A Faskine
Tale
Memories
of Faskine by
Elizabeth Tennant
see emails at end of article
Faskine
village was the birthplace
of my Grandmother in 1882.
After her marriage, she
moved to Coatbridge. It was
in the 1940's while my
Father was in the Royal Navy
during WW2 and my Mother and
I were living with her, she
took me on one of her visits
to her two sisters who lived
in the old school house at
Faskine.
With
the memory of the visit now
very vague and a hankering
to view once more where my
ancestors came from, I went
with my own Granddaughters
on a beautiful Spring day in
May, 2010 to visit the area
again. My first trip as a
small child was exciting, in
the 1940's we usually walked
everywhere, but this time I
got to travel upstairs at
the front of a tramcar to
Airdrie, passing familiar
landmarks in Coatbridge
I
thought would be there
forever, i.e. The Cinema
Picture House, the many
shops and businesses lining
Bank Street and Main Street,
particularly Woolworth's and
the Fountain. My own
Grandchildren's trip in the
motorcar seemed just
ordinary to them along a
busy new roadway, where not
only all the tram rails had
vanished, so had 1940/50's
Coatbridge.
The
wind of change had blown
away it's heavy industrial
overcoat, dirtied and worn
after many years of grime
and smoke and a clean rural
gown had been exposed
underneath. The area had
changed so much that finding
where Faskine village had
been mid 1940's was not easy
for me. We sped through
modern housing estates into
Airdrie and after a few
twists and turnarounds I
spied two stone gateposts,
flanked each side by a line
of trees overhanging a
roadway, EUREKA! I
remembered the walk along
that road, these landmarks
triggered my childhood
memory and pinpointed the
Faskine area.
My Great
Great Grandfather was James
Hogg a Carpenter, and the
1851 Census for Scotland
gave his address as Faskine
Farm where he employed four
men in his boat building
firm, this I found quite
easily as it is still
standing, though it has
probably changed quite a bit
since then. I tried to
picture this area as he and
later my Grandmother would
have seen it.
I looked in
vain to place Cairnhill
Cottage where she was born,
but couldn't find it,
nevertheless, it was in
Faskine School House where
her Mother, Elizabeth Hogg,
a Dressmaker and Father,
James Geekie, first a Miner
then a Pithead Man had
brought up their large
family of nine children, but
alas I couldn't place where
this house was either, I
asked several people out
walking if they knew or had
known of it's whereabouts,
but no one knew. My own
Grandchildren with their Mum
and Dad, by this time, had
returned to the car, the
children although interested
at first, had become bored
and wanted to play with
their Nintendos, toys that
are very different from the
ones my Grandmother told me
about in her stories of
Faskine.
Childhood was
fleeting in Victorian times,
but although life was very
hard and the children of Faskine had to do their
share of the work, they did
manage to have some time for
play, this was spent either
rolling their locally made
"Gird and Cleeks" or
spinning their "Peeries"
with whips, these were small
cone shaped pieces of wood,
hewn to almost a point, a
long piece of string
attached to a stick in a
whip like fashion was wound
round three ridges carved
out the top of the cone,
when the whip was pulled
away fast. they spun like a
top and girls could keep
their peeries spinning for a
considerable time by a
simple lash from the whip
string from time to time. A
clay pipe and a bowl of
soapy water on washday, were
how bubbles were blown to
chase in the wind, boys
galloped about on imaginary
horses, wielding "switches",
which were long branches,
broken off the high hawthorn
hedges, then stripped of
their leaves and thorns.
The surroundings may have
been industrial, but my
Grandmother spoke often,
about the beautiful trees in Faskine, they remained her
favourite plant and when she
lost her hearing at an early
age, due to the noise from
the machines in the factory
where she worked, no health
and safety then, it was the
birdsong she missed most
from this affliction.
I
found Palacecraig House,
this was where her
Grandmother and Step
Grandfather lived, her own
Grandfather James Hogg, had
died before she was born,
but a tale passed down the
family came to mind as I
walked along the canal bank,
it was of the villagers
having a good chuckle at
him, as he went about his
business building a boat,
not this time of wood, but
of iron, they scoffed it
would sink like a stone, as
they watched it take shape
on the banks of the Monkland
Canal and he took a lot of
ribbing about it, but
Faskine's historic claim to
fame, the iron boat "The
Vulcan", didn't sink like a
stone and had many years
plying it's way up and down
the canal to Glasgow.
It's
replica can be seen today,
at the Summerlee Heritage
Museum in Coatbridge, a must
place to visit for anyone
with connections to the
Monklands area, this was
where I with my
Grandchildren, had the joy
once more, of riding
upstairs in a tramcar
together, no boredom here.
Thank you Summerlee, perhaps
they couldn't see the
Coatbridge of my day, just
as I couldn't see the Faskine of my Grandmother's
day, but this wonderful
Museum, captures the essence
of an era, to quote a modern
saying "it does what it says
on the label," a living
monument to all those who
gave the sacrifice of life
and limb in the mines and
factories of yesteryear.
Unfortunately I cannot
identify the pictures. I took
them for my own personal
file, for the family tree I
have been researching, what
I do know is that these are
of Faskine area where my
Grandmother lived and played
as a child.
I snapped the
trees in the belief that she
may have looked upon them
when they were tiny
saplings. The ones that can
be named are the entry to Faskine Farm and the white
house is Palacecraig House
where my Grandmother's
Grandparents lived, this I
know from the census forms
and my Grandmother's brother
was born in the left wing of
this house according to his
birth certificate.
Many thanks for your kind attention.
Elizabeth Tennant
Hi There
My name is Kirsty Graham. I
am writing on behalf of
myself and my mother.
We read an article by
Elizabeth Tennant on your
site about Faskine Farm.
She mentioned a James Hogg,
Boat carpenter. As we have
been tracing our own
family line, we
have discovered we are also
related to the same James
Hogg.
We were hoping to get in
touch with Elizabeth to
share information about
our line of relation with
her and hopefully be able to
plan out more of our
family tree.
Could this email either be
forwarded on to her, or
could you provide a
contact address for her?
Thank you for your time
Kirsty Graham
The email was forwarded to
Elizabeth Tennent
John -
Thought you might like an
update on this query you
received, it
turned out Kirsty did share
the same relationship to
James Hogg as I
did. While mine was through
Elizabeth, James Hoggs'
daughter, Kirsty
was through a son, namely
Thomas. I had previously
found another cousin
through Genes Reunited whose
connection was through
Thomas and after a
bit of to and fro Kirsty and
she got in touch and they
have had numerous
exchanges. I was born in
Coatbridge and although it
was a dirty old
industrial town when I was
small, I loved it and I am
very proud of my
Monklands connection.
Thank you for the Monkland's
website.
Betty
Tennant
Glad to help - Betty and
Kirsty
Your
Home Town
