About 7 o’clock in the evening on Sunday 18th January 1903, the skies above Craighead lit up as Blantyre residents became aware something was on fire. During that cold Winters night, it became clear that the lamp cabin at Craighead Colliery was alight. The cabin belonged to Coalmasters William Baird & Co and containing all […]
When we think of Coal Mining in Blantyre, we traditionally think of a very male orientated industry, but did you know at one time there were occasions where females where employed down in the depths of the pits or at the pithead, even in Blantyre! In December 1903, the annual conference of the Miner’s Federation […]
On the day after the 1877 Pit disaster, the Glasgow Herald reported. This account is the third and final part of their first account and follows on from Parts 1 and 2 earlier this week: Meanwhile, steps had been taken to gain access to the pit by No. 3 shaft and a temporary lowering apparatus […]
Continued from yesterday, the Glasgow Herald reported on the following day of the Pit Disaster: The miners, as usual, resumed work at six o’clock in the morning, 126 men and boys descending No. 3 shaft and 107 No. 2. (As the catastrophe is entirely confined to these two, it is unnecessary to involve the narrative […]
On Tuesday 23rd October 1877, the day after the Blantyre Pit Disaster, the Glasgow Herald newspaper opened their many columns, with the following words: Possibly the greatest calamity which has ever occurred in the history of mining operations in Scotland happened in our near neighbourhood yesterday. Lanarkshire has been well described as the “black country” of […]
This morning, as with each year on this particular day, we remember the 215 men and boys who sadly lost their lives in the Blantyre Pit Disaster. At 8.45am on 22nd October 1877, a huge explosion caused by fire damp occurred in Pit 3, also significantly affecting Pit 2 in High Blantyre. Deep below the […]
This article explores three males of the same family who died in the Blantyre Pit Disaster of 1877. It’s thought James Brown and his wife Elizabeth Mackie came to Blantyre with their family between 1875 and 1877. They took up residence at 11 McAlpines Land on the north side of Glasgow Road and should not […]