Around 1,000 years ago, Govan must have been an important religious centre in the early medieval kingdom of Strathclyde. Although no surviving contemporary writings attest to the presence of any monastery or church on the site at this time, the archaeological record tells a very different story – and during the Viking Age this area (today part of Glasgow) attracted large numbers of elite burials adorned with ornate gravemarkers. This wealth of early medieval artistry came to light once more towards the end of the 19th century, when dozens of carved stones were excavated, made the subject of plaster casts, and documented for a volume of images by Thomas Annan (a photographer best known for documenting living conditions in Glasgow’s slum districts). That book – for reasons that will soon become clear – remains invaluable to modern archaeologists.
Around two-thirds of the stones were ultimately brought inside Govan’s Victorian parish church, where they are still displayed today (see ‘Further information’ on p.51). Known as the ‘Govan Stones’, they comprise a sarcophagus carved with stylised animals; five ‘hogbacks’ (distinctive house-shaped gravestones that evolved from the blending of cultures in areas of Scandinavian settlement in north-east England and southern Scotland); two upright cross-shafts; two cross-slabs; and 21 recumbent slabs – stones that would have been laid horizontally to cover graves, adorned with intricate interlace patterns and cross motifs. There was not room for the remaining 14 stones, however, so they were instead displayed against the eastern boundary wall of the churchyard.
The church itself is also a reminder of Govan’s former prosperity, albeit of a rather more recent period: it represents a time when the Clydeside parish was a world-leader in shipbuilding, and its thriving population demanded a structure capable of accommodating a 1,300-strong congregation. A nationally significant example of Scottish Gothic Revival architecture, and also boasting some fine stained-glass windows, the church was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, a leading architect of his day who was also responsible for such prestigious buildings as the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. As Govan flourished, the church was soon surrounded by shipyards and workshops – and although the churchyard was able to maintain its traditional borders, the fate of one of its industrial neighbours was closely tied to that of the 14 Govan stones that had remained outside. In 1973, the adjacent Harland & Wolff shipyard was demolished – and the outdoor stones became ‘lost’. Whether they had been destroyed and carried off with the rest of the resulting rubble, or were simply covered over and their location forgotten as the border of the churchyard became gradually overgrown with grass and tree roots was not clear, but for almost half a century that was the last that would be seen of any of them.
Odin: wisdom, war, and poetry