IT’S a project which sums up exactly what Streets Ahead is all about.

The Southern Necropolis Action Group – SNAG – have taken a neglected place and turned it into a heritage and environment hub in the heart of the city.

With the support of our campaign and its partners the City Charitable Trust, City Building, Scottish Fire and Rescue and Glasgow City Council, SNAG has gone from strength to strength.

Lord Willie Haughey, chief executive of City Charitable Trust, spent an afternoon with the group and local schoolkids who have played an important part in the project to find out what it was all about.

ANN FOTHERINGHAM reports.

IN a far corner of the vast Southern Necropolis in the Gorbals, under an impressive stone monument with a draped urn on top, lies the grave of multi-millionaire Victorian tea merchant Sir Thomas Lipton.

“He is one of my heroes,” explains Lord Willie Haughey, chief executive of our event partner the City Charitable Trust.

“He was a marketing genius and one of the first businessmen to create a truly world brand – but also a man who gave so much back to local people,” explains Lord Haughey.

“I’ve read a bit about him and he always struck me as someone very honest and fair, who just wanted to give something back.”

Lord Haughey is visiting the cemetery with Southern Necropolis Action Group founders Colin and Elsie Mackie and Rick Hart, along with pupils from nearby St Francis Primary to launch the seventh year of our awardwinning Streets Ahead campaign.

SNAG received a grant of £2000 from Streets Ahead in 2014, helping its dedicated volunteers to get the improvement works underway. The money was spent on bird boxes, bird feeders, tools, enhancement materials for the cemetery, and new shelving for the gatehouse, for which the group has also recently funded lighting too.

Footfall has increased – SNAG estimate it has doubled in the last two years – and 14 Commonwealth War Graves have been reinstated as a result of the improvements. Glasgow City Council, another of our Streets Ahead partners, also helped fund a heritage trail leaflet which guides visitors around the cemetery’s most famous inhabitants such as Charles Wilson (who designed the gatehouse at the entrance to the 21-acre site), Glasgow’s first chief constable, soldiers who fought in the First World War, shipbuilders and even Robert Burns’s nephew.

The group runs popular events, from Halloween spooky walks and litter-picks to Easter egg hunts and history walks.

St Francis pupils Chantelle Kavumu, Amphon Umanah, Callum Cuthbert, all 11, and 10-year-old Adam Boner are also impressed by Sir Thomas.

“I think he is one of the most famous people buried here, along with architect Alexander Greek Thomson,” says Callum.

Adam adds: “Colin told us the urn on top of the grave meant it was an older person buried there – but I think it looks like it might have held tea.”

Class teacher Julie Toner explains: “Being part of the work SNAG are doing here has been a fantastic learning experience for the pupils.

“They have been very enthusiastic about getting involved, with many of them taking their own families round the site for a mini-tour after learning all about it.

“The work Colin and Elsie have done in raising awareness of the Southern Necropolis is incredible – having such an important historical resource on our doorstep is wonderful and now we can make the most of it.”

She adds: “It’s been a powerful educational resource in all sorts of ways. By learning about the causes of death, for example, and the high infant mortality rate, the pupils started to understand how hard it was for Victorian families and how non-existent health care was.”

“We learned about some of the people who are buried here, and what they did,” explains Chantelle.

“It was really interesting. We also got to do an open-topped bus tour of the Gorbals to learn about our community and its history.

“This is our community so it’s good to know about it.”

SNAG and local schoolchildren have also installed bird boxes in the cemetery, and created a wildlife garden which has links to one of the site’s most famous residents.

Colin explains: “One of our most successful volunteer projects was the creation of the Greek Thomson Circle, which is a wildflower bed just beside his grave.

“We hope as it flourishes it will act as a natural magnet for bees and butterflies, both of which need our protection.”

He smiles: “There is plenty of wildlife here, despite it being in the middle of the city. We even have a deer who pops in now and again.”

Colin, a child development officer, was inspired to take an interest in the graveyard by one of his high school teachers, Charlotte Hutt.

Colin adds: “People do have much more respect for the place since we started out and we’re really grateful to Glasgow City Council and Streets Ahead for all their support.

“Rick’s work in clearing the ivy and overgrown shrubbery has been phenomenal and many visitors have commented on how much more safe and welcoming the place feels.”

He adds: “All of the progress we have made here stands as a lasting tribute to Charlotte Hutt, who had so much passion and appreciation for the Southern Necropolis when she established the first Research Project here back in 1988.”

Lord Haughey adds: “It’s been a privilege to spend some time at such a fantastic Streets Ahead project. The campaign has had an enormous impact on the city since it first launched, and it continues to inspire people all over Glasgow.

“I’m delighted to be part of it.”

Feeling inspired? Tell us about your project and perhaps we can help. Email streetsahead@heraldandtimes.co.uk