Though this photo is slightly outwith Blantyre in what is now Calderglen Country Park, it’s worth showing here. I recognise a couple of these men from Auchentibber and the photo dates from between 1905 – 1910.

This is the horseshoe weir, part of Torrance estate and the structure still exists today. Back then, this would have been on private ground. The men, perhaps friends are well dressed and a couple of buttonhole flowers gives away they may have been attending a wedding or celebration. A wintry picture with no leaves on the trees. The poses are natural and relaxed and I suspect the men have had their photos taken previously, their confidence and ease in front of the camera coming across in this picture. I’d wondered if any of them were part of the quoiting team?

Over 110 years later, in Summer 2022, the county council came up with a plan to replace this wooden bridge for safety reasons proposing to reconstruct it, the structure now part of the modern park.