Just over 120 years ago, during December 1902, the Blantyre Police conducted a census of the Parish of Blantyre, where they concluded the population was 14,382, (of which 7,775 were males). This was up from 13,942 at the end of the 1901 the previous year.
Stonefield was the most populated hamlet with 3,516, followed closely by High Blantyre, then Dixon’s Rows. Now, I don’t want to bombarde everybody with tiresome statistics, but the main reason for this article was to share the next interesting snippet, which took me by surprise.
The number of occupied houses totalled 2,759. There were 34 empty houses and 23 currently being erected. There were 11 licensed grocers that year in Blantyre and wait for it……27 public houses!!
