Pictured between 1900 and 1903 are 2 little boys playing at Shuttle Row, Blantyre Village Works. They look to be shaking hands and clearly having some fun.

Behind them on the right is the 2 storey part of the building now roughcast and used as offices. To put this in a modern context, the turnstiles would be just out the picture to the right.

In a small effort to try and name the boys, and assuming they lived at Shuttle Row and they’re about 6 or 7 years old in this photo, the 1901 census has some possible candidates.

Michael Sharkey (7), Robert McCormick (6), John Mair (6), David Farrell (5), John McMahon (5).

We won’t know for sure if any of these names match the boys. They would lived in cramped conditions in those houses, which at the time were due to be condemned for poor living standards, along with many other former mill homes. By this time mill workers were moving away and it was the miners of William Baird (coalmasters) who were moving there with their families.