Here’s some stories which were making the news in Blantyre in April 1896, some 127 years ago.
The Stonefield and Blantyre Young Catholic Men’s Society had a new meeting place at the Masonic Hall at the corner of Forrest Street and Glasgow Road. That April it was hoped this first annual meeting and dance would be the start of many others. There were 40 Catholic couples present at the first dance, where revellers showed how they could enjoy themselves, raising a few eyebrows in the village by partying until five in the morning!
The Masonic Hall was well used that year. The following Monday after that dance, a competition for melodeon playing was held where the prizes were five silver medals and a timepiece. (Melodeons being an Irish instrument similar to Accordian). The entertainment wasn’t just accomplished melodeon playing, but also comic signing and clog dancing. Messrs Wyper and Lang, the champion Scottish melodeon players were there as judges.
Elsewhere that week, Blantyre Parish Council had important discussions on the proposal for baths to be erected in Blantyre (which never came to be) and the need to create allotments in Blantyre, with which they had more in the way of future success.
AI imagines what the melodeon competition may have looked like that year.
