Edit What do you know about Sighthill?
Sighthill is a district in the north of the River Clyde. In the past Sighthill has been included as part of Greater Springburn. It now consists of 10 multi-storey blocks split evenly across two sub-areas, Pinkston and Fountainwell. The Fountainwell side is due to be redeveloped in the next few years with the high rise flats being demolished. The Pinkston blocks are to receive funding and at the request of residents, will be retained and improved.
In the large graveyard at the north east side of Sighthill stands the memorial to John Baird and Andrew Hardie, the leaders of the 1820 Radical War otherwise known as the 1820 Insurrection.
John Baird was born on September 1, 1790. A weaver by trade, he was brought up in the village of Condorrat. He is best remembered as a radical commander in the "Radical War" of 1820, and along with James Wilson and Andrew Hardie is the best remembered radical combatant in the "Radical War".
Baird had a military career in the British Army, serving in the 2nd Battalion of the 95th Regiment of Foot (known as the Rifle Brigade) seeing military action in both Argentina and Spain. His military experience meant that he was suitable to become commander of the Radicals in their doomed march to the Carron Ironworks.
He was sentenced to death and was executed in Stirling on September 8, 1820 along with Hardie. He is remembered as a martyr to the fight for universal suffrage by many figures in Scotland, particularly the 1820 Society.
Andrew Hardie was second-in-command of the Radical Forces who marched on Carron Ironworks in the "Radical War" of 1820.
He was sentenced to death and was executed in Stirling on September 8, 1820 along with John Baird. In his speech on the scaffold he declared himself " a martyr to the cause of truth and justice ."
The Radical War, also known as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, was a week of strikes and unrest, a culmination of Radical demands for reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which had become prominent in the early years of the French Revolution, but had then been repressed during the long Napoleonic Wars.
An economic downturn after the wars ended brought increasing unrest. Artisan workers, particularly weavers in Scotland, sought action to reform an uncaring government, gentry fearing revolutionary horrors recruited militia and the government deployed an apparatus of spies, informers and agents provocateurs to stamp out the trouble.
A Committee of Organisation for Forming a Provisional Government put placards around the streets of Glasgow late on Saturday 1 April, calling for an immediate national strike.
On Monday 3 April work stopped in a wide area of central Scotland and in a swirl of disorderly events a small group marched towards the Carron Company ironworks to seize weapons, but while stopped at Bonnymuir they were attacked by Hussars. Another small group from Strathaven marched to meet a rumoured larger force, but were warned of an ambush and dispersed.
Militia taking prisoners to Greenock jail were attacked by local people and the prisoners released. James Wilson of Strathaven was singled out as a leader of the march there, and at Glasgow was executed by hanging, then decapitated. Of those seized by the army at Bonnymuir, John Baird and Andrew Hardie were similarly executed at Stirling after making short defiant speeches. 20 other Radicals were sentenced to penal transportation.
It became evident that government agents had actively fomented the unrest to bring radicals into the open. The insurrection was largely forgotten as attention focussed on better publicised Radical events in England. Two years later, enthusiasm for the Visit of King George IV to Scotland successfully boosted loyalist sentiment and brought a new-found Scottish national identity.
In the 18th century artisans such as handloom weavers, shoemakers, smiths and wrights worked to commission and so could set their own hours of work which often left them time to read, and debate what they had read with friends.
The national Presbyterian Church of Scotland was founded on egalitarian attitudes and rights of the individual to make principled judgements, and so encouraged disputatious habits and preoccupation with "rights" as well as continuing the Scottish education tradition which achieved more widespread literacy at that time than other countries. In Scotland only 1 in 250 people had the right to vote and these artisans were ready to join the Radical movement in welcoming the American Revolution and the French Revolution, and be influenced by Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. The Scottish Friends of the People society held a series of "Conventions" in 1792 and 1793. The government reacted harshly, sentencing successive leaders to penal transportation, and in 1793 Dundee Unitarian minister Thomas Fysshe Palmer was also given 7 years transportation for helping to prepare and distribute reform tracts. Dissent went underground with the United Scotsmen whose activities were curbed with the trial of George Mealmaker in 1798.
Between 1800 and 1808 the earnings of weavers were halved, and in 1812 they petitioned for an increase which was granted by the magistrates, but the employers refused to pay and so the weavers called a strike which lasted for nine weeks with the support of a "National Committee of Scottish Union Societies", organised in a similar way to the United Scotsmen ("Unions" being area related, not Trade Unions). The authorities were further alarmed and set up spies and informers to forestall any further reformist activity. Between then and 1815 Major John Cartwright made visits to establish radical Hampden Clubs across Scotland.
