Pictured here in this mass produced postcard, during the early 1970’s is ‘Rosendale’. This was a 3 storey, well constructed tenement building, which when first erected was very visible and different from other homes in Springwell due to it’s red sandstone. The building served as excellent accommodation for many, many Blantyre families but sadly around 80 years on from their construction, they had fallen into disrepair, largely only in need of modernization. Rosendale was located on the junction of Glasgow Road and Auchinraith Road in Low Blantyre and was a prominent sight when entering Blantyre from the East.
There’s a story reported by another well known Blantyre historical website that states Rosendale was “was erected by David Dale of the Workers Village and named after his wife Rose. Built in the early 1800’s.” This fanciable comment would have been such a romantic piece of history, if it were true. Sadly the account of the construction date and of how it was named are both very inaccurate. Inaccurate historical accounts require correction. David Dale died in 1806, some 90 years before the buildings were actually constructed! Additionally, David only married once to his sweetheart Anne Campbell. History records nothing of a Rose existing in his family. Rosendale was built in 1896 due to the requirement for proper accommodation following the coal mining era. The name was decided in a local competition held in the newspaper press, with both winner and how it was called to be, now lost, never recorded. My theory, and this is just a theory, it was given such a flowery, beautiful name due to the immediate proximity to the dirty Craighead miners rows across the road and hemmed in on the other side by busy railway lines, signal posts and junctions. Even at it’s time of construction, Rosendale was squashed in against pollution and industry. What better way to celebrate the name of a new building, than a “dale of roses”. This could also have been a reference to Craighead’s gardens not too far off from this location.
It was demolished by the mid 1970s. Another inaccurate report is that the building stood on the spot where GW Watson Printers (formerly Reid Printers) is today. This is not the case. When the building was knocked down, the bottom of Auchinraith Road was realigned, (prior to the construction of the A725). The actual location of Rosendale was more where the actual A725 East Kilbride Expressway is now at its junction crossing over Glasgow Road. Do you have memories of Rosendale?
William – Rosendale place is the street climbing the incline from right to left you see in the picture , immediately in front of the building. (i think you can just make out cars parked on it). As such, it is the building you were born in. The foreground shows Glasgow Road.
Was this photo off rosendale actually addressed as rosendale place if so I was born there at number 4 in 1942 and left there at a young age of eight to move through to edinburgh due to the death of my mother.