I posted yesterday showing the crowd attending the funeral of Auchinraith Colliery victims in 1930. This photo perhaps better demonstrates the scale of onlookers. Taken at the junction corner of Auchinraith Road and Craig Street, the crowds were immense. On Saturday 30th August 1930, a huge explosion occurred at Number 1 pit, Auchinrath colliery belonging […]
On Saturday 2nd April 1910, an International football match between Scotland and England took place at Hampden , Glasgow. This particular match however, raised significant interest around Blantyre in particular, for the Scottish Goalkeeper was none other than local man James Brownlie, then aged 24. There was no shortage of football fans eager to set […]
The most heartrending scenes were witnessed in the neighbourhood of both pits, and all along the Priestfield row of houses situated one hundred yards from No. 2 Pit, for it was near those buildings that the dead bodies recovered from the pit were conveyed. There were women with children in their arms with swollen eyes […]
Illustrated here is a drawing made on Thursday 25th October 1877, just a couple of days after the Blantyre Explosion. This was an accurate depiction, these particular illustrators capturing the scene as best as possible. It was cold and rainy that week, the dark afternoons arriving early. By the Thursday, regular crowds of […]
This has to be one of my favourite images of old Blantyre. Crowds of people make their sorrowful way down what would become Douglas Street on that horrible day in October 1877, the sharp turn still visible today near the bottom of Douglas Street. The three pits are pictured. On the left Priestfield Colliery (Dixons […]
I was recently sent a high resolution photograph of David Livingstone Centre, taken sometime between Summer 1930 and Summer 1934. The photograph shows an outing to the centre with many hundreds of people enjoying the new facility and the wide open spaces of the grounds. I have been able to zoom in on the photo […]