Lord Overtoun and Keir Hardie

John White III was strongly religious and involved in numerous philanthropic concerns. He also became involved in politics and in 1893 became a peer in the House of Lords as Baron Overtoun, alternatively "Lord Overtoun", taking the name from his family’s estate. However his reputation for godliness and upstanding generosity was tarnished in 1899 by the figurehead of the Labour Movement, Keir Hardie,^[6] to whom the employees had turned for help regarding their situation after appeals to management and an attempted strike had proved unsuccessful.

Hardie produced a series of pamphlets entitled White Slaves: Chrome, Charity, Crystals and Cant describing in scathing terms the terrible working conditions and the demands on the workforce at Shawfield works – the pay was far lower than in comparable occupations of the time, and the owners demanded 12-hour shifts without a meal break and a seven-day working week (although in his other guise as a prominent churchman, Lord Overtoun campaigned for strict Sunday observance including the cessation of public transport for recreational purposes).^[7]

However the most damning evidence was linked to the effects on the workers’ health. Safety regulations introduced in 1893 had been ignored, and ineffective protective equipment in unventilated sheds left the employees exposed to the harmful chemical dust at all times. In the short term this led to widespread perforation of the septum in their noses and ‘chrome holes’ (ulcerations burnt into the flesh), as well as lung cancer, digestive disorders and skin diseases over longer periods. The exact number of workers affected is unknown due to unreliable figures and reluctance among authorities of the time to acknowledge and document any direct link between the chrome dust and the health dangers. The exposure to the dust was such that the workers were referred to locally as ‘White’s Dead Men’ or ‘White’s Canaries’ due to their bleached faces and yellow chrome dust-covered clothing.^[8] The pamphlets proved very popular and exposed the conditions at Whites works to the wider public. Another Glasgow tycoon of the day Thomas Lipton received similar treatment from Hardie in response to practices at his facilities.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "There was no effective rebuttal of the charges and Overtoun stood accused of hypocrisy, not least because his passionate sabbatarianism did not extend to closing his chemical works on Sundays. While Overtoun was somewhat distanced from the daily running of the Rutherglen works, it was impossible for him to escape some of the odium for conditions in a third-generation family firm of which he was sole proprietor."

Soon afterwards, improvements in the works were introduced, including baths and recreational facilities on-site, although the sanitary issues were addressed to a satisfactory standard only after a further damning report into Whites by the Medical Inspector of Factories Thomas Morison Legge.

Twentieth century

Despite the criticism of the situation at his chemical works, in 1905 Lord Overtoun was made a freeman of Rutherglen after he donated land to the town for a public park - this was named Overtoun Park. Lord Overtoun/John Campbell White III died in 1908, by which time the Shawfield works were the largest of their kind in the world.^[9]

William Chrystal took full control of the firm until his own death in 1921. By the mid-1920s the works, now controlled by another cousin in the White family, Hill Hamilton Barrett (died 1934), employed around 900 and the site had expanded further, to 30 acres.^[8]

In 1953 the firm merged with Eaglescliffe Chemical Company from County Durham and became British Chrome and Chemicals. In 1958 the company was renamed Associated Chemical Companies. It was bought over by Albright and Wilson in 1965 and the Shawfield works closed down; the chain of companies producing chemicals (although no longer at any locations in Scotland) continues with Elementis.

Toxic legacy

Although production of chemicals at Shawfield ceased in the 1960s, the impact on the Rutherglen area due to the activities of J & J White lasted for decades afterwards due to the presence of the carcinogenic by-product hexavalent chromium (Chromium VI) produced at the works. Its dangers were highlighted in the Hollywood movie Erin Brockovich.

The 12-acre (7 ha) area set aside within the confines of the Shawfield works for waste^[10] (coincidentally the same as that bequeathed to the town by Lord Overtoun for the public park – giving some idea as to the size of the area in question) proved inadequate due to the output volume.

