A few other Blantyre stories of events which were happening in April 1896, some 127 years ago.
Miners were worried about the lack of coal being extracted and a downturn in work. Though they were still kept on in employment, wagons stood empty in some collieries, where they had once been queued full. In one colliery, there were several hundred wagons empty awaiting orders. There was very little coal to be seen and in the words of one miner, “as much as would rake a kitchen fire”.
Elsewhere that month, little Bridget Gillon, a Blantyre lassie was bitten badly by a butcher’s dog in Springwells. It was a story in all the newspapers. She was taken to Dr Wilson and cared for and the 5 year old made a recovery.
In football Blantyre matches lined up at Castle Park, Forrest Street aimed to show that Blantyre continued to be a more competent team than Hamilton Acas.
In High Society there was a growing concern that through illness and old age and lack of inherited lines, the long established title of ‘Lord Blantyre’ was now at risk, potentially ending very soon (as it did a few years later). This now only put land in Blantyre at risk of being sold off, but also in Berwick and Erskine.
and a break-in at Malcolmwood Farm saw the Pettigrew family silver stolen by a travelling farm worker amongst other valuable items like watches.
AI imagines the empty railway wagons, devoid of coal.
