This photo goes back to the 1990s, some 30 years ago and shows the derelict ‘Brownsland’ at High Blantyre. Located just beyond the Auchentibber Road junction, actually on Parkneuk Road, going up Sydes Brae on the left hand side was a double storey tenement building, formerly called “Brown’s Land”.
The tenement was split into 4 homes upstairs and 4 downstairs with stone steps at the back accessing the upper level. Built in the 1880’s, the houses housed local miners of the area, and at the time a host of quarrying activity was going on , nearby on both sides of the road.
Built of stone and detached, the front of the property practically opened up on to the road. The northern gable had a small path leading past it which acted as a right of way to Earnock. At the back, a triangular piece of ground, quite open and large formed the back yard, with allotments and gardens to the side on the southern flat area near to the road. Sometime between 1898 and 1910, outside toilets were added at the back yard, in a small brick outhouse which still exists today. A water tap served the property, the tap located in the middle of the allotments. Directly across the quiet, sleepy Parknuek Road was Peesweep Row and the Auchentibber Quoiting green.
The allotments existed in the 1920s and 30s and indeed continued right through WW2. In 1918 James Neill lived at Brown’s land with his family. In 1920 William Smith at number 5 and his family, John Gallacher and his family, Angus Leitch and his family. By 1923 a Mrs Nodwell lived there at number 3 with the Gallachers. In 1924, John Potter. In 1925, William Smith. In 1926 William Nimmo and William Rhodes at number 2. In 1928 William Montgomery and his family. In 1931 Richard Barrett and his family. In 1940 William Leishman and his family lived at number 4. In 1941 Mitchell McLements at number 1. In 1942 Robert Swinburne lived at number 2 but by 1946 John Henderson was there.
It is unknown when the building became derelict, although it is known that families stayed there in the 1950s and possibly the 1960s. In either the 1960s or 1970s, the top storey was removed and a tin roof put on, the space inside used as a large open plan workshop or store. I was told that the Trustler family had a sawmill there in the 1970s and also heard that concrete slabs used to be made in the building. There is also a suggestion it was once owned by the Co-Operative Society, though I’ve found now evidence of this. In the 1980’s an old sea plane sat in the back yard. The sea plane is no longer there through the trailer it once sat on still is there.
Its understood the MacDonald family own this building now. Only the single, lower storey remains, now in worse condition and more boarded up than this picture. The ruin that can still be seen today.
