Going back again to the end of the Mills at Blantyre. This industrial scene was photographed in the 1890’s, before almost all these buildings were demolished at the turn of the next Century.
The river is of course the ‘Clyde’ and you can see an unusual, previously unseen view of the former Pey Bridge, the suspension bridge which connected Blantyre to Bothwell.
Every building in this photo is now gone with one important exception. Shuttle Row in the back, with its fires lit for warmth, the birthplace of David Livingstone and now currently undergoing renovation.
Its easy to imagine the hundreds of people employed at these mills in their glory days, this weaving industry, which became so embedded in Blantyre’s heritage, ultimately a victim of mechanisation, then finally of mass competition.