Rutherglen (; , ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of Glasgow, from the city. The town is directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lost its own local council and administratively became a component of the City of Glasgow District within the Strathclyde region (along with neighbouring Cambuslang). In 1996 the towns were reallocated to the South Lanarkshire council area.Rutherglen residents not interested in Glasgow return, Daily Record, 9 April 2017From a pawnbrokers to Parliament - Tommy McAvoy looks back on a career that took him to the House of Lords, Marc McLean, Daily Record, 11 September 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2022.People power kept the heart of a burgh beating, Daily Record, 19 April 2021
Etymology The name of Rutherglen, as well as the Scots derivation of it, Ruglen, is perhaps ; however, it may have derived from an old Welsh dialect or Cumbric, referring to "the plain of Rydderch" – Rydderch who was a famous ruler associated with the Alt Clut kingdom of the Early Medieval period, which centred on Dumbarton Rock. In this sense, the element Glen would represent a form of the Welsh glyn, for a plain. Shearer, in his 1926 history of the area, drew attention to the lack of a prominent valley landform at Rutherglen, but the fact it occupies a notable plain – in this case, one situated upon a large ridgeline above the River Clyde.Shearer, W. R., Rutherglen Lore: Story of an Eight Hundred Year-Old Royal Burgh (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1922), p. 15 The references to elements meaning red, may refer to the reddish sandy soil that comprises much of the ridgeline there leading down to the Clyde.
Antiquarian sources such as D. Ure (1793) have proposed that the place-name pertains to Reuther, one of the legendary kings of Scotland during the pre-Roman era.Ure, D., History of Rutherglen and East-Kilbride (Glasgow: David Niven, 1793) However, as most scholarship rejects the existence of this ruler, and as his alleged territory was in Dalriada, not Strathclyde, and as 'Rutherglen' was surely coined during the later period of known dominance of Gaelic language, this etymology has little credibility.Reuther, King of Scots, Rutherglen Heritage Society, 2018
Cyclic issues with district place-name research is evidenced in several local history works, including the notable 1926 work by Shearer:
"Etymologists, like doctors, will continue to disagree, and it might be possible to write a whole chapter on the placename, Rutherglen, without consulting a single authority, and come as near to the correct interpretation as many of those who have argued the point across every conceivable hypothesis, and, as conjecture alone must be the ultimate of all endeavour to trace the origin of our good town's name, we shall refrain from wasting the reader's time by prolonging the discussion. Suffice it to say that, of the half-dozen derivations propounded by Ure, Chalmers, Hately Waddell, Johnston, etc., the theory that Rutherglen acquired its name by reason of its topographical features will, we think, have readiest acceptance."
History
By tradition, Rutherglen is said to have received its Royal Burgh status in 1126 by a Royal Charter from King David I of Scotland,Local and family history: Rutherglen - history in the making, South Lanarkshire Council who reigned from 1124 to 1153.
However, a factual analysis of the state of knowledge, would conclude that there is no evidence that David I granted Royal Burgh status, nor granted it by a charter. That David I did probably grant Rutherglen some trading or even burghal status, is evidence by a William I charter granted sometime during the period 1179-1189.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 42—57 Thus, the only tenable conclusion is that sometime during David I's reign (1124-1153) he granted some form of privileges to Rutherglen, but not necessarily in 1126. Indeed, had such a royal burgh charter been granted for Rutherglen by David I, then the William I renewal of Rutherglen's status should proceed in standardised terms of ratifying any earlier charter, but instead it was worded to grant it anew, in greater solemnity with burghal status, and not only to embody it in a charter but also to identify its jurisdictional marches, which would be an unnecessary step if the charter had been intended to represent a ratification or renewal of any previous charter of erection.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 42—44 Important in this regard is the phrasing evidenced in the William I charter - et hac carta mea confirmasse. Thus, the William I charter implicitly represents the granting of a new status and it even contains a description of the trading boundary to flesh out the nature of this status.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 42—57 It has been well demonstrated that as none of Scotland’s Royal Burghs have documented evidence of charters from the period of David I, then they were all erected purely by word-of-mouth, without any charter. Generally, it has been believed that charters for such burghs were avoided because they all shared a sort of common constitution enshrined in Leges Burgorum, and so the only step the king had to take for new burghs, was simply to declare that locality was part of a longer list.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 42—44
