With thanks to Jim Henry for these photos. Did you know there are 66 men and boys buried in Dalbeth Cemetery (St Peters), London Road, Glasgow who died in the Blantyre Pit Disaster in 1877.
These photos were taken a few years ago and do show the memorial in quite a poor condition. The memorial inscription is all but illegible and none of the other three sides with the names of the Catholic victims – 66 in 22 lairs – were not overly clear either.
With a recent new memorial naming all the victims of this disaster erected in High Blantyre Cemetery, I wonder if restoring this memorial is a job for Blantyre folks now?
Like all things about the pit disaster, whether it being rarely mentioned in film, books or media, the memorial itself seems to have been left alone and fading. The names of those men were put on to the memorial at High Blantyre, which is somewhat comforting that their names will last and stand the test of time, offering some protection against the Dalbeth memorial being eroded further.
The memorial has been cleaned up a little in 2019 even since these photos were taken. I’m not sure how the lettering can be saved long term when the names themselves are being weathered away.
