Scott answers “Is Pithead a real place?”

Steve Cunningham asked this question about Shuggie Bain:

Is Pithead a real place?

Scott I went to school in Cardowan (St. Joseph’s) during the late 70’s, early 80’s. I can guarantee everything in this bleak but wonderful book points to Pi…moreI went to school in Cardowan (St. Joseph’s) during the late 70’s, early 80’s. I can guarantee everything in this bleak but wonderful book points to Pithead being Cardowan. Everything from the drive through Millerston and Stepps with neat bungalows to the right turn at a petrol station (no longer there) to the description of a small Catholic Church, no pubs but the miners club, the few streets surrounded by peat bogs marks Pithead as Cardowan 100%. I couldn’t read it without visualizing the streets and areas I knew well and with a few minor alterations everything fits. Intentional or not, even some of the surnames mentioned in the book (Donnelly etc.) were local extended families. The area is much changed with a lot of new house built on the extensive peat bogs and cleared Pit (which closed in 1983). Like much of the post industrial UK communities, a decent, tight, close knit mining populace was destroyed for several generations. It’s only now getting back to what it was, and could and should be. Despite the depiction of life in this book, I wouldn’t swap my growing up there.(less)

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