These photos are from the 1960’s. Taken on High Blantyre’s Main Street, the buildings in the background are the Masonic Buildings and the little one storey cottage now derelict but still standing. The 2 storey tenements in the foreground, now demolished. The pipe band marches westwards back up to High Blantyre Old Parish Halls. […]
Our suggestion that there was a stable or small field opposite the Toll House on Glasgow Road is an interesting one and needed further investigation. At a time before any elderly recollections and not previously written about, this book explores these old 19th Century group of buildings, which during the 1850’s were the only buildings […]
At the very bottom of John Street, the railway bridge was repaired by steel girders a few years back. However, there is a dating stone. Dated 1847, carved into the stone, the time of the construction of the main Hamilton to Glasgow line. So if that was the first repair, the original really lasted well, […]
During the mid 1930’s, the County Council throughout Lanarkshire was on a huge drive to clear old, condemned or poor quality slums from towns and villages. Blantyre saw hundreds of homes demolished in the early to mid 1930’s no longer fit for purpose. These included homes at the Village, Springwells and nearby to Glasgow […]
A few months ago, I received an interesting email from ex pat Archie Simm who wrote, “In your Blantyre Project Book, Volume 2, you have an interesting wee story about Richard Houldsworth emigrating from Springwell to Hawaii. It interested me and my brother Hugh. Just to recap, in December 1947, Richard Houldsworth gave up his job as […]
An old postcard from just over 100 years ago showing Calderwood Castle. Sitting on the east Kilbride side of Calderwood Glen, the former castle is no longer there, long since demolished. How amazing it would have been for this building to have survived and for the paths either side of the River Calder to […]
Taken from High Blantyre behind the Church, this 1967 view looks across towards the former Dixon’s Pit, which is being removed in the background. The Kirkton Housing estate in the middle of the photo with County Buildings in the background. To the left the Manse wall beside Douglas Street. The house under the large […]