Join Prof. Chris Whatley for a fascinating tale of how ordinary Glaswegians took on an arrogant landowner and successfully defended ‘the ’liberties of the banks of the Clyde’.
In the early 1820s, Thomas 'Lang Tam' Harvie, a wealthy Glasgow distiller, bought the estate of Westthorn in Dalmarnock. He soon set about building huge walls to mark his property. One of these, known as Harvie’s Dyke, ran down to the edge of the Clyde, blocking a long-established public pathway along the north bank of the river.
On Midsummer’s Eve in 1823, a great crowd from the surrounding villages gathered to tear down the hated wall. Their actions sparked a six-year struggle that culminated in a landmark ruling in the House of Lords; one that defended and defined our rights to public pathways.
Christopher A. Whatley OBE, FRSE is Emeritus Professor of Scottish History at the University of Dundee. Initially focused on the coal and salt industries and Scottish industrialisation, his research spans everyday life, urban society, popular protest, riot and disorder, the 1707 Union, memorialisation, and Scottish writers such as Robert Burns and John Galt.
His new book, 'Harvie's Dyke: The People, their Liberty and the Clyde' is published by Birlinn: https://birlinn.co.uk/product/harvies-dyke/
