Eastfield, South Lanarkshire

Formerly a country estate with a burn running through it,[2][3] Eastfield was developed with housing between the 1930s and 1960s. A mix of council-rented and private homes, the wider area is also home to two large modern secondary schools (Stonelaw High, built 1998, and Trinity High, built 1970, rebuilt 2009 - for which the northern approach path off Cambuslang Road was the old driveway to the Eastfield mansion) and the associated sports facilities of the latter, including a grid of 5-a-side football fields and a modern swimming pool / leisure centre open to the public as South Lanarkshire Lifestyle Eastfield.[4] Adjacent to Stonelaw High is Calderwood Primary School which local children attend, although geographically it is outwith the territory of Eastfield.

In the late 19th and early 20th century a small mining community was present in the area,[5] with cottages along Cambuslang Road along with Eastfield Public School.[6] The imposing sandstone building of the school, constructed in 1898, was later used as a local adult education centre and infant playgroup[7][8] but was demolished in the early 21st century and replaced by modern apartments, the same fate befalling the local public house across the road, The Langfield Inn, a few years later.[9][10] Two pubs survive in the district, both off Dukes Road: the Old Oak Inn[11] and the County Inn,[12] built close to the site of Wellshot Brewery[5] and a 1960s replacement for the County Bar in nearby Silverbanks, Cambuslang, demolished in a redevelopment of the area, replacing outdated tenements with maisonettes.[13]

Throughout the 20th century, a prominent feature in the district was Richmond Park Laundry, at one time one of the largest such operations in the country.[14][5] The facility opened around 1907, closed in 2004, and the premises were demolished in 2007 and replaced by a supermarket. The location's name was also familiar to Glasgow bus users as the terminus for the First Glasgow No 12 service (there is also another Richmond Park a few miles to the west, which is an urban park bordering the Glasgow neighbourhood of Oatlands, which some buses bound for Eastfield also pass).[15]

Parcels of land in Eastfield were found to have been contaminated by chromium waste from the Whites Chemical Works, the most conspicuous of which was a large play area made from a filled-in quarry[5] at the end of Dukes Road; this site stood empty and fenced-off for a number of years before the waste was eradicated, and now modern apartments and a new landscaped park (Quarryfield) occupies the site.[16][17]

Part of the territory which is generally considered to be part of Eastfield (east of Dukes Road, including the community centre) is within the postcode zone (G72) and the civil parish of Cambuslang[18] while the remainder is within Rutherglen's G73 postzone and parish. The entire district is currently administered as part of the Cambuslang West ward of the South Lanarkshire Council area, which is also the extent of the neighbourhood community policing zone; however this definition also encompasses several other streets which have always been considered to be in Rutherglen, such as Ettrick Crescent.[19][20]

The area is likely to be boosted economically in the 21st century by the expansion of the nearby M74 motorway which brings nationwide businesses to Eastfield's doorstep. Nearby to the north is one of Scotland's last steelworks at Clydebridge, previously a major employer in the area but operating in a greatly reduced capacity than in its heyday.[5][21]

• 
  Langfield Inn (public house, demolished 2006)
• 
  Bogleshole Road
• 
  modern flats on Dukes Road
• 
  Whinfield Avenue
• 
  Pearse Park, GAA field, in 2009
• 
  The ground lying neglected in 2013

Media related to Eastfield, South Lanarkshire at Wikimedia Commons

• Eastfield at Gazetteer for Scotland
• Pearse Park Redevelopment website