Glassford, a parish in the Middle Ward of Lanarkshire, containing Glassford station on a branch line of the Caledonian, 1¾ mile N by E of Strathaven, and also containing the villages of Westquarter and Chapel-ton which are respectively 1 mile ESE and 2 miles N by W of that station, whilst Chapelton by road is 5½ miles SSW of Hamilton, under which it has a post office. With an irregular outline, rudely resembling an hourglass, the parish is bounded N by Hamilton, NE and SE by Stonehouse, S by Avondale, SW by East Kilbride, and NW by East Kilbride and Blantyre. Its utmost length, from WNW to ESE, is 7 miles ; its width varies between 21/2 furlongs and 2½ miles ; and its area is 64596/7 acres, of which 17 are water. Avon Water winds 2 miles north-north-eastward along the south-eastern border, and Calder Water 33/8 miles north-north-westward and north-eastward along the south-western and north-western border. By the former stream the surface declines to 490, by the Calder to 680 feet above sea-level ; and between them it rises to 804 feet near Glassford station, 857 at Bents, and 853 near Craighall. The rocks are mainly trap and carboniferous ; and coal, freestone, and limestone have all been worked, but the first to no great extent. The soil is variously light loam, clay, and moss ; and during this century a good deal of barren moorland has been reclaimed. Just to the N of Westquarter is the site of an ancient castle ; and ½ mile to the E are remains of the old church of 1633, with a tombstone bearing this epitaph : 'To the Memory of the very worthy Pillar of the Church, Mr William Gordon of Earlston, in Galloway, shot by a party of dragoons on his way to Bothwell Bridge, 22 June 1679, aged 65. Inscribed by his great-grandson, Sir John Gordon, Bart., 11 June 1 772.' John Struthers (1776-1853), author of The Poor Man's Sabbath, for three and a half years was a cowherd in Glassford parish. Mansions, noticed separately, are Avonholm, Craigthornhill, Crutherland, Hallhill, Muirburn, and West Quarter House. In the presbytery of Hamilton and synod of Glasgow and Ayr, this parish, since 1875, has been ecclesiastically divided into Glassford and Chapelton. The stipend and communion allowance for Glassford is £306, 17s. ; its present church, built in 1820, contains 560 sittings. Two public schools, Chapelton and Glassford, with respective accommodation for 140 and 119 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 104 and 89, and grants of £96, 17s. and £74, 1s. Valuation (l860) £9900, (1882) £10,284. Pop. of civil parish (1801) 953, (1831) 1730, (1861) 1938, (1871) 1430, (1881) 1452 ; of ecclesiastical parish (1881) 670.—Ord. Sur., sh. 23, 1865.
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