Blantyre Pit Disaster Anniversary Hope this is shared far and wide. As we all head to work and start the week this Monday morning in Blantyre, we remember another much more tragic and gloomy Monday morning exactly 141 years ago. One, which claimed the lives of over 215 men and boys, wiping out around 6% […]
Illustrated here is a drawing made on Thursday 25th October 1877, just a couple of days after the Blantyre Explosion. This was an accurate depiction, these particular illustrators capturing the scene as best as possible. It was cold and rainy that week, the dark afternoons arriving early. By the Thursday, regular crowds of […]
This has to be one of my favourite images of old Blantyre. Crowds of people make their sorrowful way down what would become Douglas Street on that horrible day in October 1877, the sharp turn still visible today near the bottom of Douglas Street. The three pits are pictured. On the left Priestfield Colliery (Dixons […]
In respect of the men and boys who died in the Blantyre Pit Disaster of 22nd October 1877. Here’s a really detailed list produced, not only showing names and ages, but also attaching their addresses, martial status and date their death was actually confirmed (i.e brought up and registered) Some of these families like the […]
Blantyre Explosion – occurred on 22nd October 1877. That night the Herald reported, “the most grevious in Blantyre’s history, when fierce squalls of sleet and rain drove away the merely curious, but lowering under hedgerows or whatever slight shelter they could obtain, many anxious ones continued to hang about the scene, eager to receive any […]
Much has been written about the men and boys who died in the Blantyre Pit Disaster, but what about those who survived? Those people who were working at the top of the shaft or manage to walk to safety awaiting rescue. Those who generally managed to escape the fireball and fire damp gasses. The following […]
A story surfaced in the week that followed the 1877 pit disaster in Blantyre. Taken from the Scotsman archives of 27th October 1877: “Yesterday Thomas Gibbin, a labourer, having no fixed place of residence, was judicially examined before Sheriff Bernie at Hamilton Sheriff Court, and committed to prison pending further inquiries, on a charge of […]