Here is a remarkable piece of functional stone architecture dating from the 1820’s with the purpose of damming the Cocks Burn immediately adjacent to Mid Letterick Farm. Just beyond Crossbasket and Greenhall, at around 10 feet tall, by 16 feet wide built of stone masonry, the dam contained a sluice mechanism to control and let […]
In 1893, Blantyre man Hugh Rice joined the Royal Highlanders Regiment in Hamilton. However, for an unknown reason, it wasn’t for him and a year later he deserted the company, disappearing from Lanarkshire. Skip forward now over a decade to 1905. On the last Saturday in October that year, Hugh returned to his hometown and […]
This publication from 1864, gave a wonderful description of Blantyre that year, an important account which predates the sinking of major collieries. This is the sleepy account of Blantyre before heavy mining industry: “Blantyre, a Parish containing 2 villages and a post-office of its own name, and also five other villages in the north west […]
In 1838, an argument raged between a Mr Wallace who lived downstream of Blantyre and with Messrs Henry Monteith & Co, the owners of Blantyre Mills. The problem was that Monteith had fully dammed the Clyde, by upgrading the weir and suddenly downstream, where once had hundreds of years of Salmon thriving, were now suddenly […]
Did you know , not only did Montieth, (the owners of Blantyre Works) build houses, a church and school for their workers in the early 19th Century, but attempted to feed them too. The Scotsman Newspaper reports on Saturday 24th June 1820 that “A field of wheat is now in full ear in the Parish […]
During December 2021,open grassland in Stonefield Public Park, Blantyre was transformed as many dozens of fruit trees were planted to form a little orchard. As you can see from this photo taken 5 months later in April 2022, the trees are flourishing and becoming more established. Our public park was one of 13 parks throughout Lanarkshire which received […]
In March 1906, reporters commented in local newspapers that there was a rather large number of houses in Blantyre which were lying empty. (A stark contrast from the housing shortages of later decades!) It was commented at the time that there were more empty houses than any other previous year, which wasn’t great for landlords […]