This photo of a newish looking cowshed is from 1930. Shared here by Gordon Cook, this collectors item shows Alex Craig’s new byre at Bellsfield Farm, High Blantyre. This new byre was built in 1930 with a new roof design that prevented dirt collecting upon it. Gordon told me, ” It was different from Priestfield byre as I remember it, in that at Priestfield the door for dumping the dung out was in the middle of the building not at the end, as seen in this one.”

Keen to provide something back to Gordon, I looked at 1910 and 1936 maps to see if i could pinpoint exactly where this was, for of course it is no longer here today. Knowing that the building was built in 1930, it was a case of simply comparing the 2 maps to see what buildings on the farm were new and fit the picture. I concluded that this new byre must have been one of the 2 highlighted buildings shown on the map with red dots.

The Byre would therefore have been located where modern day Meadow Avenue is today, directly behind Matt Boyle’s Pub, off of Main Street.

On social media:

Jim Cochrane Ayrshire coos or kae with horns too.

Jim Cochrane No automatic milking equipment installed either

Jim Cochrane Doesn,t look like there’s any water bowls either.maybe they were fitted later.each cow can drink up to 15 gallons a day so there’s a lot of work for somebody with pails.

Jim Cochrane The new sanitary inspectors wanted open truss designs with plenty of ventilation and light and cement rendered walls with no whitewash that were easier to keep clean,think it was all part of the new TB regulations

Jim Cochrane A lot of farms had the old byres updated but most weren’t done to well and the roof structure on them was severely compromised by cutting out most of the wooden trusses and creating a vent along the apex.

The Blantyre Project thanks Jim – thats some good detail to add into this article.

Jim McSorley At Dechmont farm vents were cut about 4 foot high into the stone

Jim McSorley I love this story as I grew up in meadow avenue. FYI there were two stone pillars between mat Boyles building and the tenement building. ( Now old folks home) I would assume it was farm entrance. Pillars now gone around late 90 s

Betty McLean I remember a farm in this area beside Mat Boyles