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GLASGOW: Medieval Glasgow |
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Written by SeeGlasgow
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
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The Bell O' The Brae on High Street is reputed to be the scene,
in 1297, of a victory by William Wallace and his band over the English
forces occupying the Bishop's Castle.
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The Bell O' The Brae on High Street is reputed to be the scene,
in 1297, of a victory by William Wallace and his band over the English
forces occupying the Bishop's Castle. Wallace pursued the English
Bishop Anthony Beck all the way to Bothwell Castle.
- Glasgow
Cathedral is the largest, best-surviving medieval cathedral in mainland
Scotland. During the Wars of Independence with England (13th and 14th
centuries), Bishop Wishart successfully petitioned King Edward I of
England for permission to use timber from the Royal Forests to repair
the cathedral tower. When the English king left the area, the
patriotic bishop actually used the timber to make siege engines to
attack the English-held Bothwell Castle instead!
- A
plaque and a gargoyle on the modern student residences of the
University of Strathclyde, situated off the High Street, mark the
medieval site of the University of Glasgow.
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- Robert Blacader, who was Bishop
of Glasgow from 1483-1492, became the first Archbishop of Glasgow and
served as Archbishop from 1492 until his death in 1508.
- On
January 9, 1492, a papal bull was sent by Pope Innocent VIII, which
stated that Glasgow was to be made an archdiocese. This meant that
Glasgow was the central focus, for the dioceses of Galloway, Argyle,
the Isles, Dunblane, and Dunkeld.
- The Bishop's Castle, which lay next to Glasgow Cathedral up until the 17th
century, witnessed political turmoil and conflict throughout its
history. It had been attacked in 1516 by the Mures of Caldwell and it
was garrisoned, against the Earl of Arran by the pro-English Earl of
Lennox. During the Reformation it was occupied by French troops and in
1568 besieged by the Earl of Argyll. In 1561, the castle of Glasgow,
described as ‘the principal mansioun and duelling place of the bishop
thereof', was finally left derelict by the reformation in the 16th century.
- Victoria Bridge now stands at the foot of Stockwell Street
where the first Glasgow Bridge was built some time before 1285. It was
repaired and rebuilt over the centuries, but it remained the only
bridge over the Clyde at Glasgow until 1772.
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Ingram
Street - today a fashionable shopping street in the Merchant City -
started life in the medieval period as the Nether Cow Loan, a lane
running along the rear of town properties, which was used to take the
townsfolk’s cattle to and from the town’s common grazing lands to the
north-west of the burgh.
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Candleriggs, another fashionable street in the Merchant City, dates from the 17th
century, when the candle makers were forced to relocate after starting
one fire too many in the largely wooden-built town! Their new
properties were laid out in what was at the time open green fields,
less than 300-metres from the Market Cross.
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