Fire was discovered on the Saturday afternoon of 17th January 1930 in the roof of Parkville House, in the west end of the Glasgow road, Blantyre. At the time, the property was a house and was owned and occupied by Dr. John Cowan Wilson.
The doctor and his household and others tackled the outbreak with buckets of water and fire extinguishers. But for the speedy arrival of the Cambuslang detachment of the County Fire Brigade, there was a probability that the whole house and furniture would have been destroyed, as there was a gale blowing at the time.
After an hour’s work the firemen succeeded in extinguishing the fire, but the roof was practically destroyed, and the house ground flat rooms and upstairs bedrooms suffered considerable damage from water. A large annexe adjacent to the house, consisting of ground flat rooms and bedrooms upstairs, escaped damage.
In this modern photo, you can just about make out the old original house, in amongst all the modern extensions. From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c)2016