In the early 1990s, surveys carried out on blaes playing fields due to be built on for a nursing home revealed dangerously high levels of hexavalent chromium. Further investigations confirmed that J & J White Chemicals had been routinely discarding up to 2.5 million tonnes of their waste materials (Chromate Ore Processing Residue, COPR) at locations around Rutherglen, Cambuslang and Glasgow (such as Carmyle) for many years, and at the time this was permitted.^[11] These sites were often old quarries or mines requiring suitable landfill for reuse.

Known sites

The most prominent dumping ground identified was an area of parkland and playing fields on a former quarry in the Eastfield district adjacent to two main roads, which was fenced off and lay abandoned for a decade before suitable decontamination could be carried out. This land was well known to locals and was casually referred to as 'The Toxic'. A new park and a housing development were laid out on the site,^[12] but concerns in the community are such that the alarm was raised immediately when attempts were made to carry out test drilling for sewer works in 2014.^[13] Other sites either confirmed or strongly rumoured to have been contaminated with COPR – most of which are now believed to have been sufficiently decontaminated – include:

• the Eastfield burn to the south of The Toxic park at Dukes Road (now a small park area)
• the playgrounds of the first incarnation of Trinity High School, also in Eastfield (once a quarry, now the site of the new school and sports facilities)
• the playing fields at Overtoun Park in Rutherglen (now a nursing home)
• the site of Rutherglen Maternity Hospital adjacent to the playing fields (once a mine, hospital from 1977—1998, now the local health centre)^[14]
• open ground at the north of the Burnhill district across the railway lines from Shawfield (now the new stadium for Rutherglen Glencairn F.C. as well as a local sports centre)^[15]
• blaes playing fields on both sides of Prospecthill Road, Toryglen in Glasgow (once a brick works, now a supermarket and football training centre)
• spectator banking at Lesser Hampden football ground ^[16][17]
• Morriston Park estate in Cambuslang (now a supermarket and housing development)
• Rosebery Park football ground in Oatlands (now the Glasgow East End Regeneration Route)^[18]
• the former Phoenix Tube Works (latterly Stewarts & Lloyds, at Farme Cross) – it is thought the COPR material had been in another area and was then discarded at this derelict site when the issues became apparent (now a retail park)

The issue was highlighted in some detail by the then MP Tommy McAvoy during a debate in the House of Commons in 1995.^[19] However, a study published in 1999 ^[20] and a further study in 2000 suggested there was little evidence that those living in areas contaminated with COPR suffered from poorer health than those in unaffected areas.^[21]

Effects at Shawfield

Within Shawfield the contamination was at its worst. In the late 1960s all visible traces of the works – including Shawfield House which had survived the 150 years of intense industrial activity by serving as an administrative building within the complex – were removed and an industrial estate was constructed in its place. The tenants included factories concerned in food preparation such as the Scottish base of Greggs.^[22][23] However at that time the extent and the severity of the chromium contamination was not known.

The spectator bankings of Southcroft Park, the original ground of Glencairn FC, were formed with chromium waste to a significant extent.^[24]

The waste ground to the rear of the stadium also had a very high level of contamination, which caused great concern as this land fell along the exact route due to be taken by the M74 motorway and would lead to the chemicals being disturbed.^[25]

The COPR permeates the water table due to its prolonged existence in the soil, with polluted water entering Clyde tributaries the Cityford/West Burn and the Malls Mire/Polmadie Burn (which run along the western side of the site, largely underground)^[26] and thereafter flowing into the main river. This may also have led to vegetation at affected sites absorbing the contamination.^[11] In 2019, it was observed that the pollution from the residual COPR in the Polmadie Burn was still present to the extent that the water turned green, causing the matter to be discussed by local politicians.^[27][28] Glasgow City Council stated in response that the substance was only of risk if people came into direct contact with the contaminated water, and that measures had been taken to redirect the West Burn into the Clyde before it joined the Polmadie Burn (which has open sections within a public park), reducing the potential for exposure.^[27][28] Two years later the burn was found to have turned bright yellow.^[29]

Shawfield Smartbridge

A new pedestrian bridge^[55] with associated landscaping has been constructed between Shawfield and Dalmarnock (a project related to the 2014 Commonwealth Games) to encourage people working in the area to make use of the nearby Dalmarnock railway station; the bridge also carries communications and power connections over the river.^[56]