The Story of Stepps

Development of the Community

The growth in the population of Stepps generated a need for community facilities, both religious and secular. Sunday evening prayer meetings were held in the Turtle family's kitchen in the workers' row at Stepps Hill. Planks of wood were laid between chairs to provide sufficient seating. Although a fairly large kitchen (comprising most of the house) it soon became inadequate for the purpose, when attendances of 50-60 were expected. The meetings were regularly addressed by John Hamilton, farmer at Whitehill, who was said to be an excellent speaker and a fine singer. Social soirees (including the very first in Stepps) were held in Mr Hamilton's barn at Whitehill. On such occasions a harmonium was carried across the fields from Beggs' house in West Avenue.

The use of a railway labourer's kitchen and a farmer's barn, for community gatherings, emphasised the lack of proper facilities for such purposes. Soon a number of local householders formed themselves into a body of Trustees, for the purpose of building a community hall. Funds were raised, and the "Union Hall" as it was known, opened in Cardowan Drive on 15th September 1885. The hall was intended primarily for religious purposes (on a non-denominational basis), but was used for secular meetings as well. Activities included church services, prayer meetings, Sunday schools, Bible classes, YWCA, the Gospel Temperance Union, the Band of Hope, a Literary Society, a Penny Savings Bank and singing classes. All public meetings were held there. In 1898 the Cadder School Board agreed to pay the Trustees a rent of Ł18 per annum for school accommodation at the hall (on a temporary basis). By 1906, adequate provision for religious needs was available elsewhere in Stepps, and the Hall Trustees agreed to hand over the hall to the Parish Council, for permanent use as a public hall in the village. In February 1907 Cadder Parish Council decided to retain the name "Union Hall, Stepps", despite an alternative proposal to rename it as the "Public Hall, Stepps". At this meeting the chairman recalled that when the hall was built "it was with the object of carrying on religious services, and the name meant ...that it was a union of all denominations, and that the hall was not denominational in any sense".

The first decade of the twentieth century was a period of considerable growth for Stepps. Anniesdale Avenue, Blenheim Avenue and Whitehill Avenue were established as new and significant residential streets during this time, while many additional villas were built in Cardowan Drive, Cumbernauld Road, Lenzie Road, Mount Harriet Drive and West Avenue. The population grew from 302 in 1891 to 576 in 1901, and to 1,338 in 1911.

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