Culture - art

Woodilee Estate was purchased by the Barony Parochial Board in 1871. Woodilee Hospital was originally known as the ‘Barony Parochial Asylum at Woodilee’, and when opened in 1875 it was intended to house ‘pauper lunatics’. At its height it was the largest parochial asylum in Scotland with 400 inmates. The building was enlarged in 1898 after the City and Barony parishes were amalgamated to form the Glasgow District Lunacy Board. A villa was added in 1900. It was taken over by the Corporation of Glasgow in 1930 and contained 1250 beds. Upgrades were made during the 1930s to improve conditions and combat overcrowding, with sanitary annexes, bathrooms and ward kitchens upgraded. A major extension to the Nurses’ Home was completed in 1939. Additionally a new Reception House and Sanatorium was opened in 1944. Further developments took place after 1966, including a new reception suit and the phasing out of the farm buildings. The hospital closed in 2000. This stained glass was removed from the church.

W. Y. Cameron, James Paterson and Robert Macaulay Stevenson have all been recognised as ‘The Father of The Glasgow Boys’, however, in addition, Stevenson is usually credited with coining the name. Stevenson was heavily influenced by the French ‘Barbizon’ school of painters, so called because they worked in the vicinity of the Barbizon forest near Fontainbleau during the mid-nineteenth century. Stevenson was also particularly impressed with the work of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796 – 1875) and produced landscapes that concentrated on rural life. Like Corot, he employed muted colours and tonal effects. The silvery greys and misty greens that characterised his twilight paintings earned him the nickname, ‘Moonlighter’. Stevenson referred to his work as ‘Constructive Idealism’ and explained the term thus: “The colours fade, the aspect changes, the leaves die, the picture as it was in nature ceases to be: the recollection remains, and that memory I transcribe on to canvas.” ‘Woods by Bardowie Loch’ (a local landmark close by Robinsfield House) is a successful example of the soft, crepuscular atmosphere he aimed for, and achieves what he stated was his ultimate artistic aim: “a general ensemble of feeling” and a “harmonious voice”. Stevenson is often considered to be the last of ‘The Glasgow School’. (Purchased 2011 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions).

In 1910 a lecture given by a Manchester Councillor, T R Marr, inspired a group of prominent Glasgow business men to build a garden suburb for Glasgow. A public meeting was held in early 1911 and local interest in the plan was strong, so in 1912 the Glasgow Garden Suburb Tenants Ltd was officially registered. This was to be the first garden suburb built in Scotland. The Committee of Management included Sir John Stirling Maxwell, and other influential Glasgow men, such as Sir Samuel Chisholm, and Mr M Boyd Auld. The suburb was to be a co-partnership; each tenant purchased five shares at a value of £10 each - paid in instalments if they could not afford to pay the £50 at once - for which they would receive a small dividend, held by the company on their behalf. They would also pay a small rent, and rent and dividends would pay for repairs. When the tenant left the suburb they could either retain the investment, or take the capital. The Committee of Management considered three possible locations for the suburb: Cathcart, Giffnock and Garscube. The proposals for Cathcart fell through, Giffnock did not have a satisfactory train service, and so the Committee settled on Garscube after negotiations with the North British Railway Company, who agreed to construct a station at the site. The suburb was built largely on what was South Westerton Farm, and for twenty years the suburb stood very much on its own, surrounded by open countryside. The houses were designed by the Glasgow based architect, John A W Grant in an English Suburban style which originated out of the Arts and Crafts movement. The first 45 houses to be built were in Stirling Avenue and Maxwell Avenue (named after Sir John Maxwell Stirling). The opening ceremony and laying of the foundation stone took place on 19 April 1913, and the houses were ready for occupancy by May. Building continued on a further 15 houses, which were completed by early 1914, and by 1915 a total of 84 houses had been built - the suburb now consisting of 3 streets: Stirling and Maxwell Avenues, and North View. By this time, however, the First World War made further expansion impossible and so the suburb was completed at two thirds of its originally intended size. By the 1980s the Glasgow Garden Suburb Tenants Ltd was in financial difficulties; rents remained too low to cover the cost of repairs which increased as the properties got older. In 1988 the company was wound up and the tenants became owners of their houses. Westerton Garden Suburb Residents Association now maintains the remaining land once owned by the Glasgow Garden Suburb Tenants Ltd.

