The High Blantyre Parish Church Halls, opened in the 1890s, included a community reading library. Community dissatisfaction arose over entry fees for the reading rooms. A suggestion was made in 1893 to separate fees for library and reading room access. Eventually, Blantyre established a public library with free book access.
When the Old Parish Church Halls were demolished in 1989, it prompted a few people to write in with their memories of the old building. One such person was Mrs Mary Thomson, a Women’s Guild member who wrote: “How well I remember when the W.G. purchased the trestle tables for the hall from Alec Allison. […]
When I first saw this photo it was difficult to picture where in Blantyre it was. However, putting into context, its around 1989 and taken from the Disaster Monument at Kirkton, High Blantyre looking northwards across to where Kirk Care now is today. At a time before the care home was built, gone are the […]
A nicely colourised postcard of Kirkton Cross showing Hamilton Road looking west. This is High Blantyre in 1915. A child stands outside the public house, behind him is the Church Halls, Adams Building and Mayberry Buildings, then Adams Sawmill entrance beside the railway bridge. On the left beyond the kirk cemetery wall is the water […]
This story of a fire at Kirkton in High Blantyre, forced me to revisit and change something I’d previously written. It’s concerning Adams Building or Adams Laun at High Blantyre Main Street. As with previous historians in Blantyre, I’d mentioned before that Adams Building was the 3 storey tenement that stood throughout much of the […]
Looking west along Main Street towards the road to greenhall. Pictured in 1905, from Kirkton Cross, the scene is an everyday working weekday, with people going about their business. A man carries tools past the Church Hall. Another stands at the junction, perhaps wondering what David Ritchie, the photographer is doing. The sign was salvaged […]
The occasion here in High Blantyre is cutting the turf to begin the construction of the Old Parish Church Hall. The date is 1989 and pictured is Rev Peter O’Price of High Blantyre Old Parish Church, conducting the ceremony and blessing of the new proposed hall. At the same month, the demolition across Main Street […]