Next, the story of a young ‘drawer’ who was caught raiding an orchard. (A ‘drawer’ was usually a boy or young man who pushed wagons of coal from the coal face to the pit eye or shaft. William Nichol worked in such a profession. Living at 18 Caldervale Rows, Blantyre (Fin Me Oot), William had […]
At Caldervale (Fin Me Oot), near Blantyre and Uddingston, something bizarre was reported to police in February 1918. One cold February morning, a farmer at Blantyreferme was going his rounds when he came across the skins of two sheep, two heads, and two full sets of trotters lying a field! The carcases had been taken […]
Warning! This story contains narrative about cruelty to an animal! Read a your discretion. Andrew Dollochan was a miner, residing in Birdsfield Model Lodging-House, Burnbank, Hamilton. He was somebody the police often had their eye on and one day in August 1919, they absolutely WERE observing him! Andrew was observed mistreating a cat in Springwells […]
Since the railway strike began in Blantyre in 1919, there was scarcely a farmer in the High Blantyre district whose potato fields had not been mercilessly pillaged during the darkness of the night. In early October that year, things became desperate for some families who took to stealing crops, just to get by each day. […]
On 25th into 26thOctober 1919, homeless miner John Ryan broke into Fagan’s pawnbroking establishment in Blantyre. He made off with quite a haul taking over 80 items of gold and silver jewellery! However, police caught up with him in December that year and he was sent to prison.
April 1980 saw an increase in the amount of vandalism all over Blantyre. One weekend, vandals broke into Blantyre Nursery Centre on Glasgow Road, which had been poised and ready to receive a huge modernisation and upgrade. They smashed windows, ripped toys and tore apart play equipment. They even killed the children’s goldfish by pouring […]
A miner named Andrew Cosh of 4 Cross Row, Low Blantyre, was sharply fined at Hamilton Burgh Police Court in March 1920 for a brutal and unprovoked attack on a tramcar conductress. According the statement of the Fiscal, the girl had been busily engaged in collecting her fares in a crowded tramcar, when Andrew, most […]
A riot broke out in High Blantyre Main Street on the night of Friday 23rd July 1920. Some of you may be thinking, “well, nothing new there then!”, but you would be wrong, for this was much more serious than any quarrel. On that evening, almost 100 years ago, angry men took to the streets […]