On Wednesday 8th July 1914, a somewhat unusual case relating to betting in the street arrived before Sheriff Shennan in a Hamilton Court. I’ve mentioned before on this page about people who used to bet on Blantyre street corners, being lifted by police and charged. Though this case was similar, a bit of twist gave […]
Next, a largely unknown, but horrific story from Summer 1915, which made National headline news. The scene is Hamilton Road, on the outskirts of Blantyre between Spittal (Bardykes Collieries 1 and 2) and Flemington (Dechmont Collieries 1 and 2). In the early hours of Friday 16th July 1915, blood curdling yells rang out in the […]
It was the early, dark hours of Christmas Morning 1916. Everybody had gone to sleep after the festivities of Christmas Eve. Young children were fast asleep fuelled with excitement for what the morning had in store. All was still in the streets of Blantyre, though around 3.00am, there was somebody out and about on Glasgow […]
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. […]