This photo, though not the best quality dates from the 1960’s and shows Sydes Brae, looking down the hill back towards Blantyre. In 1598, within the Great Seal of Scotland, Lord Blantyre was given the lands of Blantyre, which included Sides (Sydes Brae.) Much more recently, children in the 20th Century would sledge down this hill in winter […]
Though not the best quality, this photo shows the former Auchentibber Gardens, High Blantyre. White Pickets fences around the quoting green over a hundred years ago, wooden rustic trellises and pagodas at the back of the Old Inn. All this now lost to nature and woodland at the back of the Auchentibber War Memorial.
On 9th October 1893, a report appeared in local newspapers which highlighted the unsanitary conditions in Auchentibber, and illness which had broken out in relation to polluted water supplies. It’s incredible to think that just over 130 years ago, people were living in those conditions in High Blantyre. I’ve transcribed the newspaper report here: “Owing […]
It’s difficult now to imagine that these beautiful Italian Gardens once existed at High Blantyre. These postcards from the 1910’s show just how incredible they looked, with climbing flowers and ivy adorning the stone steps, walls and arches. These 2 images were taken from the Quoiting green looking back at the stonework, up towards Parkneuk […]
This very beautiful scene was taken from a series of postcards and shows the upper Calder, at an area called ‘The Glen’, to the west of Auchentibber. At the time this was taken around the 1910’s, the area just below Calderwood Castle had many walkways, and dominated by the Rotten Calder River snaking through a […]
Wee puzzle for you today, though I know the answer to this one! Still in Blantyre, but where am I today??
Nature slowly claiming back the former ornamental, beautiful Italian Gardens at Auchentibber. This photo from 1999 shows the remnants of arched structures built 90 years earlier which once adorned the quoting green gardens. Built by the miners, these gardens were once described as a “wonder” and somewhere for tourists to come to happily knowing they […]