In the morning we went down to the Mitchell Library, which was impressive as a building and as a library!
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| The Mitchell Library Glasgow |
Mary-Ann wanted to pursue her ancestry explorations and I wanted to find out about:
- The history of 23 Park Circus
- Henry Bell and the steamship that he invented and sailed on the Clyde called The Comet!
The young man in the archives section pointed me in the direction of the Post Office Directories that went way back to the 1880s. I picked out the one for 1944, looked up 23 Park Circus and there it was: The Park Circus Maternity Home registered under Mrs. MacCallum!
The lady in the references section found me a book called "Henry Bell" by Osborne and photocopied the colour picture of Henry Bell from the back - for a pound!
From there we went down town to The Tron Gate.
to pick up the two smaller cases that we wanted to replace one big one
A tron was a weighing beam in medieval Scotland, usually located in the marketplaces of burghs. There are various areas of several Scottish towns that are named for them. Etymologically the word is derived from the Old French tronel or troneau, meaning "balance".
From the 12th century the city fathers of Scottish burghs needed to standardise weights and measurements, partly to collect the correct taxation on goods, and partly to stop unscrupulous merchants shortchanging citizens. Trons were set up in marketplaces throughout Scotland, with each burgh with its own set of, sometimes differing, weights. Some burghs had more than one tron; in Edinburgh a butter tron was located at the head of the West Bow, while a salt tron was located further down the Royal Mile.
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| Tron Gate Clock Tower |
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| Tron Gate building |
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| Tron Gate Police memorial |
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| View of the Tron Gate from Argyll Street |
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