It’s a scene which is little changed today. The entrance to Blantyre Old Parish Church at High Blantyre will be familiar to many people. The gate pillars and adornments, and indeed the gates themselves still look like this today, despite this photo being taken 60 years ago in 1962. The two lines of slabs which […]
By the start of the 20th Century, the mission of St Joseph’s had made remarkable progress since its inception in 1877. For a considerable time prior to that, the Catholics of Blantyre had their spiritual requirements administered in Hamilton. Mass however, was celebrated and Sunday School conducted in a block of houses in Dixon’s Rows, […]
On Saturday 17th June 1905, the Hamilton Herald and Lanarkshire Weekly Newspaper issued an article to let excited readers know about the handsome new church which had just been erected for the congregation of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Blantyre. It says, “The edifice will be solemnly and formally opened tomorrow (Trinity Sunday) by […]
I’ve been exploring Blantyre news from the first decade of the 20th Century in recent weeks. Here’s another nice wee story which made me smile. On Sunday 22nd September 1907, the Anderson Church on Stonefield Road re-opened after being closed for 4 weeks. The building had been in the hands of painters and decorators and […]
I meant to post this nice snippet in December. On Christmas Eve 1908, a large gathering of local people attended the midnight service at St Joseph’s Church on Glasgow Road, Blantyre. Not so unremarkable in itself, as that service was usually always well attended. However, whilst the service was frequented by many of Blantyre’s Roman […]
Photographed from the direction of Douglas Street at Loanfoot, is a view over to Blantyre Old Parish Church at High Blantyre. Taken around 1975 by Drew Semple, this was an area fast changing in the mid 1970’s, with the construction of EK Expressway nearby, which would shortly after sever Craigmuir Road, which ran by the […]
After many years of the congregation meeting in the old Nazarene Church (hut) in Elm Street and following problems with dampness, it eventually burned down in 1980. A new church, was built on the opposite side of Elm Street and officially opened by Mrs. Janet Mackie. It was dedicated on Sunday 24th October 1982. For […]