Overlee Playing Fields

Overlee Playing Fields, commonly referred to as Overlee Park, is a public park in Stamperland, Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, south of Glasgow, Scotland.

Overlee Playing Fields
TypePublic Park
LocationStamperland, Clarkston, East Renfrewshire
Coordinates55°47′17″N 4°16′5″W
Operated byEast Renfrewshire Council
StatusOpen all year

History

The origins of Overlee Playing Fields are in farming. The area the park contains today is around half of the area of Overlee Farm, which existed during the 19th century. In the early 20th century half of Overlee Farm was built upon, and the neighbouring Slamanshill Farm (which is what Strawhill Road is named after today) and Stamperland Farm were also built upon. The Stamperland name persisted however, hence why Stamperland is called that today. The other part of Overlee Farm was turned into the park, with the farm buildings still existing behind the trees on the right at the entrance to the park.

In the early 1800s, the remains of a village of underground dwellings (souterrains or weems) from around 2000 years earlier was uncovered by the local landowner preparing the ground for use as a quarry, but its significance was not recognised and the evidence was destroyed.[1][2][3]

The entrance to the park is also historically important. There are carvings on the entrance of King George V which have been somewhat damaged since being built but are still visible today. As recently as 2007, the playground in the park had a major refurbishment for much needed modernisation. In 2018, there was a large scale incident at the park, during which teenagers who were partying after receiving their exam results were attacked, and 3 people were hospitalised.[4]

Features

Overlee Park contains four football pitches,[5] a large playground and a pavilion. There is also a woodland area at the north of the park.[6] In the early 21st century the pavilion had fallen into disrepair, and became abandoned and was occupied by bats. However, in 2018 East Renfrewshire Council confirmed plans to build a small nursery in the park, as well as a replacement for the pavilion and a house for the bats. As of November 2019, the nursery's core structure is visible at the site.[7]

Overlee is the home venue of local amateur football team Busby AFC, founded in 1980;[8] its youth section was international player Aiden McGeady's first club in the 1990s.

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References
  1. Clarkston, Stamperland & Netherlee, Portal to the Past (East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure)
  2. Clarkston, Overlee, Canmore
  3. Overlee, Clarkston, Renfrewshire, The Northern Antiquarian, 2 March 2018
  4. Gary Armstrong. "Teenager arrested following incident at Overlee Park in Clarkston". Glasgow Live. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  5. "Grass pitch locations - East Renfrewshire Council". eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  6. "Important Urban Greenspaces". eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk. 2005. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  7. "Council sets out £23m plan for five new nurseries". eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk. 28 September 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  8. Venue, Busby Amateur FC
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