East End Burial Grounds

Throughout the East End, there are several burial grounds where people have been laid to rest. Here are a few:

Shettleston Churchyard, 1401 Shettleston Road, was opened in 1752 on land that was part of the Budhill Estate. It once had a preaching station in the middle of the ground. At its entrance are two stone sentry boxes, used by locals from Eastmuir and Crownhall to guard against grave robbing.

At 341 Abercrombie Street stands the Calton Burial Ground, opened in 1786 and extended in 1822. Here, a plaque commemorates the Calton Martyrs, local weavers who protested a reduction in their wages. They marched up Drygate in 1787 and were met by soldiers who opened fire, killing six of their number. Reverend James Smith is buried in the graveyard; he once acted as pastor to US President Abraham Lincoln.

The Eastern Necropolis on Gallowgate was laid out in 1847 on the lands of Little Tollcross. The 25-acre site is the resting place of numerous industrialists, including Frederick Grosvenor of the Eagle Pottery, Moses Risk of Provanmill Distillery, and James Tullis, a leather works owner. Victoria Cross winner at the Crimean War, James McKechnie, was buried in a pauper’s grave, which is now marked by a small headstone. Fifteen-year-old Bruce Crawford, who died in the first Ibrox Disaster in 1902, and twenty-two-year-old Maggie Shields, killed in the Templeton carpet factory collapse in 1889, are both buried here. A Jewish Enclosure was opened in 1855, with over 500 burials laid there. The opening scenes of the BBC drama Tutti Frutti were filmed in the necropolis.

Riddrie Cemetery, at 1171 Cumbernauld Road, opened in 1904 and is the resting place of VC winner Henry May and Maggie McIver, who founded the Barras street market.

Attached to the now-demolished Tollcross Central Church is Tollcross Cemetery on Corbett Street, with burials dating from the early 1800s. Interred here is William Miller, who famously wrote the nursery rhyme Wee Willie Winkie.

Baillieston Old Parish Church dates from the late 1820s, with burials in the churchyard beginning in 1833. A memorial to the fallen of the First World War was unveiled in 1951 by locally born VC winner William Reid.

At 1900 London Road is Dalbeth Cemetery, laid out in 1851 on the Dalbeth Estate, once the property of Glasgow merchant Thomas Hopkirk. Buried in the cemetery are politicians John Wheatley and Sir Patrick Dollan, cinema owner George Green, and footballer Jimmy McGrory. There is also a memorial to Polish war veterans.

The Bridgeton Burial Grounds on Tullis Street were used from 1811 to 1869, often by the business class of the area. The ground fell into disrepair and neglect in the 1970s, with many burials re-interred at Lynn Cemetery, followed by remodelling as a public park now known as Tullis Street Memorial Gardens.

Daldowie Crematorium, opened in 1955 by Lanarkshire County Council on the site of Daldowie House, was the first municipal crematorium in Scotland and offers an alternative to burial.

The Eastern Necropolis

Baillieston Old Parish Church

Shettleston Burial Ground

Thanks to Peter Mortimer for the article and parkheadhistory.com for the Eastern Necropolis photo.