It’s hard to believe this was 38 years ago, but it was! In 1983 this is Clydeview Shopping Centre on Glasgow Road. I can just about make out Clydesdale Electricals and a queue forming outside the Abbey National. I was never a fan of Clydeview shopping centre mainly due to the fact that so many […]
1983 St Andrews Church
Ah, the changing face of Blantyre. Going back now to 1983 and on the north side of Glasgow Road, these pictures show the newly built St Andrews Church. Located at the corner of Church Street and Elm Street junctions of Glasgow Road, these photos were taken not long after the building was constructed. The grassy, […]
My Father, Joe – 1969
Glasgow Road, 1985
There’s something still very familiar about these next 2 photographs. Despite being taken in 1985, some 36 years ago, well before the age of Google Maps. Devlin Grove looks new and even then , some of the units at Clydeview Shopping Centre had their shutters down, available to let. The soft landscaping planted after the […]
Pit Accident, Blantyre, 1912
On the 15th April 1912 the very day 1500 people lost their lives when the Titanic sank in the Atlantic, a tragedy also unfolded closer to home in Blantyre when Auchinraith Pit 1 collapsed. The pit bottom of Number 1 shaft at Auchinraith Colliery trapping 2 men in the debris. The accident occurred about five […]
The Temperance Bill
I can’t quite imagine this happening today, but in 1913, the inhabitants of Blantyre and beyond had a choice in whether the area should continue to be permitted to sell alcohol. The Temperance (Scotland) Act 1913 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom under which voters in small local areas in Scotland were enabled to hold a poll to vote on whether […]