1900 Joanna Terrace from Glasgow Road looking West
On 3rd June 2015, Mary Poole, of Dallas, Texas contacted me to say, “Hi. Mary Carmichael was my great grandmother she was born in Argyle. She married John Watson on April 12th 1867 and they had children Hugh Isabella (my grandmother) James Christina and David. They Lived in Bairds Rows and the Craighead Rows. Both my grandfather and his sons worked in the pits, and then they lived at 5 Joanna Terrace Blantyre until they both passed away in 1908 and 1911. Some of my uncles left for South Africa. Thanks for all the info on your website.”
Hi Mary – Thanks for your email. Its always great to see people so far from Scotland taking an interest in Blantyre. It sounds like you have your history already mapped. This old picture of Joanna Terrace is from just after 1900. This morning, whilst out for milk, I drove past this building and see that number 5 was towards the front of the building, just behind the tree. The whole scene would have been extremely familiar to your grandfather, with a lot of changes to the the area in that decade. Just a couple of years after this picture was taken, he would have seen tramcars going past his window on a hourly basis right up to 11pm each evening. Times were tough, especially in the mines in that era. Its of no surprise that many people left for Canada, America and South Africa in the following decades.