Jessie Roberta (Rita) Cowan, was born in 1896, the eldest of four children of Samuel and Robina Cowan. The Cowan family occupied Middlecroft, one of the largest and most prestigious houses in the centre of Kirkintilloch. The property also functioned as Dr. Samuel Cowan’s medical surgery. After Dr. Cowan’s death in 1918 the Cowans were forced to take in a lodger to supplement the family income. Masataka Taketsuru, a Japanese chemistry student in Scotland to study whisky distilling, took up lodgings at Middlecroft and fell in love with Rita. Oblivious to the doubts and protests of their families, they were married in Calton register office in January 1920 in a simple civil ceremony. Ten months later, via New York and Seattle, Rita arrived in Japan. Despite working for other distillery companies, Masataka was determined to produce whisky to the highest standards and realized the only way to do this was to create his own company. Masataka Taketsuru’s distillery was founded in 1934 in the little fishing village of Yoichi on the island of Hokkaido because the location is said to have reminded him of the Scottish Highlands: mountains, clean air, pure spring water and a good supply of peat. Life was not easy for Rita as an ‘enemy alien’ in Japan during the Second World War. Ironically, though, the war proved a blessing for the distillery. Before the conflict, the Imperial Japanese Navy had been an enthusiastic consumer of imported Scotch whisky. With imports from enemy countries banned, the Yoichi distillery was classified as a war industry and allocated large volumes of increasingly scarce barley and coal. The first bottle of Masataka and Rita’s whisky was produced in 1940. In 2007, a bottle of “Taketsuru” was voted the world’s best blended malt, followed in 2008 by 20-year-old “Yoichi” winning the best single malt in the world award in a blind test of more than 200 whiskies. Rita died in 1961and was buried on hillside near the distillery. Her husband was buried beside her when he died in 1979. Yoichi’s main thoroughfare is named, “Rita Road”.

Robert Lillie was born on 29th June 1867 in Edinburgh, the eldest of 9 children. At the age of 15, Robert followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the banking profession, joining the Saint George’s Cross branch of The British Linen Bank in Glasgow as a clerk. Robert pursued his interest in art by gaining certificates as an art teacher and eventually became an evening class teacher with Glasgow school Board. He taught at Woodside School and Napiershall School. In 1902 the Lillie family moved to Milngavie. The house was named Sprouston after the village near Kelso in the Scottish Borders, where the Lillies’ ancestors had lived. Robert’s ancestors were French Huguenots who came to Scotland from the town of Lille. After 43 years service with the bank, Robert Lillie resigned in 1925 at the age of 58, to concentrate full-time on the development of his painting and etching. Robert Lillie submitted his work to various annual exhibitions including The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, The Royal Scottish Academy, Paisley Art Institute, Stirling Fine Art Association, Greenock Art Club, The Society of Artist Printmakers, The Royal Academy in London, The Walker Art gallery in Liverpool and, of course, Milngavie Art Club. In 1938 Robert Lillie drafted his will, noting his intention to leave the residue of his estate for the building and furnishing of an art gallery in Milngavie. His own artworks were also included in the bequest, which amounted to over seven hundred works. Robert Lillie died on 26th April 1949. However, his will was subject to a life rent and it wasn’t until his youngest sister, Jane, died in 1959, that his will came into force. Milngavie Town Council and Robert Lillie’s executors appointed Dr Tom Honeyman (former Director of Glasgow Art Gallery) to prepare a report on the feasibility of accepting Robert’s bequest which consisted of his artworks and £23,000 for the building of an Art Gallery in Milngavie. In January 1960, Milngavie Town Council accepted Robert Lillie’s bequest. Coincidently, plans for a new Town Hall in Milngavie were also being developed at this time. The Lillie Art Gallery and the Town Hall, although not designed at exactly the same time, were designed by the same architect (Michael Bowley) and built under the same contract. Both buildings were formally opened on 31st March 1962 by Lady Cunninghame Graham, wife of the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Dunbarton. It has been said that Art was Robert Lillie’s first and last love. He was devoted to art but did not make his living from it and was, therefore, an amateur artist in the true sense – someone who painted for the love of it.