Toby Symonds
GARDENING isn’t everyone’s calling. That much can be seen in this photograph of 10-year-old Jacqueline Murdoch prodding the freshly dug up ground of 11-year-old Alan Graham in the grounds of Castleton Primary School, in Glasgow’s southerly district of Castlemilk. from 1988.
As much fun as the pair are so obviously having in this blissfully harmonious scene, there was a wider goal to these proceedings. This so-called gardening was all part of the Castlemilk Environment Programme of the late-eighties, itself key to a bigger scheme still.
Largely the product of a fifties housing project to redistribute Glasgow’s overcrowded slums (such as Gorbals), in 1971 the population of Castlemilk stood at 37,000. By 1988 this number had almost halved. Thus, regeneration was the buzz word of the moment, with the implementation of a strategy to improve amenities for the Castlemilk community and develop activities and arts in the area.
Activities including the art of gardening at the local Primary School.
The Herald’s reporter, somewhat optimistically, captioned this image as “planting young trees” in 1988. Whether anyone would have been prepared to bet on said trees’ chances come 1989, however, remains as doubtful as the chances of Alan’s pristinely white trainers making it through the activity unblemished.
Jacqueline’s footwear too seems doomed; she, unlike Alan – dressed rather splendidly in a (now) vintage Adidas pullover and corduroys, apparently missed the memo about that day being a none-uniform day. No wonder she looks so glum.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here