Neighbourhoods In Glasgow Research Articles

Health and perceptions of the local environment in socially contrasting neighbourhoods in glasgow

This paper explores residents' perceptions of their local environment in four socially contrasting neighbourhoods in Glasgow City. Six aspects of the areas (amenities, problems, crime, neighbourliness, area reputation and satisfaction) differed significantly between the neighbourhoods, as did four dimensions of health (anxiety, depression, and self-assessed health in the last year and for age). Multivariate analysis suggested that social class and perceptions of the area independently contributed to the health differences between neighbourhoods. Public health policy should focus on health-promoting or health-damaging features of local areas as well as on individual lifestyle factors.

Bronze Age Cemetery near Glasgow

AN important addition to the record of recent finds of prehistoric age in the neighbourhood of Glasgow is a bronze age cemetery site at Springhill Farm, Baillieston, identified and examined by Mr. J. Harrison Maxwell and other members of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. The first indication of the site was the unearthing of two food vessels in May last by workmen, when excavating a hillock for sand and gravel. Of these two vessels, one, according to a description in The Times of December 21, was in perfect condition. It was hand-made and of reddish brown clay, with two zones of decoration made by string impression, the upper zone in horizontal, the lower in vertical or slightly oblique lines. The second vessel, unfortunately broken by the workman in digging, but now skilfully restored, is of a more elaborate and beautiful character. Its rim is bevelled inward, and for ornament it has an upper zone of decoration formed by horizontal rows of impressions of barley ears, while elsewhere are impressions or punch marks made by the end of a hollow bone, stick or reed. This discovery led to a careful watch on the progress of excavation, and a number of burials, seven cremated and two inhumed, were recorded. The most important discovery, however, was that of a bronze age cist of unusual type in that instead of two long and two short stones, it is built of a large number of small stones and is tongue-shaped, about four feet long and two feet broad at its greatest breadth. The cover consisted of two large stones, that to the south being very, thick, while that to the north had an oblong cut-out on the east side. The floor was a pavement of water-rolled pebbles. There were two cremation burials on top of, and two inside the cist. Discoveries of bones and a burial were made in November and December, of which the latest has not yet been excavated. The bones are under examination. Two square-shaped pits containing iron slag point to the existence of a later ‘bloomery’ or forge.

XIX. Notes on a Dolerite, showing Ocellar Structure, from Craigie Hill, Ayrshire

In my paper on the intrusive dolerites found in the neighbourhood of Glasgow which I contributed to the Society last year, I drew attention to a peculiar structure which I had noticed in a thin section from the Craigie Hill dolerite, Ayrshire, and which I described as follows:—Throughout the rock occur a large number of oval or circular-shaped aggregations of crystals and glass, the largest of which do not exceed 50 mm. in diameter. These aggregations usually consist of a central nucleus of augite, lath-shaped felspar, and brown glass. I have since examined the specimens more carefully, and I am now in a position to give a more detailed account of this interesting structure, as well as other phenomena not referred to in my last paper. The Craigie Hill intrusion occurs about 4 miles to the south of Kilmarnock, while another intrusion of the same character occurs at Dundonald, about 1 mile to the west of Craigie Hill. Both of these intrusions present all the usual characteristics of these dolerite sills. It has been shown in the paper referred to that along the line of contact with the sedimentary rocks these sills have cooled more rapidly than in their more central parts, and, as a result of this, they exhibit a much more finely crystalline structure towards their edges than they do in the centre. In some rare cases, as at the Fossil Grove, Whiteinch, the sill has sent off small veinlets and threads, which have cooled so rapidly that This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

IX. The Intrusive Dolerites in the Neighbourhood of Glasgow

I. Introduction. In the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and throughout the great central valley of Scotland generally, there occur numerous sheets, bosses, and dykes of dolerite, which present many interesting petrological and structural characters. These dolerites were first described by Allport in a paper contributed to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society in 1874, and have since also been described by Sir A. Geikie, Dr. Teall, Mr. Monckton, and lately by Dr. Falconer. Large areas of these dolerites are exposed in the neighbourhood of Stirling, one of the most conspicuous sheets being that which extends from Abbey Craig through Stirling to Denny, where its outcrop has been shifted by a fault. This sheet is probably connected with that so often repeated in the neighbourhood of Kilsyth; in the latter locality it appears, however, to pass on to a higher horizon. To the east of Glasgow, and occurring partly in the Carboniferous Limestone series and partly in the Millstone Grit and Coal Measures, there can be seen some of the largest masses of these dolerites. They are well exposed in the district round Shotts; smaller bosses come to the surface near Carluke and Wilsontown. In the immediate vicinity of Glasgow several extensive intrusions of dolerite have invaded the Carboniferous Rocks. They can be seen at the following localities:—Hogganfield, Alexandra Parade, and the Necropolis. The latter intrusion is known to come right down into the centre of the city, the dolerite having been found in many excavations in This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

