Well, here’s a brick that was actually used to build part of “Fin Me Oot” (Caldervale). To be more precise, it was used to build the outdoor washhouse.
When former ‘Fin Me Oot’ resident Gerard McGarry came back to Blantyre from the United States in 1994, memories of his childhood growing up at Fin Me Oot came flooding back.
He decided to visit the old site of his home and noticed some of the washhouse was still there. Gerard took a brick from it and actually smuggled it on to the airplane taking it back home to the United States. His family have had it in their garden ever since.
The Broomhouse brickworks opened 1883 and closed 1 January 1917. Knowing Caldervale was built in the first decade of the 20th Century, I think the brick dates to sometime between 1900 and 1910. Amazing to think that a little part of Caldervale is now in the States!