How lucky I’ve been this last month to have people give me so many interesting objects, books and stories! Following a whole batch of postcards arriving by mail last week, and a Blantyre film of 1948 delivered right to my door (which I hope share soon), I arrived home this evening to find a package […]
At the end of January 1978 work converting the former St Joseph’s Primary Annexe was completed and Blantyre’s latest nursery school got off the ground. The school was opened at the end of February 1978 by Councillor Malcolm Waugh and was split into 2 parts. The ground floor was for 60 children aged between […]
Bullet holes, smashed windows, broken bottles, terrified women. Young Blantyre soldier Jim Greer must have seen it all during his service in Ulster. However, when he returned home at the end of January 1978, he saw it all again! He returned home to find his mother living in terror in what was yet another […]
In March 1978, it was announced that £350,000 would be set aside to expand Blantyre High School by building a physical education block and extension of dining facilities. This was part of a 5 year, £60m schools expansion programme rolled out for all Lanarkshire Schools. From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2017 Featuring […]
Between 1978 and 1983, Strathclyde Council were to spend £60m on a schools improvement programme. This included improving some of Blantyre’s schools. Due to overcrowding and large class sizes, much of this took the form of expansion or extensions being added. A drastic solution in 1978 was to turn the former Calder Street School […]
On Wednesday 6th March 1958, the last man to have seen David Livingstone died. Mr Alexander Sommerville Scott of Cantislaw Farm, East Kilbride was 99 when he passed away and was a Blantyre man originally. He was a month away from his 100th birthday. Born in High Blantyre in 1859, he was educated at […]
A first for Blantyre happened in Springtime 1978, when the council created our very first Nature Trail. The former Greenhall estate paths were upgraded in Greenhall Park , creating several new walks, with paths reinforced with timber and gravel. Signage set out the various walks in 6 different trails, located in and around the […]