Moving on now to a huge collection. The photos of David Ritchie, taken between 1895 – 1920s, a massive , crystal clear collection of many interesting old photos, previously unseen online. There are literally hundreds of amazing photos of Blantyre and surrounding areas and I hope to bring the best of them to you all throughout 2019.

This statue, still looking very new was photographed in 1905 or just after and was positioned in the Auchentibber Italian Gardens, surrounding the former quoiting green. Its location today, would have been behind the Auchentibber War memorial. This photo was taken a good decade or so before the memorial was constructed.

The figure is Hercules, the strongman, who stands with his club. When writing this, I realised for the first time that some of David’s photos, like this one were used by Auchentibber Quoiting Green owner, JBH Struthers when he wrote a little booklet to record the history of the area in 1909.

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

Blantyre Project this is now just sparse woodland behind the Auchentibber War memorial.
Helen Grieve Looking forward to the new pics.
Margo Clayton I have a couple of his glass plates and it is amazing how clear the image still is after over 100 years.
Jim Cochrane Wonder who has him in there garden now.