Now here’s a story, anybody with the surname MURRAY may be interested in.
On Saturday 20th November 1897, Mr Neil Murray, a Labourer aged 46 from Blantyre met with a somewhat serious accident on the way home from the pub. He had been out drinking in Stonefield and late that Saturday night into the wee hours of Sunday morning and was on his way home down Station Road back to the village.
At the bridge which crosses the Caledonian Railway next to the station, he spoke to a man, who was hard at work extinguishing the gas street lamps. Neil jokingly remarked that the lamps should be left on until he got home. He got no reply and remembered nothing further until he woke up partially impelled on iron spiked railings 15 feet below the railway bridge at the track side. He had evidently failed over the stone wall of the bridge down to the track below, catching his leg on the iron spikes of the railing below.
A signalman was on the scene pretty fast but left again for further help when he saw Neil impaled and couldn’t free him. However, as the signalman fetched help, in the period intervening, Neil did manage to free himself and hobbled off in the direction of home.
The doctor was fetched to his home where he was treated for his injuries on his left hip and thigh which had come into contact with the failings. The injuries were just a couple of inches from his bladder and just a few inches below his kidneys and heart, the luck of where he had fallen. Though weak from loss of blood, Neil did make a good recovery and was considered very lucky indeed!
