Greenhall Park Winter 2009 by Jim Brown

From Hamilton Advertiser 16th January 1875, Page 2.

THE POOR.

“Under the superintendence of the Kirk Session of the parish church, 63 carts of coals were recently delivered amongst the poor. Messrs Henry Monteith & Co., with their well-known liberality, gave 52 carts of coals to the poor of the village of Low Blantyre.

The clothing society, connected with the Parish Church, supplied warm clothing to 43 poor people, chiefly widows, and through the kindness of two gentlemen, the minister was able to distribute small grants of money to the very poor and needy. The coals were supplied as a reduced rate by Wm. Dixon, (Limited) and the farmers in the parish carted them free of charge.”

I was interested to follow this up by looking at MET office weather records for 1875 and found in January, the weather was often recorded in central Scotland as “Very Snowy” which was the extreme end of snowfall reports. This cold, wet and snowy winter was obviously taking its hold on Blantyre. As we sit in our cosy homes this New Year, stop for a second and think back to what it must have been like exactly 140 years ago!

Thanks to Wilma Story for the newspaper report and to Jim Brown for this snowy Blantyre scene at Greenhall Park in Winter 2009.