More stories from Auld Blantyre, which I hope you’re hearing for the first time.
120 years ago, the sight of a motorcar was indeed a rare thing. Even more so if one was travelling through a small mining village like Blantyre. On Monday 19th October 1902 a sensation was felt when a motorcar unexpectedly passed through the Stonefield area of Blantyre, to the delight of curious onlookers. This was before trams were running, but squads were already laying the tracks.
As passers by stopped to stare in the street, the noise of such a mechanical mode of transport caused a nearby dog to become startled and in its excitement ran after the car and was unfortunately ran down.
Onlookers stopped in their horror to watch what would happen next and felt disappointed to see the motorcar’s two occupants, simply drive on , not even attempting to slacken their speed. They knew fine well they had ran over the animal.
As the motorcar vanished along Glasgow Road, onlookers turned their full attention on to the dog. The animal, who belonged to one of the nearby shopkeepers thankfully got up and walked off down the street, seemingly uninjured.
Two gents were seen to remark “Look, the dug is none the worse!”. The other replied, “Aye, ’tis a hardy dug, that!”. Glasgow Road is pictured just a couple of years after this event.
