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Donald's Land, Govan

Burrell Collection Photo Library

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Donald's Land, Govan

Children at Donald's Land (the building with the curving exterior stairway) on Three Ell Road in Govan, 1890s. "Land" is an old Scots word for a house of more than one storey.

Three Ell Road lay within the old village of Govan. It was so-named because, according to the local historian T C F Brotchie, it measured "three times a weaver's ell-wand" - an ell being an old unit of measurement for cloth and other goods, which would have been used by Govan's weavers. A Scottish ell was 91 centimetres long.

The street was sometimes known locally as "back o' the Dykes" but its official name was subsequently changed to Crosslee Road.

Reference: 660.82.90

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums

Keywords:
bare feet, children, Donald's Land, ells, fashions, lands, slums, stairways, streetscenes, tenements, weavers, weaving, women



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