Neil Gordon

Continuing the story of the Blantyre Pit Disaster Memorial….

Neil Gordon was born at Station Road, Blantyre and lived all his life in our town. In March 1958, he married Elma and they initially lived at 1 Clark Street.  They moved to 14 Centre Street and subsequently to 74 Boompark Road. In 1971, they finally moved to 18 Stonefield Crescent the family home for the rest of his life. Being forced to move twice due to Blantyre’s redevelopment may have enthused Neil about recording historical events. Neil started work as an apprentice painter and signwriter, and later was technical assistant with the Scottish Special Housing Authority in Lanarkshire.

Neil was an exceptional man dedicated to bringing the past to life. He was a well-known local artist and historian, collecting many photos and articles about Blantyre over a 25-year period. He also did extensive photographic work for himself, even once climbing a ladder on the outside of the steeple of Livingstone Memorial Church to get some “aerial views.”. Another time saw him descend into a mine, just to experience what miners did and in 1999, he was the first to cross the newly opened David Livingstone Memorial Bridge over the Clyde.

He took part in various presentations and slide shows in those pre Internet days, but his favourite subject by far was the Dixons pit disaster of 1877.  The monument to the disaster at High Blantyre’s Kirkton cross was built to his own design, unveiled in 1977 something he was incredibly proud of. 

To speak to Neil is to speak to a man with a love of the past and things worth preserving for posterity – and his way of doing this is to commit them to canvas. He was an avid painter, and one particularly nice painting from 1973 is in South Lanarkshire’s Museum depicting Barnhill. Another of his paintings, of Blantyre Mill around 1860, hung for many years beside David Livingstone’s loom at the David Livingstone Centre. During the 1970’s many local people knew Neil as “The Blantyre Painter”. His success as a painter of scenes from the last century, based on old photographs, plans and any other information he can unearth, has been acclaimed not only in Lanarkshire, but all over the country. Scenes from his brush and pen have been exhibited at shows alongside the work of world-famous artists. Speaking of his love for paintings to reporters back in the 1970’s, he said, “The paintings seem to invoke old memories to which people can relate, and keeping old memories alive is what painting means to me.”

One of Neil’s paintings has been digitised in large high resolution format, and adorns almost one entire wall in the newly renovated Barnhill Tavern, a fitting tribute to the memory of this kind, talented and humble man.

Neil sadly passed away on Sunday 5th December 2004 at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, aged 67 years. Over the 4 years or so before his passing, he used his computer to record all the fascinating facts, which he had collected. He did not live to see his book published, but his brother Robert Gordon kindly completed the task. 

As a side note, Neil lived just a few doors from myself and was an inspiration to me prompting my own love of Blantyre’s history. I have long since promised his family I would write a few words about Neil to include in Blantyre Project. My own collated history written over many years is dedicated to several Blantyre historians, including Neil.