During June 2015 one evening, I got chatting to Gordon Cook and Alex Rochead (as I do often) and the subject of Shuttle Row, Blantyre Village Works, came up. In particular, Gordon noticed there used to be a gap between Shuttle Row and the smaller 2 storey buildings next to it. The mystery deepened when he sent a photograph showing the gap and strange lattice brickwork between the two buildings. What was this? It doesn’t look like this now.
On the 1859 map, it shows the buildings are absolutely separate, then in the 1897 map there is a single line which might identify to the brickwork in the photograph, but the rear is still open. It would appear that the original configuration had an open corridor between the buildings, no roof, but had brickwork lattice feature above arched entrances to the corridor. The photos all the way up to the renovation of 1928/1929 show this configuration. Then, it looks likely in 1928 the lattice brickwork was knocked out and a window put in, creating an upstairs level in the corridor and of course the corridor received a roof! Some time later a back wall may have been built at the back, thus creating a sealed chamber, which is now a store room.
In June i went to the centre to investigate a little more and found there is a small store there now and no sign of the corridor.
On social media:
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Geraldine Boyd my father james boyd was born 1912 in shuttle row
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The Blantyre Project In 1896 William Boyd, of Shuttle Row paid a yearly rent of £3 to owner Joseph Francis Monteith.
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Anne Mackie Could it have been a toilet as all the open lattice work suggests ?
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David Livingstone I believe that they were connected so that the warden (who lived in the flat right next to the museum) had access to the museum at night without going outside. When the museum was renovated again in the 90s this was blocked up. Now, very uninterestingly, the space created is all used for storage.