"Little Moscow"

[JulzDS]

Has anyone ever heard of an area around Bellshill/Motherwell/Mossend with this nickname?

My Gran can remember her Gran taking her to visit relatives in Little Moscow and they walked from Orbiston Rows in Bellshill, so it couldn't have been too far.

I've tried Motherwell Heritage Centre, but they've never heard of it and can't find any mention of it anywhere in books. The only thing the man could suggest could be around the Mossend area where a lot of Lithuanian immigrants lived at the time. He suggested it could have just been a local term (or possibly just a family one even).

Anyone heard of it?

[Berlin-Bob]

Might of been a very socialist area - I lived in Maerdy in the Rhondda, South Wales for a while and that was also called "Little Moscow" because the miners were, or had been, very militant socialists.

Bob

[JulzDS]

Thanks for that Bob - that is very possible, but I hadn't thought of it.

Thanks

Julz

[harrywrag]

hi, theres a place called moscow in ayrshire but would be to far to walk  kind regards  harrywrag

[RJ_Paton]

Another possibility was that it was a purely local nickname for some of the areas where the Lithuanian miners settled - at one time there was a fairly large Lithuanian community in Lanarkshire.

[wildgoose]

Didn't the miners of Maerdy have Karl Marx & Lenin on their pit banner

PS did Bellshill/Motherwell/Mossend have a connection with the great Scottish rebel John MacLEAN 1879-1923

[sancti]

There is a Lithuanian Social Club in Mossend. Also a strong community link in Lanarkshire


http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/scotland/strathclyde/article_2.shtml

[JulzDS]

Thanks again for all the suggestions

[Berlin-Bob]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maerdy

even better:

Mardy Colliery was long known for its militant and communist associations, and had a history of employing radicals as checkweighters, men such as Arthur Horner a well known communist who at the time of his election was serving a prison sentence for refusing to fight in the First World War. It was this militancy, particularly during the 1926 strike and lockout, which led to conflict with both the mine owners and also ultimately the rest of the South Wales Miners Federation. The Federation eventually expelled the Mardy Lodge from the organisation in 1930. It was during this time that the South Wales Daily News first applied the term Little Moscow when describing Maerdy. A slump in the demand for steam coal in addition to the continuing antagonistic industrial relations led to the Mardy pits remaining idle in 1927.

http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/heritagetrail/rhondda/maerdy/maerdy.htm

Sorry Julz, it's not really answering your question, but it's an insight, how places could get "local names", which possibly only applied for a certain time span.
In this particular case, it seems the name stuck (try maerdy little moscow in a search engine, and you'll see what I mean  )

Bob