XXV.—Boulder-clay, a Marine Deposit. Part second

Since my previous communication to the Society in December of last year, I received from time to time from Mr. James Neilson further supplies of the Boulder-clay from the vicinity of Glasgow, for microscopical examination. They numbered in all eleven packets, five being from localities not previously examined. Before examining these clays I divided each of the parcels into two and treated them separately, which was done as a precaution against risk of accident. For want of time I have been unable to get through all the material sent; half of the clay from Hamilton Hill, west corner, and middle of quarry, also that from Shawlands, remains to be examined. I have also a packet from Robroyston not yet looked at. About ninety pounds weight of Boulder-clay from ten different localities in the neighbourhood of Glasgow has now been investigated, and in each specimen Foraminifera have been found. They appear, however, to be very irregularly distributed throughout the clay; for instance, in a sample from Hamilton Hill, five pounds in weight, which was divided into two parts, each examined separately, the first yielded a hundred specimens and the other only two. At this spot the Foraminifera were far more plentiful than at any of the other stations, as many specimens being found as at all the other places put together. Two other gatherings taken from this quarry gave rather poor results; in one from the west corner only a single specimen was obtained, and in the other, from the middle This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

V. On some Estheriæ and Estheria -like Shells from the Carboniferous Shales of Western Scotland

Some years ago my friend Mr. John Young, F.G.S., drew my attention to some Estheria -like shells from the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and one of them in particular seemed to me at the time to present features sufficiently characteristic to allow of its being referred to that genus of bivalved Crustacea. Since then both Mr. Young and myself have examined it and its associates again and again; and I have come to the conclusion that its form is that of a Posidonomya , and that its punctate ornament can be matched among Molluscan shells. Hence it has to be removed from the Crustacean genus, and is treated of further on at page 83 as Posidonomya punctatella , Jones. Among the Carboniferous specimens, however, that have come under our notice are other little Estheria -like fossils, and of these I offer the following descriptions, with figures very carefully executed by Mr. George West, who illustrated my “Monograph of Fossil Estheriœ ” Palaeontographical Society, 1863. The plate has been drawn with aid of a grant from the British Association for the illustration of Palaeozoic Phyllopoda. 1. Estheria Youngii, sp. nov. (Plate V., figs, 1 a , 1 b .) This well-preserved right valve, retaining its outline and nearly full convexity, is sub-triangularly ovate, being straight above on the back or hinge-line, elliptically and obliquely curved below, obliquely rounded in front, and contracted and somewhat obliquely truncate behind. It is 8·5 mm. long, 4·5 mm. broad at its greatest height—that is below the umbo, and at one-fifth of the length of the This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

X. On the Surface Geology of the District around Glasgow, as indicated by the Journals of certain Bores

In the course of last summer Mr. Croll, having directed his attention to the probable depth of the surface deposits in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, considered that, by means of the sections obtained by borings for minerals or other purposes, we might not only ascertain with certainty the actual thickness of the deposits, but that, by a comparison of the different depths in different places, the form of the rocky surface beneath might be made out to such a degree that a restoration of the geography of the land of the glacial epoch might be attempted, and the channels in which the ice moved be more than guessed at. But even a greater end, it was thought, might be obtained by a knowledge of the contents of the sections traversed by these bores. As they necessarily, when successful, exhausted the surface deposits, a more complete history of the changes represented by them might be obtained from these artificial sections than could possibly be had from natural sections, however favourably situated. To work out these ideas, Mr. Croll set himself to collect the journals of the surface portions of pit sinkings or of borings for minerals wherever situated, and soon found his expectations more fully realized than he had even hoped. Ere, however, the inquiry was completed, he left Glasgow for Edinburgh to join the staff of the Geological Survey of Scotland, and of course the inquiry was interrupted, as his attention was directed to other things. Yet, unwilling to let This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

