On Sunday 7th June 1903, police raided an illegal betting operation in Blantyre. Sunday car players had congregated in the famous rendezvous at the field near the Auchinraith Colliery, a field encircled by the Auchinraith branch of the railway. The field notoriously used for gambling given its enclosure by the railway on 3 sides, with […]
I was reading a newspaper article from 1967 about how cigarette machines at 1 Stonefield Road, kept getting broken into and robbed. They would be refilled, but the next week, again broken into. This continued for quite a time until eventually they were removed. I don’t have a photo of the machines, but I think […]
Two Blantyre miners went on a burglary spree , taking advantage of the dark Winter nights in January 1905, but like for almost all thieves, it wasn’t to end well for them. Charles McCulloch and Patrick Mullen of Stonefield arranged to meet at 3am on the morning of the last Sunday in January and their […]
Here’s a great story which I hope you haven’t heard before. On 31st January 1905, three Blantyre boys were playing in a hayshed in Stonefield, Blantyre. On that Winter Tuesday afternoon, Robert Murdoch (17), Alsworth Laing (12) and Alexander Laing (11) were keeping warm by playing inside, when the two younger boys should in fact […]
On Thursday 2nd March 1905, two small Blantyre boys stood in the dock at Hamilton Sheriff Court charged with pilfering in Blantyre. David Murdoch and Charles Dickson from Stonefield were charged with stealing a ‘Daily Record’ newspaper and 2 copies of ‘Chips’ Periodical from a parcel at Blantyre Railway Station. A Mr. Ritchie represented the […]
At the end of March 1905, Robert Smith of Cambuslang and Robert McSkimming, a hawker of Stonefield Blantyre pled guilt to having on 12th March that year driving their brake carriages recklessly and in a furious manner. The men, both drivers between Blantyre and Cambuslang, whilst carrying paying passengers had raced each other on the […]
A warning that this story contains upsetting content relating to child death. On Saturday 22nd April 1905, police revealed that they had detained Blantyre woman Jeannie Lyon on suspicion she had murdered her newborn baby. Jeannie was a domestic servant and had given birth on Wednesday 19th April that year. However, when the baby disappeared, […]