CASTLE BOINS or BOYNES
Glasgow Green
Over the centuries generations of
Glasgow women used the Glasgow Green to undertake that most arduous of domestic
chores - the washing. Castle Boins was an area on the banks of the Camlachie
Burn, near to St. Andrew's-by-the-Green Episcopal Church, which was
particularly popular with them. Eventually, a small enclosure of this name,
which provided some degree of shelter during the operation, was located on the
south bank of the burn. This became something of a forerunner to the Wash House
on the Green which was later provided by the Town Council in c.1733. The
unusual name attaching to the location was derived from the hundreds of tubs, or
boynes as they were known, found there in which the women treaded their washing.
The locality even became something of
a very early tourist attraction because of the method of washing - known as
Scotch Washing. With their skirts and petticoats raised out of harm's way, the
exposure of the nether limbs was considered immodest by the more prudish of the
day. The women themselves are reported to have been less concerned with the
spectacle than with trying to do their work, although an illustration of the
time shows one Peeping Tom being rebuffed with a paddle.
Castle Boins also developed into something of a social venue where folk would gather for a drink. Part of the area was eventually incorporated into David Dale’s garden when Charlotte St. was built, and more was lost with the formation of Greendyke St.. It’s use as a washing area was finally ended when the burn became too polluted to provide a source of clean water.
© 2005 Gordon Adams
