Looking for your help and comments. Here’s this week’s quick questions. Not a quiz, i genuinely don’t know the answers and need further assistance.

Q1. Does anybody remember or know of a man affectionately known as ‘TONY THE TINKER’ who lived down the Calder? If so, what can you tell me?

Q2. I’m looking to add more references to MODERN BUSINESSES into my massive Blantyre Directory being compiled. Can you tell me of a modern business you think I’ll have missed? Name, when it started , who runs it, what it does/sells etc? Even just a comment so i can include an entry.

Q3. What year exactly did that BOATING POND get demolished and removed from Stonefield Public Park. References I have are all over the place ranging from 1988 to 1999! Can you even narrow that down at all?

Q4. What year did the APOLLO PUB in High Blantyre main street close down? I know it was an Indian restaurant afterwards.

Q5. BUSES. The 62 and 63 ran through Blantyre and perhaps still do. What other numbers ran on Glasgow Road?

Thats all for now. All answers will be carefully considered for inclusion into the Blantyre Explained Encyclopedia. Thanks in advance everybody.

Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said,

Lynsey Fojut Q3. I started high school in 94 & the boating pond was still there then. Don’t think it was in use at the time though. Giant bin from what I remember.

June Moore The 67 ran through Blantyre.

Elizabeth O’Brien 62, 63 and 67 ran thru Blantyre then obvs they took 62 away and changed the other 2 to 263 and 267.

William Mullen q1 grt greyhound man !

Sheona Brennan Sure the 61 did as well!

Sharon Morrison Doonin 61 64 67 ran through Blantyre. 62 and 63 both went via High Blantyre i.e. Glasgow rd, Stonefield Rd route

Marion Chatham 60, 64,67,66 they were busses that went through Glasgow Road.

Jim Botterill 60,61,62,63,64,67,68.69 all run through Blantyre or High Blantyre at one time p. Early 60’s

Sally Jamieson Question2. Everlasting Memorials was a A Company run by two Blantyre Men. The company made Glass Fibre Headstones. It looks like you are talking about current businesses perhaps not relevant. Circa 1974/5

Blantyre Project Nope. Not got that one! Keep them coming!

Sally Jamieson Blantyre Project several of the Headstones erected in High Blantyre Cemetery. Furthest afield one erected in Mallaig. I could even tell you where the idea for them originated!

Jim Donnelly Tony & Molly were Irish folk They stayed up behind Rocheads farm,used to frequent The greyhound racing with my dad,John Dunsmore friend Tam McDade would be able to fill you in more very nice couple Tony was a big gentleman

Alan Baird molly was tonys sister

Alan Baird As you said jim they lived in a corrugated tin hut up the back of malcolmwood farm , i would occasionaly see tony come into the doon inn for a pint always in the same clothes a pair of wellingtons and a bunnet , he was a pleasant man who would always give you a nod in the passing , i heard that they moved to a house down in the coatshill area and that was the last i ever heard of him , i know he had a nephew by the name of kevin who lived in another wee tin hut at the side of the last viaduct piller , he was a poor soul , you would find him lying drunk in public toilets or somewhere he could fall into danger the last i saw him was the public toilets on glasgow road which are now demolished.
Bernadette Watt Kevin was Tony’s brother Tony married my mother and they lived in Strathmore Avenue Till Tony’s death He is buried in High Blantyre He was called Tony the Tink because of the way he lived His name was Tony Doherty He worked for years in Rocheads farm

Alan Baird i think the apollo shut up shop in 2005

Betty Brown I worked there

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Sandy Wilkie Tony O’Docherty I believe – he also worked at Bardykes. He could fair handle hay bales as we loaded the trailers!
Drew Fisher During the 1960s and early 1970s the only 60s Number buses that ran through High Blantyre was the 63. All the other 60s buses ran along Glasgow Road.

The buses that ran from High Blantyre at Auchinraith Road to Hamilton were 63, 201, 203 and 204.

Helen Grieve Q5 60,61,62,63,66,67,68, and 69 I’m going back a long time. Some went to Waterloo Street other went to Kilermont Street

James Dick that’s true Drew had to get the 63 fay the prefabs to primary school in low Blantyre

Jim Frame Q1 me and 2 pals went down the calder and 2 guys stayed in a tin shed just at the bridge towers one of the guys there threw lit stuff over my pals face and it set his face on fire don’t know if this is the same guy

Ruth Gebbie The 205, 228 and 230 buses.

Robert McLeod-Wolohan question 5 paul, the number 205 and 203 went to east kilbride and i think it was the 203 that used to go up to the hospital grounds. i think it started from wishaw. hope this is some help for u.

