Knightswood - History

History

Knightswood features on maps by Ordnance Survey cartographer William Roy dating back to 1748-55, which show it lying within the parish of New Kilpatrick in Dumbartonshire. The modern area is defined at its northern edge by the Forth and Clyde Canal (beyond which is Bearsden) which began construction in the 1760s and opened as the Great Canal in 1790. Drumchapel and Yoker lie to the West, beyond Duntreath Avenue and Yoker Mill Road. At its southern edge, Knightswood is bounded by Anniesland Road, beyond which lies Jordanhill and Scotstoun. Netherton and Temple lie to the East. Both of these settlements (with Jordanhill and Scotstoun) appear on Joan Blaeu's 1662 Atlas of Scotland, but Knightswood is not shown, either omitted or not yet of significance. The earliest recorded settlement (1740) in the Knightswood area was known as the Red Town, a small village supporting ironstone miners and brickmakers.

Just before the First World War, Knightswood consisted of an Infectious Diseases Hospital (founded 1877) with a line of terraced cottages to the north called Knightswood Rows, a few houses on the site of Knightswood Secondary School (all that remained of Red Town), but the area was otherwise unpopulated farmland and disused mineworkings.

Great Western Road was constructed under government patronage between 1924 and 1927 from Anniesland Cross to Duntocher, north of Clydebank. Much of the housing in the area was constructed in three phases during the 1920s and 1930s on garden suburb principles. This housing was mainly of cottage flat and semi-detached types, and is similar to other parts of the city such as Mosspark in the South Side and Carntyne in the East End and used for the relocation of people from slum tenements cleared near the city centre. Land surrounding the junction of Great Western Road and Knightswood Road was designated for the use of several church denominations, and the nearby Knightswood Park, but there were no designated industrial areas or public houses, which remained in adjacent Temple and Scotstoun/Yoker.

In 1926, the district was brought under the control of the city of Glasgow, which had purchased land outside its boundary from the Summerlee Iron Company for the building of the estate. During the Second World War, Knightswood Hospital treated wounded soldiers.

Knightswood, along with Jordanhill and Temple have been linked to stories of the Knights Templar; but according to the late Lord Lyon King of Arms there is no evidence for their presence in this area. Nevertheless, the theories continue to persist and are sometimes actively encouraged, as in the use of "heraldic" street names (Archerhill Road, Arrowsmith Avenue, Ivanhoe Road, Minstrel Road, Talisman Road, Templar Avenue, Turret Road) by Glasgow Corporation in Knightswood, even though Knightswood only appears in the records from the 18th century, long after the days of knights.

Immediately following the war, spare land on the estate was used for temporary housing in the form of prefabs. These were replaced in the 1960s with high-rise buildings. In 1958, Glasgow Corporation opened a Fire Station which now houses a specialist water rescue unit.

Knightswood Hospital gradually lost services to other Glasgow Hospitals from the 1960s onwards, ending up as a Geriatric Unit and finally closing in March 2000. The hospital site is now the Academy Park residential development. In 2008, Knightswood gained a new church congregation at Knightswood Cross when the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) moved from temporary premises in Thornwood to the former Brethren Gospel Hall.