In March 1906, reporters commented in local newspapers that there was a rather large number of houses in Blantyre which were lying empty. (A stark contrast from the housing shortages of later decades!) It was commented at the time that there were more empty houses than any other previous year, which wasn’t great for landlords […]
The people of Blantyre were provided with a mystery in June 1906. It concerned the disappearance of two well-known individuals, and it was asserted that an elopement bas been successfully carried out. The case is a strange one. The man (who was not named in newspapers) was a well known clothier had a wife and […]
This tale starts with the unhappy subject of divorce. In February 1915, Thomas Closs, a tram conductor from Airdrie was filing for divorce from his estranged wife, Blantyre woman Euphemia Logan. Euphemia was the daughter of Mrs Logan who ran the Victoria Bar in High Blantyre though by the time of the divorce request in […]
A tragic story today from over a century ago, yet worth remembering for after all, this was a man who spent much of his life in Blantyre. Samuel Dixon, an employee of the colliery company for ten years, was killed on 30th August 1915, when a fall of rock happened at Extension Mines, Ladysmith, British […]
Joy McLennan sent this interesting message, “Thomas Watson (Tam) and Agnes Thompson (her ma was Isabella MacLean) along with sons Robert, Jock, Tom, Bill, Alexander and daughters Agnes, Jean, Ann and Mary left for Canada around 1914. They were bound for Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. I’m Curious to know where they lived in Blantyre? (A Farm?) […]
A remarkable coincidence occurred in the late 19th Century when Walter Loudon was living in the very same house his wife was born in! Walter worked in Earnock Quarries in Hamilton and lived in Auchentibber. In 1910, he left Lanarkshire to seek work in Canada and was joined by his Auchentibber sweetheart Maggie Leitch in […]
Answering a knock at her door one evening in October 1950, Jean MacFarlane of 55 Craig Street, Blantyre received the happiest surprise of her life. Standing on the doorstep were her 2 daughters Helen and Anne, who live in Toronto, Canada and her 3 year old granddaughter Patricia, whom she had never met before. The […]