Reader, George Park from Arbroath sent me a little snippet one evening that presented a mystery. He shared a clipping from an 1894 newspaper which said, “Fatal Shooing Accident to a Young lady – A young lady, the daughter of Mr Mitchell of Blantyre, Lanarkshire has met her death under very sad circumstances. While […]
In December 1925, whilst pushing a rake of empty coal hutches up an incline in the Loanend Colliery, William Dowdles, James Mulvaney, and Thomas Wales were trapped by a runaway train of fully loaded hutches, which came hurtling down on them with sudden force. The Blantyre connection here was William Dowdles, who lived at 6 […]
On Monday 16th January 1967, the first phase of the EK Expressway was still being constructed and as normal, traffic coming from East Kilbride could only get into Blantyre by the Stoneymeadow Road, the quickest route at the time. That day, a lorry driver sped down the Stoneymeadow Road heading towards Blantyre and his […]
At 2.15pm on Sunday 22nd January 2017, a silver astra vehicle crashed through the plate glass window of the Newsagents (Mauchline’s) Shop on Glasgow Road, near the top of Station Road. Thankfully, the young man driving the car was uninjured and had recently passed his test. The shop staff were also uninjured but the incident […]
Tragedy befell a Blantyre man on 21st December Christmas 1927. Along with two others, John (or James as some reports confirmed) Cook (20) of Chalmer’s Land, Blantyre set out for stroll, and eventually reached Bothwell Bridge, where a pond beside the river was frozen. Cook, who was a deafman, but impetuous youth, suddenly left his companions […]
During early March 1900, Mr James Leishman, a brass picker residing at Lyon’s Land, Springfield sued the Caledonian Railway Company for £1,000 damages for the death of his son, Gavin Leishman. Gavin had died at the age of only 14 on 7th February 1899, whilst in the employment of Dixons (Limited) at their number […]
On Tuesday morning 17th December 1929 an alarming collision occurred on the Hamilton Road, near the High School, when a bus proceeding towards Hamilton came into collision with butcher’s horse-drawn cart coming in the opposite direction. The butcher’s horse was killed outright in the collision, and the driver was thrown from his seat and severely […]
Miss Janet Anderson died on Tuesday 27th May 1879. The dairymaid from Calderglen was killed under shocking circumstances on the railway near Blantyre. She had been at Hamilton and travelled by train to Low Blantyre Station, alighting there. She decided then to take a short cut along the line, which directly passed by Calderglen. She was […]