Blantyre Cemetery Common Ground

Within Blantyre Cemetery on Cemetery Road, High Blantyre is an area referred to as “Common Ground”

To understand this better, I visited fellow history enthusiast’s Robert Stewart’s website, RDS Memorials (http://rdsasmemorials.herobo.com) which best described the cemetery and common ground, as follows, “The cemetery opened in 1875, with the first interment taking place on the 5th. of May. Section A of the cemetery was classed as common ground, a place where the poorer members of the community, who could not afford the cost of a lair, were interred. The list of names on the site are of the men, women and children interred in the common ground, all in unmarked graves. There are as many as 18 bodies in a single lair. According to records, lair 773 has 38 bodies interred in it. From the middle of 1895 onwards the age of the deceased was also recorded.”

It was with great shock and some sadness that I received an email from Robert at the end of June, to explain that in total, there are 2,781 Blantyre babies and toddlers buried in the common ground, in unmarked graves,  between the years 1875 and 1915. The statistics for that 40 year period are appalling, with on average, 6 babies buried every month! Blantyre was significantly smaller in those days and of course living conditions much tougher.

It got Robert and I talking and thinking some more and we have decided to embark on a project to remember these little souls. We have decided to place a permanent marker, stone, or monument for them. More on that another time. For now, here is a list of just some of the children (to give you a sense of scale of this), with the excel spreadsheet attached for reference. There are many well known Blantyre names in there.

Source Data: Robert Stewart’s spreadsheet summary of babies and children in the Common Ground 1875 – 1915

CGChildren

On social media:

• Mary Crowe Was up there last week and noticed someone had put a small plaque on the wall dedicated I suppose to a deceased family member. Also noticed when passing, you can hardly make out the Monument to to men killed in The Blantyre Explosion it seems very overgrown to me. Think those trees should be removed and some other smaller plants put in their place.
  • The Blantyre Project I was thinking the same thing only 2 weeks ago Mary. The monument had almost vanished in the undergrowth.
• Jean Boyd Yeah I think the Monument to the men killed in the Blantyre Explosion should be tidied up. What a lovely thought to put a wee marker or stone to remember these wee lost babies, our sister was buried there too but in October 1950 as she was born asleep, she was taken away from my parents who had no say in what happened to her, only recently when I researched about her my sister and I were shown to her grave, she too is buried in an unmarked grave with four other babies two of which in section A lair 1383 High Blantyre Cemetery, Though my sister and I have remembered her on our parents grave at Priestfield Cemetery.
• Marian Maguire It’s a lovely idea to remember those and the babies and their families who sadly could afford no better, a nice memorial from the people of blantyre would be lovely. The trees should be trimmed not removed as it takes years for trees to establish and too many have been removed from blantyre, shrubs take more maintenance keeping them in shape and weed and rubbish free.
• The Blantyre Project I’ve heard this piece of ground being referred to as “the spare plot of ground” in the cemetery. Little do people know just how many burials are actually there. Over this wall to the right, was once the hospital.
• Elizabeth Dobson Grieve I have relatives buried in the common ground in section A. They were babies in 1902 but were named. David and Elizabeth Dobson. It was thanks to Robert that I discovered they were there. Their mother, my gt gt grandmother, died a month after their birth.