LVIII. On the Chemistry of some Carboniferous and Old Red Sandstones

Sandstone is generally understood to consist of quartz grains—popularly called sand—bound or cemented together into a more or less compact mass, the cementing material consisting of such substances as the carbonates of iron, lime or magnesia, clay, and silica. It is not my intention at present to enter into the origin of sand, but rather to draw attention to the nature of the cementing and colouring materials of some sandstones of the Carboniferous and Old Red formations, and more particularly those found in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. On the Nature of the Cementing Material. —Sandstone may have been cemented together by the decomposition or re-arrangement of some of the constituents previously in the sand, or by the addition of such substances as carbonate of lime, and oxide of iron, deposited from springs. Professor Church, in some interesting notes on the recent formation of some rocks, observes, “that at Bude Haven, Cornwall, and elsewhere, coarse grained sand is in many cases being cemented together by the action of the water of land springs containing carbonic acid, which, percolating through the sand and dissolving the fragments of shells contained therein, the carbonate of lime is subsequently at some other point slowly deposited as the carbonic acid escapes, thus forming a cementing material for the sand.” In cases where the quantity of carbonate of lime is large, it may probably have been derived from adjacent limestone rocks. When we place a few fragments of a sandstone in hydrochloric acid and apply heat, we are This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

On the Glacial phenomena of Caithness

1. Introduction .—In August 1865 I paid a visit to Caithness, in order to study the last geological changes in that north-eastern corner of Scotland. Mr. Peach has lately given us an excellent account of the fossil-contents of its glacial beds, from which he enumerates seventy-five species of Mollusca, besides various other forms of Invertebrata. The object, however, of my visit was not so much to look after the fossils as to satisfy myself about the conditions under which the beds containing them had been accumulated, and to compare them with those of other districts with which I was already acquainted. In the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and along the east coast from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, we find the beds containing Arctic shells lying on the top of a rough boulder-clay destitute of such fossils; and these marine fossiliferous beds are often of great depth and finely laminated, presenting all the features of tranquil and regular deposition. The remains of moUusca and starfishes in them are, in many instances, quite entire and uninjured, as if they had been gradually enveloped in the fine mud in which the animals lived and died, while the crust of large barnacles on some of the stones points to a like stillness of the sea-bottom. In Caithness nothing of this sort has been observed; no distinction has been made of a rough. boulder-clay destitute of fossils and an overlying marine fossiliferous bed; the shells, according to all observer—Dick, Cleghorn, Hugh Miller, Peach, and others—are described as

Summer Excursions

The first excursion of the season was made on Saturday, April 28, when a large number of the members, under the guidance of Mr. John Young, left town by the 1-50 p.m. train to Kirkintilloch for a visit to Corrieburn; on the Campsie Fells—a locality which, from the variety of geological phenomena exhibited in the sections of both its eastern and western burns, and its easy access to the members, is perhaps one of the finest for geological field-work in the immediate neighbourhood of Glasgow. It is situated on the hill-side, about a mile and a half to the north of the road leading to Kilsyth, and about two miles north-west from that town. An hour and a half’s pleasant walk from Kirkintilloch along the Inchbelly Road brought the party to the hill-side sections of Corrie. These consist in their lowest divisions of beds of trappean (volcanic) ash and greenstone, overlaid by strata of sandstone, limestone, shale, coal, and ironstone, and are well exposed in the sections of the west burn, and along the hill-side between the two burns, where the strata are tilted up at a high angle against the trap which forms the upper part of the hill. The geological position of the Corrie beds is in the lower division of the Carboniferous Limestone series, and the limestones and shales are characterised by an abundance of the peculiar marine organisms of that period—nearly a hundred species of these having already been collected and arranged in the cabinets of This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

VI. On the Age of certain Trap-Rocks in the neighbourhood of Glasgow

The paper now submitted had chiefly in view the age of the trap rocks of the Campsie district. He had long regarded these as erupted after the Coal period, and had described them as of that age. His attention was lately recalled to the subject by finding that the geologists of the Ordnance Survey had laid these rocks down upon their maps as of Devonian age, as erupted and spread over the Old Red Sandstone of the Campsie Fells, before the deposit of the Coal series against their southern sides. The arguments were then brought forward on which this view is controverted. It was shewn that igneous rocks covering the beds known as the Ballagan series, which are of intermediate age, extend continuously in unbroken sheets and streams over the Old Red Sandstone on one side, and the Coal series on the other; that immense coulees of basaltic rock, connected with the trap masses of the hills, cut right into the Coal measures, altering in a remarkable way all the beds along the planes of contact, converting coal into coke, sandstones and shales into quartz rock, opal, jasper, or hornstone. Such a stream occurs in Corrie Glen, near Kilsyth; it emanates from the body of the hill northward, and here cuts into the Coal measures, enclosing a bed of shale, which it alters to the state of a coarse opal. An impure limestone in contact with it contains crystals of galena, and further up, where the same stream shoots across This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