The sole origin of the relatively modern claim that Rutherglen was founded as a royal burgh in 1126, is traceable to a Scottish Parliamentary Roll entry dated 30 May 1661. This proceeds upon a supplication to the Parliament, made by a burghal clerk on behalf of the Provost, Baillies and Council of Rutherglen, claiming that the town was erected a ‘frie burgh by King David in the yeer 1126’. This supplication involved the Burgh’s plea for permission to increase their number of fairs in order to compete with the greater competition of the adjacent Royal Burgh of Glasgow. Their ‘antient Royall burgh’ of Rutherglen, they contended, was falling into decay and ruin as a consequence of Glasgow’s attraction.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 44—46 The clerk, in stating the alleged foundation year of 1126, lent no support to the supplication. In this context it appears like an overstatement to try and achieve a goal. Of course, the concept of a ‘free burgh’ undermines the authority further still because such a grant classification did not exist until 1200, and even then only in England. Problems like these can be deliberate or accidental, but in the latter exists the possibility that the year of founding was misdated, as was quite common at that time. Indeed, in two confirmation charters for Lanark’s Royal Burgh in the 1500s and 1600s make reference to the wrong king in terms of the period in which the charter was granted. As such, the claim of 1126 as the burgh's foundation date, is not only very late attested, but is also expressed in a context of agendas and commonplace historiographical mistakes.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 44—49 As such, there is no evidence that Rutherglen received Royal Burgh status in 1126, just that it received some form of trading rights sometime during David I's reign, and probably not by means of a charter. 1126 remains possible, but there is no evidence to encourage its likelihood.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 42—57
Rutherglen Royal Burgh gradually diminished in importance as neighbouring Glasgow grew in power and size,The Statistical Account of Lanarkshire (page 373), Society for the Benefit of the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, W. Blackwood, 1841, Harvard University although the establishment of other Royal Burghs at Ayr, Dumbarton, and indeed Lanark, may have contributed to this decline.Brown, J. T. T., ‘The Royal Burgh of Rutherglen’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 96 (July 1927) pp. 42—57 By tradition, the masons who built Glasgow Cathedral are said to have lodged in Rutherglen, although this same tradition calls them Picts and suggests they travelled to the Cathedral site by a subterranean passage, which raises great credibility concerns.
In the 14th century Walter Stewart, father of King Robert II, was granted Farme Castle. This was located close to Farme Cross in the north of Rutherglen, and stood until the 1960s.Farme, Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry (1878)
Rutherglen Castle, located to the north of the town's Main Street today, was occupied by an English garrison during the struggle between John Balliol and Robert Bruce for the Scottish crown. It was besieged by Robert the Bruce in 1309 and eventually came into Scottish possession in 1313. It was destroyed by Regent Murray after the Battle of Langside with the stones used for other buildings, and no trace remaining.
Rutherglen was a centre of heavy industry,OS 25 inch Scotland, 1892-1905, Explore georeferenced maps (National Library of Scotland) having a long coal mining tradition which died out by 1950. In the 18th century, barges carried coal from Rutherglen to Greenock almost every day. A small shipyard, T.B. Seath & Co., was in operation on the Clyde at the northern edge of the town for several decades.Scientists propose five drilling sites in Rutherglen to prove disused mines hold key to heating homes, Daily Record, 25 April 2018 The Clydebridge Steelworks, situated between Rutherglen and Cambuslang, began operating in the 1880s and employed thousands by the mid-20th century, but the workforce dwindled to a few dozen by the 20th century and now only refines steel produced elsewhere. J & J White Chemicals (later ACC Chrome & Chemicals) in Shawfield, which was in existence from 1820 to 1967, produced more than 70 per cent of the UK's chromate products including chromic acid, chromic oxide pigment, sodium and potassium chromate and dichromate. Today there is a significant legacy of soluble chromium (VI) waste in the area.Whites Chemical Company, Rutherglen Heritage Society
The town seal's 19th-century Latin motto rendered by Professor George Gilbert Ramsay is "Ex fumo fama" ('fame from smoke').The Town Council Seals of Scotland Rutherglen (page 263), Alexander Porteous, 1906; via Electric Scotland A local saying derived from it is "Let Ruglen's lums reek briskly". There is also the deliberately difficult to pronounce alternative "Ru’glen’s wee roond red lums reek briskly".From Glasgow to South Lanarkshire, Life And Work Magazine, December 2018, via Pocket Mags (These are an adaptation of a Scotticism that correlates a smoking chimney with a prosperous, healthy and long life).Lang may yer lum reek: Best ever Scottish phrases, The Sunday Post, 5 November 2015 All refer to the importance of industry and industriousness to the area.Part of Sessional Orders – in the House of Commons Part of Sessional Orders – in the House of Commons, Gregor Mackenzie, 3 November 1964, via They Work For You