Springtime in Blantyre and it’s 1896, and in particular Easter time. So, what was making the news that week 127 years ago?
At High Blantyre School, overcrowding and a shortage of teachers meant many pupils were proposed to move to the nearby Blantyre Old Parish Church Halls for lessons. This is something which did happen in the coming months after.
At Dixon’s Hall, the small hall at Stonefield Road at the end of Dixon’s Rows, a lecture titled “Life Among the Waifs” was heard. The presentation was given by Gnanamuttha Joseph Israel of the Madras Tamil Mission. This was about strays and orphans in South India and was fairly attended, feedback proving interesting.
At Castle Park, a match was played between Blantyre Rovers and Blantyre Shamrock for the benefit of Mrs Robertson , a widow whose son Joseph was killed in March 1896 from a fall at Auchinraith Colliery.
Being Easter, Blantyre was otherwise quiet. Many people had packed up their belongings and whole families set foot for the train station at Low Blantyre. The weather was extremely warm, dry and fine and with the collieries closed for a couple of days, many entire families left by train to West Coast seaside holiday resort towns and some over to the islands. AI suitably imagines this for this article.
