© Baillieston Born 'n' Bred 2024
HISTORY:
Wotherspoon & Leitch in their book the “Rise of a Community” are adamant , even defensive, that origin of Swinton’s name is not "Swine Ton" a ("Ton" is community, enclosure, Steading etc.). I believe it is based on Swine Ton. Perhaps they felt it would have been an insult to say it was once and old Pig Farm. They say its originates from the name Swegan or Suen, our research could no find a trace of that origin, or indeed any trace of such a corruption from Swegan or Suen to Swinton.
What I do know is that every where else in Britain places named Swinton is derived from Swine Ton. Looking a the bigger picture Baillieston had areas where animals were grazed by drovers, predominately Cattle, Sheep, so logically Pigs as another farm animal must have been reared somewhere in this area. There was even a slaughter house on Ravenswood Road nicknamed the "Killing Hoose Brae"
SWINTON ROAD/ CRESCENT/ AVENUE /PATH / VIEW:
FAULDS / FAULDS GARDENS: Faulds is a Scottish variant of the term Sheep Fold.
LONG ROW: An old weavers row and later miners row.
RHINDSDALE Crescent A Rhind/RhIns/Rinns or Bar (e.g. Bargeddie, Barlanark etc.) is a ridge and the name translates to on the side of the valley. The Southern boundary of Rhindsdale was Dyke Street where Rhinsdale Terrace tenement stands.
The northern boundary was the old coach road, now Rhindmuir Road.
RHINDMUIR ROAD / AV / DR / PL / VIEW / CRES / WYND / GATE / GROVE
Rhindmuir House was north of Rhindmuir Road, just east of Swinton School. The Rhindmuir Gate marks where the Golden Gate entrance was to the main house.
DALREOCH AVENUE : Gaelic The Kings Brindled Dale or Watery Meadow. Suggests this area was Crown Estate Land.
FORTIEIOT AV / PLACE A Pictish word Fothiur Tabaicht which roughly translates to Territory of the King.
In 1936, while farm labourers were filling in an old railway cutting in a field on the Springhill Farm they uncovered a bronze age burial site. J, Harrison Maxwell, a noted archaeologist subsequently excavated the site.
GLENBURN AVENUE:
18th Century maps show a water pump at the high point where Glenburn Avenue is now. The logical assumption looking at the topography of this section of Faulds at the top of this rise is that the spring could have flowed in any direction. My guess is that it originally flowed east and down into an old floodplain pond called Brochs Moss, which others have noted as being skated on when it was frozen over.
There was also a small quarry shown on 17th and 18th century maps, they undoubtedly would have used water from this spring. The fact that there was a Pump fitted there and not just a Well may suggest this.
This spring and its burn must have been diverted to stop flooding in that Brochs Moss hollow, which was just east of Baillieston Lights, even in my time I can remember this area flooding. The overflow burn for the Monkland Canal was due north of this point , some call it the “Tollcross Burn”, because it flowed through Shettleston and through Tollcross Park to the Clyde. Stewart Jackson who wrote the book “ MY AIN FOLK FOLK” called it the “Monkey Burn”, and indeed there was a coalmine named The Monkey Pit and was probably used to drain away the water form the mine. People in Barrachnie call it the “Barrachnie Burn” .
I knew where it still runs from Barlanark to Mount Vernon and Sandyhills as the “Glendy Burn”, which is most likely a shortened version of The “Glenduffhill Burn” Speaking to natives of Barlanark, it was called the “Glendy Burn”.
MAINHILL DR / AV / Simply named after the area of Mainhill and Mainhill Farm between Swinton and Bargeddie which was the highest point on that long bar that runs from Drumpellier and West to Drumchapel.(Old maps)
BRODIE GARDENS / DRIVE / GROVE : Named after Mr Brodie the last Station Master at Easterhouse Railway Station who won awards for his floral displays at the station. (info on Scot Rail site)
WHAMFLET AV.
Named after a very old area dating back to the 1500s or earlier. Pont’s map showed it as Conflat which It translates to Flat Cornfields, Forrest 17th Century map calls the area of the old village Wamnat. However they reckon the name was linked to Whiflet in Coatbridge around the time of the Monkland Canal and somehow ended through corruption up as Whamflet.(Old maps)