1878 and a further photograph by Thomas Annan. This is the entrance to the former Milheugh House, down the Calder. Much of the surrounding Calder area in the proximity of this house belonged to the estate owners. It’s a great photo with such clarity, despite it being one of the oldest ever of Blantyre.
Blantyre was very much a rural collection of little hamlets at the time and putting this in context, this photo was taken the following year after the Blantyre Pit Disaster, which wiped out 6% of the population.
Such disparity and difference in how those humble miners lived and how wealthy and in such style the owners of these large homes lived. On the opposite side of this house, the sitting room and bedrooms looked out over the small waterfall at Milheugh, which almost everybody in Blantyre now knows so well.
I can well imagine the horses and coach pulling up to the front entrance and taking the residents about on their business.
The house was demolished in the 1960s, but some foundations could still be seen in the early 1970s. What non existent vision the council had in demolishing such a building. It would have made a wonderful Blantyre museum, cafe by the falls, youth centre or an excellent base for community organisations.
Today, unfortunately nothing remains in this area except for a picnic bench (recently, deliberately burned down), If you search hard enough, its still possible to see some of these old iron fence railings in amongst the trees near the riverbank. Milheugh House, part of Blantyre now gone.
