Taken from the Hamilton Advertiser, Blantyre notes and local events for 9th January 1932, shared here by Wilma Bolton.
“The police have just had sent to them a new list of people who in all likelihood will before long be called to serve as jurymen or jurywomen. Those whose names are on the list will be notified by the police in due course.
We extend our deepest sympathy to our well known townsmen Mr William Morris, Mr James McFaulds and Mr Robert McSkimming, who each lost their wives at the opening of the year. Mr Morris is the clerk to the Local School Management Committee, and Mr McFaulds, up to quite recently, was trainer to Blantyre Victoria.
They were pretty enthusiastic church-going people who ventured out to any off the services last Sunday. About two hundred yards west of the Livingstone Memorial Church on the Glasgow Road was impassable to pedestrians. The flood completely covered the roads for a distance of thirty yards. Similar conditions prevailed at the entrance to Bardykes Colliery further west.
One of our dairy farmers had good reasons for quarrelling with the weather clerk during the mild weather that prevailed at the beginning of the week. He had been delivering the morning milk when one of the hurricane blasts caught a basket containing five dozen newly laid country eggs. They were lifted clean off the lorry and naturally suffered badly from their jaunt, only two of them surviving the wreck.
What a day Saturday was for a cup-tie match, and without a cup being the object that both teams had in view. The players who were compelled to play for ninety minutes in such a blizzard qualified for a gold medal for bravery. Blantyre Celtic had as their first-footers the Banks o’ Dee from Aberdeen, but the wretched conditions made it impossible for the game to be made a real test of football skill. The Celtic boys are hard nuts to crack when the pitch is heavy and their stamina and determination brought them out on top with 3-1 victory.
Our well-known market gardeners, Messrs D.D. Hughes and sons have just had the pleasure of pulling two pounds of well-formed and good sized tomatoes, which were grown from seed earthed in July last. The venture was solely an experimental one, the object being to see for themselves the earliest possible day that the fruit could be brought to maturity. The plant was nurtured with special care and special heating was also a factor in securing the desired result. We were informed that from a commercial viewpoint the venture would not be a profitable one and that the price would require to be in the vicinity of 5/- per lb.—practically a prohibitive one.
It is changed times in Blantyre in mining circles from days of yore, when it enjoyed the reputation of being one of the largest mining districts in Scotland and 5000 men and boys, together with a number of girls, were fully employed between underground and on the hill. At the most now the total working at the pits does not exceed 1400 in the Blantyre parish, but not including the Blantyre Ferme Colliery. Udston, Craighead, Lettrick and Nos. 3 and 4 of Blantyre Collieries, and last year Auchinraith Colliery have been closed down, and these brought the employment figures up to what we have just mentioned. The Collieries that are still working are the Priory, which is regarded as being one of the most prosperous in the country; Blantyre Collieries 1 and 2, and we are glad to note that of late at the Whistleberry Colliery there have of late been a few more men restarted. We hope that this improvement will continue. That the latter collieries seem to have plenty of work in hand at the moment is manifest by the fact that a general resumption took place of Tuesday.
Ref. Hamilton Advertiser.9/1/1932.