Deaf & Dumb Institution .....

Norman Downs · Post by **Norman Downs** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:47 pm

I've just found my great grandparents Malcolm McLennan and Jane Duncan in the 1861 census, aged 11 and 8 respectively.

They were both boarders at "The Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb". I already knew they were both deaf from a later census.

The header page says it was in the Central district of Glasgow, in the parish of Barony. Does anyone know more precisely where this institution would have been?

Norman

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:51 pm

Hi Norman
Is this it?
http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.ph ... 106&add=99

and here, but I'm not sure if its the same one?

Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Prospect Bank, Queen's Park.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/ ... sgow.shtml

Best wishes
Lesley

Norman Downs · Post by **Norman Downs** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:05 pm

Looks like you're spot on with the one on the Glasgow Story site. If it was founded in 1819 and moved to new premises in 1868, then that must be where my great grandparents were in 1861.

I wonder if the Queen's Park one mentioned on the other site was the new 1868 premises.

Thanks very much for finding these for me.

Norman

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:26 pm

Hi Norman
Looks like the address was Parson Street, Townhead.
http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSB00035
- if I've got the right place!

and this looks like it was the post-1868 one:
http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSA00157

Best wishes
Lesley

Norman Downs · Post by **Norman Downs** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:16 pm

Hi Lesley,

Thanks again. I'm pretty sure that must be the right place.

It doesn't look very big though, considering the number of boarders.

I've downloaded pages three and four of the enumeration book, each with twenty five names, and I can just see on the edge of page four enough of page five to know there are another seven names, so that must be the last page.

Page one I presume is the header page, but I don't know whether or not page two has another twenty five names. (Maybe I should just use a few more credits to get the whole picture.)

So there should be either fifty seven, or eighty two people in the building. Must have been a bit of a squeeze.

Maybe that's why the new building looks so much bigger.

Norman

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:34 pm

Hi Norman

It doesn't look very big though, considering the number of boarders

I'm pretty sure that wasn't a major worry back then.... makes you think though. I don't imagine any of these institutions, as hard as they might have been trying, were very pleasant places to be by today's standards.

Best wishes
Lesley

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 2:23 am

Lesley

I understand what you mean by cramped by todays standards. A number of years ago when I first started work with severely disabled children. We were part of the Mental Health Service, and as such we were compelled to do "orientation" to the department which also included the compulsory visit to "Swanbourn/Graylands" Asylum. Considering this building was newer than the 1868 building mentioned, the mind boggles at what the older "Asylums" were like if this old place was something to go by. This place was a cramped rabbit warren.

Swanbourne closed about 18 years ago.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:33 am

Norman Downs wrote:Looks like you're spot on with the one on the Glasgow Story site. If it was founded in 1819 and moved to new premises in 1868, then that must be where my great grandparents were in 1861.

I wonder if the Queen's Park one mentioned on the other site was the new 1868 premises.

Thanks very much for finding these for me.

Norman

The site posted by Lesley clearly says "In 1947 there was a change of use for the building when it became Langside College, a college of further education."

David

Davie · Post by **Davie** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:57 pm

Hi all
I live next door to Langside college.
The original building is now private houses
http://www.propertysalesonline.com/http ... ?id=177663

Changed days indeed

Norman Downs · Post by **Norman Downs** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 5:16 pm

Thanks everyone for your comments.

DavidWW wrote:
The site posted by Lesley clearly says "In 1947 there was a change of use for the building when it became Langside College, a college of further education."

David

Hi David,
I'm not sure of the point you are making. The Townhead building was in use from 1819 to 1868. The Langside building was in use from 1868 until 1947 when it became Langside College. So in 1861, when my great grandparents were boarders, they would have been in the Townhead building.

Regards,
Norman