Pictured here in 1999, courtesy of the late Neil Gordon is the former site of Aitkenhead Builders Yard at Sydes Brae. I’ve previously researched and told the history of the Aitkenhead Builders here but can add a little more.
The area where the yard once was, still exists today on Hamilton Drive. Aitkenhead Builders continued existed in Blantyre in the latter part of the 19th Century and throughout much of the 20th Century.
On 12th August 1929, a Falkirk man tried to sue Aitkenhead Builders for a claim on incapacity benefit. In court in March 1930, it was upheld and Aitkenheads had to pay him a rate of £1 and 5 shillings per week.
The company in the 1930s became known as “Robert Aitkenhead & Sons.” noting a change in generation when Alexander Aitkenhead died in 1933. In 1930, the family were leasing nearby Stewartfield Quarry. Also in 1930, the Aitkenhead’s owned these houses at 16 and 18 Sydes Brae as well as the builders shed, yard and machinery.
According to the valuation roll of 1930, Jessie, Margaret, Mary and Robert Aitkenhead of this High Blantyre family of builders owned Houses 1 and 2 Mayberry Place, just off Glasgow Road in Low Blantyre.
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2016