In the large graveyard at the north east side of Sighthill stands the memorial to John Baird and Andrew Hardie, the leaders of the 1820 Radical War otherwise known as the 1820 Insurrection.
John Baird was born on September 1, 1790. A weaver by trade, he was brought up in the village of Condorrat. He is best remembered as a radical commander in the "Radical War" of 1820, and along with James Wilson and Andrew Hardie is the best remembered radical combatant in the "Radical War".
Baird had a military career in the British Army, serving in the 2nd Battalion of the 95th Regiment of Foot (known as the Rifle Brigade) seeing military action in both Argentina and Spain. His military experience meant that he was suitable to become commander of the Radicals in their doomed march to the Carron Ironworks.
He was sentenced to death and was executed in Stirling on September 8, 1820 along with Hardie. He is remembered as a martyr to the fight for universal suffrage by many figures in Scotland, particularly the 1820 Society.
Andrew Hardie was second-in-command of the Radical Forces who marched on Carron Ironworks in the "Radical War" of 1820.
He was sentenced to death and was executed in Stirling on September 8, 1820 along with John Baird. In his speech on the scaffold he declared himself " a martyr to the cause of truth and justice ."
The Radical War, also known as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, was a week of strikes and unrest, a culmination of Radical demands for reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which had become prominent in the early years of the French Revolution, but had then been repressed during the long Napoleonic Wars.
An economic downturn after the wars ended brought increasing unrest. Artisan workers, particularly weavers in Scotland, sought action to reform an uncaring government, gentry fearing revolutionary horrors recruited militia and the government deployed an apparatus of spies, informers and agents provocateurs to stamp out the trouble.
A Committee of Organisation for Forming a Provisional Government put placards around the streets of Glasgow late on Saturday 1 April, calling for an immediate national strike.
On Monday 3 April work stopped in a wide area of central Scotland and in a swirl of disorderly events a small group marched towards the Carron Company ironworks to seize weapons, but while stopped at Bonnymuir they were attacked by Hussars. Another small group from Strathaven marched to meet a rumoured larger force, but were warned of an ambush and dispersed.
Militia taking prisoners to Greenock jail were attacked by local people and the prisoners released. James Wilson of Strathaven was singled out as a leader of the march there, and at Glasgow was executed by hanging, then decapitated. Of those seized by the army at Bonnymuir, John Baird and Andrew Hardie were similarly executed at Stirling after making short defiant speeches. 20 other Radicals were sentenced to penal transportation.
It became evident that government agents had actively fomented the unrest to bring radicals into the open. The insurrection was largely forgotten as attention focussed on better publicised Radical events in England. Two years later, enthusiasm for the Visit of King George IV to Scotland successfully boosted loyalist sentiment and brought a new-found Scottish national identity.
In the 18th century artisans such as handloom weavers, shoemakers, smiths and wrights worked to commission and so could set their own hours of work which often left them time to read, and debate what they had read with friends.
The national Presbyterian Church of Scotland was founded on egalitarian attitudes and rights of the individual to make principled judgements, and so encouraged disputatious habits and preoccupation with "rights" as well as continuing the Scottish education tradition which achieved more widespread literacy at that time than other countries. In Scotland only 1 in 250 people had the right to vote and these artisans were ready to join the Radical movement in welcoming the American Revolution and the French Revolution, and be influenced by Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. The Scottish Friends of the People society held a series of "Conventions" in 1792 and 1793. The government reacted harshly, sentencing successive leaders to penal transportation, and in 1793 Dundee Unitarian minister Thomas Fysshe Palmer was also given 7 years transportation for helping to prepare and distribute reform tracts. Dissent went underground with the United Scotsmen whose activities were curbed with the trial of George Mealmaker in 1798.
Between 1800 and 1808 the earnings of weavers were halved, and in 1812 they petitioned for an increase which was granted by the magistrates, but the employers refused to pay and so the weavers called a strike which lasted for nine weeks with the support of a "National Committee of Scottish Union Societies", organised in a similar way to the United Scotsmen ("Unions" being area related, not Trade Unions). The authorities were further alarmed and set up spies and informers to forestall any further reformist activity. Between then and 1815 Major John Cartwright made visits to establish radical Hampden Clubs across Scotland.
Took some photos of the monument to these truly remarkable men John Baird, Andrew Hardie, James Wilson.
Monument to the martyrs