Pictured here in an aerial photo from 1955, are the greenhouses and gardens of Auchinraith Nurseries. Located on Main Street, at its junction with Auchinraith Road, the nursery served Blantyre well and was run in the early to mid part of the 20th Century by the Pattie family. Frank Pattie in the 1950’s supplied […]
Blantyre Project reader, Arlene Campbell asked me recently, “Can’t think of anyone else who may know. Just to cure my curiosity. I park at the side of St Joseph’s chapel every week and this is the first time I’ve noticed this stonework. It appears to be original stone. Was there something else attached to this […]
On 21st June 2015, I was contacted by Australian lady Marg Boardley (nee Sommerville) who emailed, “I’m visiting from Australia and came across your Blantyre page. My great aunt, Helen Smail Sommerville gave her address on her marriage cert in 1917 as Blantyre Lodge, Blantyre. Do you have any record of her working there? She […]
I uncovered this little story showing a resident of Blantyre being knighted in 1936. Such an accomplishment seems to have gone past largely unnoticed, and I would like to put it to the forefront, where the story belongs. This story is about a Blantyre man born in 1887, Mr George Riddoch Campbell. On Friday 24th […]
Tom Campbell recently contacted me from New Zealand to say, “to the bottom right of this map appears to be Burnside Cottages where I lived as a boy from 1958 until they were utterly destroyed by flooding of the Park Burn ten years later. I recall more than one cottage (at least three) occupied in […]
On 29th December 2013, Blantyre man Gary Campbell messaged me looking for some assistance with his ancestry. Gary wrote “Hi Paul. My Grandad was born 28/8/1920 in Glasgow. His brothers were Peter 28/6/1904, Robert 1/4/18 and James 18/12/1914. He also had 6 sisters. When his mother died in 1925 he and his brothers were brought […]
Miss Rose Campbell, a local woman from Blantyre packed more incident into her years during the 1930’s, than most of us experience in a lifetime. Her story was told to a journalist in July 1938 who remarked “Rose wanted to tell me more, but couldn’t through fear what would happen to her fiance.” Rose studied […]