Eileen Cusack Ansell messaged Blantyre Project saying, “I cannot find the deaths for William Calder and Mary Johnston, my ancestors. I know they were in the 1851 census, but they were both deceased by the time their daughter Sarah married on December 31, 1860, which narrows down a death time between March 30/31, 1851 (when census was taken) […]
Next, a tale long forgotten, for it happened 154 years ago. Another massive fire at the Blantyre Dye Works, the FOURTH time the huge 6 storey building was completely gutted. At about eight o’clock on Sunday evening on 6th March 1864, fire was discovered to have again broken out in one of the drying […]
Here’s a story of a single woman who pursued money for the ‘upkeep’ of her illegitimate child at Blantyre Works, The Village in 1903. On 13th June 1903 at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Annie Gilmour Dawson of Mid Row, Blantyre raised an action against the father of her newborn child. Annie was already designated as ‘poor’ […]
I was delighted to find this newspaper report from 1853, which provided a little more information on the arrival of the first Suspension Bridge at Blantyre Works. Can you imagine all those years ago, celebrating the arrival of an accessible Village bridge connecting Bothwell to Blantyre. From the ‘Scottish Guardian’ Newspaper on 22nd February […]
An eventful event occurred at Blantyre Works on Friday 29th August 1851. John Alexander, aged 10 and his friend, another boy were playing with a makeshift bow and arrow in the village. ‘Spicing’ up their game a little, they bound a nail to the end tip of their wooden arrow and continued with their […]
Here’s the full photo from 1900 or just before showing the expansive Blantyre Works Mills, the sweeping Clyde at the bend. If you look closely you’ll see the gardens on the left hand side, the whitewashed double storey homes of Waterloo Row and the old suspension bridge. On the opposite bank, on the horizon is […]
Here’s the former Blantyre Works wages office, which today is now a beautiful, modern home, located near the David Livingstone Bridge on the River Clyde. This colourised photo is from around 1940. Once part of a much larger building, this is the only part which remains and is one of just a dozen buildings […]
Taken from an old late Victorian ‘Magic Lantern’ show, this slide shows the former School at Blantyre works. Colourised, you can make out the building was heated by fires at either side, with a coal cellar hole clearly visible. I’m not sure how accurate this particular illustration is, for the doorway known to be […]