was built on and was a well liked and respected benefactor to the Baillieston area and sanctioned the building of the beautiful "Garrowhill Garden Estate" in partnership with Henry Boot. My maternal gran worked for Scott-Maxwell as a servant in Baillieston House and spoke of him  a wonderful kind and considerate man.

    I have read several books that claim the school was built on the site of Baillieston House, that is not quite accurate. True it was with the grounds of the Baillieston Estate, but Baillieston House was where  numbers 36 to 42 Berriedale Avenue are. Bannerman HS  was built in the North end of what was Baillieston House "Home Field". This field most years grew wheat and when the mansion and grounds were sold in 1964 it grew wild until  the summer of 1971 when the Bannerman groundworks started. 

    Since I first seen these sculptures back around 1983 when we used to have a CB Radio club at Bannerman on a Sunday afternoons they puzzled me, and even more so when I learned more about Baillieston's history. By pure chance in 2018 I was browsing online and came across a sculpture that looked like the ones at Bannerman HS by the artist/sculptor Charles Anderson. I emailed Charles and to my surprise he got back to me the next day. We corresponded about the Bannerman sculptures but he could not recall much about the info he got to make them other than they were based on geometric shapes as was the case with other abstract school sculptures he had done. I send Charles pictures I had taken highlighting what looked like archaeological finds from Greenoakhill, Springhill and other items that looked like Baillieston's industrial past, I will go into these in this article. Charles said he found my comments interesting unfortunately but really could not remember that much about the instructions he was given at the time.

    In my opinion a combination of LCC's Chief Architect Charles Bannerman retiring at the time and the changeover from LCC to GDC caused a disconnect in the transfer of records and a great deal of files which included detailed information was lost.

      At the time the school was planned, designed and built, Jimmy McGuigan who was the  departing Baillieston local councillor and would have had a great deal of input to these sculptures using  his knowledge of Baillieston and districts history, he knew my mother well too and she was a mine of information about Baillieston history, especially since my maternal grandfather was a coalminer at Barrachnie Colliery before and after WW1 and as mentioned earlier his wife my gran worked for Scott-Maxwell in Baillieston House.

I was not just prepared to accept that there was no statement or hidden messages in these sculptures, if that were the case, what was the point of them?

THE SCULPTURES:

They are certainly abstract and  I looked at various ways to explain the  shapes embedded in the concrete casting. I decided my best option was numbering the relevant shapes.

1: This shape suggests it relates to the Bronze Age 'tongue shaped' burial cists found at both Greenoakhill and Springhill Farm which are covered on the website links relating to Greenoakhill and Springhill Farm. The small circles  possibly relate to the pebbles found in the cists / graves.

mages (33) | Canmore : Glasgow Museums Collections Online  ; Springhill Farm, Baillieston | Canmore 

2: Food pots were also found there.

3: Rectangular cists were also uncovered

4: Suggests buried urns, and the circles the hamlets that collectively made up Baillieston, North Baillieston, Garrowhill, Crosshill, Swinton, Springhill, Bredisholm, Muirside, Muirhead, Muiredge, Muirend, Baulks, Breval, Rhindsdale, RhIns, Rhindsmuir, Mainhill, Loancroft, Loanhead, Camphill, Broom, Burnhead.

5: Suggest coal seams and there were 13 coal mines in Baillieston.

6: Tramlines which did run passed the School on Glasgow Road and Hamilton Road passing Boghall and Broomhouse. Also Mining / Mineral Rail lines were all over Baillieston and Garrowhill linking into the Caledonian (Coatbridge) and Crownhall Line (Hamilton, dismantled in 1963)

7: Look like buried bones which were found at both Bronze Age sites.

8: Arrowheads and a knife were found at Greenoakhill.

9: It could represent a typical Bronze Age inner and outer circles with standing stones. However another possibility is that it could indicate that the was once a Motte and Bailey castle in this area, and these were named Ladyhill. See picture 2 below.

 Then in general we have the 3 lines that are on every side of the sculptures. They could depict: 

• The geological fault lines that cross Scotland

• The three part of Scotland Lowlands, Central and Highlands

• These lines also appear on the Scottish Parliament chamber lecterns and they seem to refer to the three estates of Clergy, Nobility and Citizens (Burgesses)

• There are short lines in bunches that could relate to the fact that most of Garrowhill and South Baillieston were covered in Corn Fields.

• Back around 2000 In Baillieston Library I found and old account written by the Reverend Inglis of St John Church on the Church which also contained some history. In it he mentioned that older Baillieston folk used to talk of a temporary Roman Wall that ran approximately where the Edinburgh Road is. I was intrigued by this but could find no other notes relating to it until I seen this below in the Bannerman car park. See Picture 2