XIV. On some peculiar varieties of Old Red and Carboniferous Sandstones from the neighbourhood of Glasgow

The specimens of Sandstones undermentioned are of considerable interest, and present some points worthy of investigation, as to the causes which have produced the discolouration and other peculiarities which characterise them. 1. From Dalreoch quarry, near Dumbarton, I have obtained specimens of the Old Red Sandstone, showing those circular white blotches, which are so common in that rock in Scotland. The spots vary in size from the sixteenth of an inch to twelve inches or more in diameter across their surface, and they invariably are of the same size vertically. They have long formed a subject of speculation among geologists, and though various causes have been assigned to account for the agency by which the colouring matter (peroxide of iron) has been discharged from them, I am not aware that any satisfactory solution of their origin has yet been made. 2. From the same quarry I have obtained varieties of the rock with the red alternating with thin layers of white sandstone, and with those colours so sharply defined, as to impress at once the conviction, that these must have been formed by the deposition of different coloured sands—the red colour not having been discharged from the white layers, as in the case of the circular white blotches. By the kindness of Mr. James Donald, one of our members, I am enabled to give an analysis of several of the sandstones now described, and his analysis of the red and white layers of Old Red from Dalreoch quarry is as follows:— 3. Another This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

XVII. Notice of the occurrence of Rhizodus Hibberti in Carboniferous Strata in the neighbourhood of Glasgow

The earliest notice of this fossil is, so far as I am aware, in the “Natural History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride,” by the Rev. David Ure, published at Glasgow in 1793, which contains (pl. xix., fig. 4) a figure of the anterior portion of a jaw with one of the front laniary teeth broken across, and three of the serial teeth. Its identification with the species under notice is confirmed by Ure’s description. Previous to the opening up of those valuable fields of blackband ironstone, which lie immediately to the north of Glasgow, the remains of Rhizodus Hibberti were considered to be rare in our strata. But in the working of one of these beds, termed the “lower band” of the Possil ironstones, and which lies about 428 fathoms under the “Ell” coal, there have been lately found at some of the pits at Keppoch, near Possil, more remains of this fish than have hitherto been obtained from any of the Carboniferous beds in the west of Scotland. These consist principally of teeth, with occasionally a portion of the jaw-bone and some of the plates of the head. Most of the teeth exist singly, and are found scattered promiscuously in the ironstone and the coal shale with which it is associated. They have, in most cases, been broken off close to the bone of the jaw; but this circumstance may have arisen from that portion of the tooth imbeded in the jaw being softer than the harder or more This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract

2. On the Composition of the Building Sandstones of Craigleith, Binnie, Gifnock, and Partick Bridge

In prosecution of the analyses of Scottish building stones commenced last winter in the laboratory of the Industrial Museum, by the examination of the bed-rock from Craigleith quarry, four more sandstones have been analyzed since May 1856 by Mr Bloxam. The stones in question are the Craigleith liver-rock, and the Binnie sandstone, from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and the Gifnock and Partick Bridge stones, from the neighbourhood of Glasgow.

Discovery of an iron instrument lately found imbedded in a natural seam of coal in the neighbourhood of Glasgow

An unusual item found in a coal seam near Glasgow was exhibited and correspondence from John Buchanan regarding the find was read out. He found it odd that the item, clearly made by humans, was found encased in coal. Ultimately, it was decided by those present that the item was modern, perhaps part of a borer broken from an earlier search for coal. 
 
 The article is followed by the notes from the first conversazione of the session, held on Dec. 15, 1852. The main event from this conversazione was a lecture given by Alexander Christie on the Bayeux tapestry, including illustrations by Reverend J. Collingwood Bruce. The lecture touches on the narrative of the tapestry, before moving on to the proof of its medieval origins.

LX. On the minerals found in the neighbourhood of Glasgow

LX. <i>On the minerals found in the neighbourhood of Glasgow</i>