1910s Alex Craig at Bellsfield Farm. Photographed by David Ritchie, my 2nd great grand uncle
There were several narrow escapes in Blantyre on the early morning of Saturday 22nd December 1928, when a horse attached to a milkfloat ran away from Thornhill Avenue near Glasgow Road, and continued its wild career for about a quarter of a mile, luckily clearing two buses on its way.
It charged right down Glasgow Road , with the abandoned milk float in tow, where it raced along the busy thoroughfare.
At great personal risk, a local postman, Mr Andrew Moore, who was on delivery duties that day, rushed forward and hung on to the float. Clambering on board, he could not for a time catch the reins, but last managed to do so, and brought the horse to a standstill just as a crash with an oncoming passenger bus seemed imminent.
Incredibly, interviewed later, the plucky postman commented, “This is the third time I have done this in such incident!”
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2016
Pictured a couple of decades earlier by David Ritchie and exclusively only shown on Blantyre Project, is a horse drawn milk float at High Blantyre, which may put the story into context.