An eventful event occurred at Blantyre Works on Friday 29th August 1851.
John Alexander, aged 10 and his friend, another boy were playing with a makeshift bow and arrow in the village. ‘Spicing’ up their game a little, they bound a nail to the end tip of their wooden arrow and continued with their Summer boyish game.
The alarm was then called when one of the boys proved to be too good a shot! An accident had happened, where the nail on the fired arrow went cleanly through John’s eyeball rendering his sight. Indeed, the nail went in to the back of the eyeball and John permanently lost his sight, the story making newspapers far and wide.
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2018
And so was born the phrase “hitting the nail on the head”? Kidding of course.