Isabella Johnston McShane 64 & 67 bus

Betty Brown The 21 use to run there. There was a grocery store at the top of Calder st. The 21 one came in there. Wee used to play balls there.
William Dickson correct betty 21 at gibson store terminus was calder st ran to hamilton via high blantyre

Jim McAllister Wow. I’m 57 years old an born in tyre but don’t remember the shop or the 21 bus or terminus.. Was that well before my time

Angela Mary Mc Glynn Bus no. 64 and 67 ran on Glasgow road.

Campbell James 67 & 68…..
Carole M Castle The 64 ran through Blantyre

Carole M Castle When we visited my gran in Glasgow we could either get the 62 or 63 from High Blantyre but the 64 ran from Low Blantyre to Glasgow

Caroline Rundell Q5 64 AND 67
Gary Doonin Tony Docherty I think his wife was called Molly I’m sure he was Irish and had a great knowledge of greyhounds .

Gary Doonin And the double decker blue bingo bus ran through Glasgow Road and another up stonefield Rd along main St High Blantyre to Burnbank Bingo from about 1975 to 78 .

Elizabeth Lovatt I remember the 63 running through High Blantyre and 62 through Low Blantyre but I used to take the 201 from High Blantyre to Hamilton to school

Anne Grogan 64/ 67/21

Sally Jamieson I think the 62 also ran through High Blantyre as they changed the route quite a number of years ago before withdrawing the service altogether. It used to go along Glasgow Road but when they changed it it then went up Stonefield Road.

Isabella Law 60,62,67 all went via Royal infirmary. From memory 64,66,68,69 went thru Rutherglen

Daniel Anderson I think Apollo closed as a pub in 2007
Ann Millar Awe! the number 60 buses right up to 69 ran threw the main street n low Blantyre except the 63 which went threw high Blantyre n doon Stonefield Rd.

Steven Daley Buses. Used to be 62, 63 and 67. 67 ran from west crindeldyke (newmains-ish) through Rutherglen and the Gorbals to Glasgow and came along Main Street, it’s still going now but is called the 267. 63 and 62 came through high Blantyre and down Stonefield road (I think) 63 went to Glasgow Buchanan St as well but took different route through Bridgeton, still going now as the 263. I remember the 2’s being added cos it was advertised as the buses being twice as frequent at the time. The 62 stopped running sometime in the early 90s I’d say can’t remember the exact details but definitely went along the Gallowgate to Parkhead Cross as I used to get that bus to the Celtic games

Nyct Ophilia Q2: wullie pates (I think his name was ) paper shop bottom of Stonefield Rd (where valero court is now ) think the red lion was there also (a pub at least ) and mickies (?) apparently was an Italian restaurant but before my time, although in the 80’s …See more

Martin Smith The Apollo closed 2006 or 2007. Became an Indian Restaurant. Possibly the worst Indian in country. The curries were tasteless!!!

James Faulds tony the tinker did he not race greyhounds at the blantyre racetrack and also live in a trailer between racetrack and blantyre celtic park
Agnes Wilkie Q5 the 67 also ran and nowadays it’s the 262, 263 and 267, I think

John Dunsmore Yes you are right. Jim. Donnelly, big. Tony x. Molly stayed behind rochead farm in this type oe weather I’ve seen strip to waist he had five gallon drum frozen over and he wash himself x never flinched your dad x big tony tam McDade x Davy Campbelll myself loved greyhound racing. Big. Tony , was buried in Priestfield cemetery at unmarked grave I lettered a wee flower vase with his name on it as a mark of respect.

Alan Rochead Tony Docherty was an Irish navi who lived in a tin shack in the woods at Birkhill ( just on our side of the marsh between us and Mid Letterick. His wife Molly and brother Kevin also lived there. He worked as a casual labourer for my grandfather and then my dad on the farm and also trained greyhounds for the track. Sadly he developed dementia towards the end and after a short stay on Strathmore ave he ended up in a home. You should ask Woody about the night he found him wandering the Calder in his pyjamas trying to find his way ‘home’.
Helena Rochead Tony “The tinker” Docherty lived in a shack in the wood near Malcolmwood from 1950’s with his common law wife Molly. He worked on and off at several of the farms in the area. He kept greyhounds and always smelled of smoke from the fire. He was from Northern Ireland and Molly was from the South, and they used to argue and badger each other all the time. There are many people will have stories to tell about Tony, he was a likeable rogue. Later he lived Strathmore Ave and in a caravan in the Celtic Club. However he seemed to be healthier and fitter when he stayed in his shack in the woods Summer and Winter.