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 […]
Haughhead Bridge at the boundary of Blantyre and Uddingston had been closed throughout Summer 1927 to vehicular traffic. The bridge was deemed unsafe for passing vehicles and workmen had for 3 months been very busy repairing and pointing the bridge’s walls and laying a road surface with tarred chips which led over the bridge. However, on […]
This bridge, the David Livingstone Memorial Bridge was built in 1952 and replaced the previous suspension bridge which had closed in 1949. The photograph shows the end of the David Livingstone Bridge when it was demolished on 28th May 1999. The contractors had some difficulty in tearing down the whole structure and had to call […]
On Saturday 21st June 1817 an open air stage coach travelling between Glasgow to Hamilton was involved in a fatal accident on top of the Priory Bridge at Blantyre. As the coach approached the bridge, an oncoming horse and cart startled the horses pulling the coach, and the passengers on top of the coach were alarmed […]