Pictured here in 1878 by Thomas Annan is an incredible photo of the former Craighead House, just off Whistleberry Road. At the time it was owned by George Alston. We’re looking at the front entrance of the house and can see a chair outside and several boot scraper irons. Wooden shutters on all the tall […]
During the winter 1981 into 1982, the Glasgow promotion moved their Speedway team a few hundred metres to Craighead Park (home of Blantyre Celtic), which was situated behind the wall that ran along the back straight of the former track to the west. This was to be the new venue for Blantyre speedway. A new […]
An alarming occurrence at Blantyre took place about one o’clock Tuesday 16th November 1920, when the Craighead colliery bing, which belongs to Messrs William Baird and Co., gave way! Around two thousand tons of sludge and stones cascaded down the Bing and was scattered across the Whistleberry Road. The who incident was a most unusual […]
Looking at the Charles Ross 1773 map of Blantyre, many of the names shown are familiar, but I noticed “Lithrig” which looks to be an early adaptation of Letterick. Also beside Crossbasket and Greenhall is “Craighead” which surprised me somewhat. However, by far the most striking feature of the map is the absence of […]
This photo may be more difficult to put into a modern context, for only the railway line remains today. Taken in September 1939 by the Smith family, the scene looks north westwards over to the former Craighead Bing. In the background, the whitewashed building is the piggery and the railway line at this point […]
Alston, Mr. George Charles (Junior) – was born 13 Sept 1864 at Craighead, Blantyre, Lanarkshire. Living a priviledged life, he studied at Eton Matric Michs 1883, acquiring his qualification, a BA in 1886. For a time also he was in Ceylon as a tea planter. He is pictured here in 1895 sporting a moustache […]
Alston, Mr. George (Senior) – Alston is an English and Scottish name with two possible origins. It could be a locational name given to someone who lived in a town called Alston, a name derived from an Old English personal name and the word tun, meaning settlement. The son of Glasgow Merchant George Alston of […]
Before Sheriff Mercer, at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Monday 1st November 1926, seven men were charged with forming part of a disorderly crowd of over 700 people in Glasgow Road, Blantyre. This was a time towards the end of the great mining strike and feeling amongst the unemployed miners were still running high, especially to those […]