Another old Blantyre photo today, though again I don’t have much information. Photographed by Blantyre man David Ritchie, this cheery wee baby sits on a lovely button backed chair. The photo is a little blurry, which is to be expected being so young and not able to sit still yet. I think this is one […]
A warning that this story contains upsetting content relating to child death. On Saturday 22nd April 1905, police revealed that they had detained Blantyre woman Jeannie Lyon on suspicion she had murdered her newborn baby. Jeannie was a domestic servant and had given birth on Wednesday 19th April that year. However, when the baby disappeared, […]
Monday 29th May 1905, was a rather sombre day in Blantyre as a gruesome discovery was made at the side of the River Clyde. During that evening, the body of a baby was found floating in the river near the Weir dam at Blantyre Village Works. Police were called and the body was taken to […]
A sad story was told in the Hamilton Sheriff Court on Wednesday 7th June 1905, when Jane Mitchell or Dickson, wife of a Blantyre miner, residing at Craighead Rows, was charged with neglecting her four months old child. The woman was sent to prison for six months in September the previous year, and while she […]
The date is 1972. In the pram, is none other than little old me. Dad obviously trusted the monkeys at Calderpark Zoo to let them as close as this. Not sure i’d do the same today with my little one. A sad day when the zoo closed all those years later. It was a great […]
A rather sad story for you now. In July 2014, Blantyre man Robert Stewart emailed me a list of people who were buried in unmarked graves in High Blantyre Cemetery. In all cases, no names were known. Robert, being knowledgeable in Blantyre’s Cemeteries told me that between 1875 and 1914, a total of eleven unknown […]
A few people have asked me for some more stories connected to the historical people of Blantyre. This is a documented tale that was offered to Neil Gordon during 1979. It should be re-told here if only to preserve it’s content. Long before Aggie Bain owned the oldest house in Blantyre at Barnhill, the cottage […]