A fantastic photo I’ve only seen for the first time this week, shared here. These are the construction workers at Blantyre’s David Livingstone Memorial Bridge during the early 1950s. The old suspension bridge was away and construction of the new bridge had started, with scaffolding in place and the beams being hoisted into position. Rather […]
During 1931 and 1932, contractors removed the old rusty iron bridges (erected in 1878) and replaced them with modern trusses. Starting at Low Blantyre, the contractor’s worked their way up the Auchenraith line towards High Blantyre. The first bridge to be renovated was known as “Bridge 1”, a railway bridge crossing over Glasgow Road at […]
This photo first appeared in the Hamilton Advertiser around June or July 1950, 71 years ago . The caption reads, “The designers of the new Milheugh Bridge which spans the River Calder near High Blantyre have departed from stereotyped construction with happy result.” The view looks downstream, the road up to Malcolmwood leading out to […]
About 5 o’clock on Monday 17th June 1861, a collier named William Bishop, aged 17 went into the River Clyde at the riverbank about 300 yards west of Haughhead Bridge and didn’t come out alive! He entered the river on the north side and swam towards the Blantyre side, but unfortunately about only 6 […]
I was recently looking at old 1920s and 1930’s photos of the former Milheugh Bridge, i.e. the old arched stone bridge over the River Calder, prior to the 1950’s bridge currently there today. To my surprise, I noticed a peculiar detail which actually looks like an even older abutment or some kind of structure […]
From a book called Origines Parochiales, about the Parishes of Scotland, published in 1851, “Bothwell bridge, across The Clyde, was an early erection, probably of the 14th century. Another bridge, of one arch, high, very narrow, and without parapets, across the South Calder, is said to be in the line of the great Roman […]
With the closure of the Blantyre Suspension Bridge on 4th May 1949, thoughts had firmly turned to a replacement crossing by 1950. In Springtime 1950, the new site had been chosen, which was to be further downstream beyond the weir, much closer to Shuttle Row. By April 1950, workmen had marked out the site with Black […]