Revenge of The Bookworm!
Jun. 14th, 2010 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesI donned my GI Jane uniform this morning and traipsed along to the town centre to get on with my watching brief. Lo and behold! They weren't digging! Nor were they intending to dig for the rest of the day.
I was released from duty. I went back to the office, and was promptly dispatched up to Glasgow to do some archival research in Glasgow. That's more like it!
My destination was the Mitchell Library, which is undoubtedly the best reference library in the West of Scotland and particularly good for all things Glaswegian:-
I was researching one of the Glasgow potteries, which we're going to be excavating in the near future. The research involved trawling through the building warrants and tracking down some literature. One of the librarians was particularly helpful - she knew the pottery in question and produced a wonderful booklet which had a detailed history of the site in question!
When archaeologists find themselves dealing with an industrial site, it's easy to for them go ploughing on throughout the archival research and end up re-inventing the wheel in the process. There's so many obscure historical journals and publications where the authors have already done the necessary legwork. This was exactly the situation here - by finding one little publication, we now know the history of the site, and we also have a good idea of what to expect when we dig it up!
And on the way to the Mitchell, I was treated to some of Glasgow's architectural wonders. Here's one of the more famous examples, a church by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Unfortunately, I can't remember its official name, and I'm on the verge of going out to the Writers' Group.
Firstly, some general shots:-
When archaeologists find themselves dealing with an industrial site, it's easy to for them go ploughing on throughout the archival research and end up re-inventing the wheel in the process. There's so many obscure historical journals and publications where the authors have already done the necessary legwork. This was exactly the situation here - by finding one little publication, we now know the history of the site, and we also have a good idea of what to expect when we dig it up!
And on the way to the Mitchell, I was treated to some of Glasgow's architectural wonders. Here's one of the more famous examples, a church by Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Unfortunately, I can't remember its official name, and I'm on the verge of going out to the Writers' Group.
Firstly, some general shots:-
It looks terribly isolated amongst the surrounding buildings, which really overwhelm it ( and let's face it, these 20th century boxes aren't particularly pretty).
And now some of the architectural details. The poor thing's suffered a bit through the years from erosion:-
And now some of the architectural details. The poor thing's suffered a bit through the years from erosion:-
Oddly enough, as I walked up the road I passed a poster on a bus shelter instructing tourists to look out for various architectural marvels. These included some traditional favourites like Glasgow Cathedral, the Cunninhame Townhouse (now the Museum of Modern Art) and the City Chambers. They also included some recent buildings like the 'Armadillo' and the 'Squinty Bridge'.
But this Greek Thomson church didn't seem to get a mention. Which is a bit of a shame, considering it's located in the immediate vicinity!
But this Greek Thomson church didn't seem to get a mention. Which is a bit of a shame, considering it's located in the immediate vicinity!
