Mud Row. Not a very inspiring place to call home. And yet that’s exactly what several generations of my family did. The Lindsays were a coal mining family and they were born, lived and died on Mud Row. The very bleakness of the name is what inspired this study - I want to know more about the Lindsays, their neighbours, their workmates, how they lived and how they died.

Mud Row was a street of cottages built by the Clyde Ironworks for their workers in the Ironworks and nearby coal mines. Along with several other similar streets, they formed a community, unimaginatively known as Clyde Ironworks.

There were about 36 dwellings on Mud Row, housing a couple of hundred people. There are so many questions I would like to answer – what types of employment were the residents, especially the women, engaged in, what role did religion play in their lives, who did they marry, how many children did they have, what diseases affected them, how did they die, how did their children die, where were they buried…the list goes on. I’m endlessly curious.

My study will be registered with the Society For One Place Studies.

I am just getting this project started, so stay tuned for more information.

Mud Row: A One Place Study

Map of Clyde Ironworks and Mud Row, c 1858

with thanks to the National Library of Scotland