By COLIN MACKIE  

On the first weekend of the new ‘Resurrecting History Tour’ when I took people on a walking tour around the Southern Necropolis, some interesting questions were raised.

One was the present day practice of setting up your funeral plans for that ultimate checkout date (cheery stuff eh!).
The Southern Necropolis encouraged this from the start. At the time, 1840 its scheme to enable people to ‘pay up’ a lair, was unique. In the Gorbals of 1920s, many families, even when unemployed for years, saved a few coppers weekly towards future family burials.

The ‘society’ man called on the family at the same time every week and recorded the payment in a little pink book. I can remember my granny having similar ‘penny policies’.

Dignity and respect were normal and a funeral was a way for the whole community to pay their respects. The street would be lined with neighbours and men in the crowd would ‘doff’ their caps.

Julia Kenny and her son Sean from Canada recently met me at the Southern Necropolis. Her grandparents are buried in the Central Section, in 21-shilling lairs. This would have taken several years for the family to ‘pay up’.

With its large expanse hidden by the boundary walls it was not surprising that Julia, once inside the cemetery, was surprised at the sheer size of the place. Grabbing the chance for a photo opportunity, she took advantage of a nearby cone to pinpoint the lair of her ancestors.

One gentleman on the first ‘Resurrecting History Tour’ told me that for many years he had been living in Caledonia Street but not till the tour was he aware that his window looked straight onto the monument of Sir Thomas Lipton.