HUTCHESONTOWN, a district (small), including a
town, in the parish of Govan, barony of Gorbals,
within the jurisdiction of Glasgow, county of Lanark;
containing about 5000 inhabitants. This place, which
forms one of the principal suburbs of the city of Glasgow,
is situated to the south of the river Clyde, on land purchased
in 1647 by the corporation of Hutcheson's
Hospital. The town was commenced in 1794, and consists
of several spacious and well-formed streets, intersecting
each other at right angles; the houses are generally
from three to four stories in height, and are respectably
built of stone, and roofed with slate. The
whole is well lighted with gas, and amply supplied with
water. There was facility of communication with the
city provided by a bridge over the Clyde, which was
scarcely completed when it was swept away by an inundation
of the river, in 1795. The loss of this bridge
greatly retarded the progress of the town; and it was
not till the year IS'29 that the foundation sttme of a new
one, on the same site, was laid by the preceptor of the
hospital. The bridge is a handsome structure of five
arches, from a design by Mr. Robert Stevenson, civil
engineer; it is 406 feet in length, and thirty-six feet wide
within the parapets.
A large portion of the population are employed in the
cotton manufacture, weaving both by power and hand
looms; and in different branches of the linen trade. A
very extensive factory for weaving stripes and checks for
furniture, various fabrics for women's dresses, shirtings,
and other articles, was established here by Messrs. Somerville
and sons. There are also some foundries and
iron-works in the district, the most important of which
are those of Mr. W. Dixon, who has erected several hotblast
furnaces on the principle of Neilson's patent, in
which about 4000 tons of pig-iron are annually produced.
The greater portion of the town was included within the
late ecclesiastical district of Hutchesontown, formed under
an act of the General Assembly, and attached to the
parish of Gorbals. The church is a plain but elegant
structure, erected in 1839, at a cost of £2600, by the
Church-Building Society, and containing more than 1000
sittings: it is now rented by a Free Church congregation.
The members of the United Presbyterian Church
have also a place of worship. A school-house, capable
of receiving 650 children, has been built by subscription,
aided by a grant from government; instruction is afforded
upon very moderate terms. There are likewise several
Sunday schools for children of both sexes.