Some changes took place at High Blantyre Cemetery in October 1977, which recognised that only Blantyre residents should be buried at that location going forward.
Hamilton District Council had decided not to allow burials of people from outside the town in the cemetery, except in special cases. Suggestions that this move was being taken because the cemetery was running short of lairs were quickly refuted by District Council Director of Leisure and Recreation Mr James Murdie.
He said: “When we checked a couple of months ago there were enough lairs left for two years. Besides, we are negotiating for land to extend the cemetery and failing that find a new location.”
Mr Murdie explained that the new lairs would be ready by the time they were needed. He said that the Council ban was enforced because cemeteries in surrounding areas were running out of lairs and demand at Blantyre Cemetery might increase.
Exceptions will be made to the “no outsiders'” rule. Mr Murdie said: “We would of course make exceptions in the case of someone dying in, say, the Glasgow area who had lived nearly all their lives in the town.”
By this time, a site had already been earmarked by the Council for the new lairs but it would take until the early 1980’s a few years later for the new cemetery at Priestfield to be created.
Pictured: High Blantyre Cemetery
