A photo from 126 years ago! This is High Blantyre at Douglas Street in 1892, looking across to the newly constructed church halls. In the foreground is a wooden cart, likely belonging to the whitewashed smiddy adjacent. Behind it is the Kirkyard Cemetery and behind that the tenements near Kirkon’s High Blantyre Cross. During […]
Although I had a copy of this photo, Sandy Wilkie recently sent me a better resolution version, which I was able to zoom in on and pick out more detail. Thought previously by the late Neil Gordon to be the 1880’s in High Blantyre’s Douglas Street, I’ve since concluded the photo as being 1892. […]
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 […]
With thanks to Brian Weaver for sharing this photo. Pictured in Summer 1967 or so is the bottom of Sydes Brae. The former Dixon’s bings are beginning to be removed. Its clear how rural everything still is and there are no Jerusalem houses built yet. You’ll see that Mr Dale, the Old Parish Minister has […]
On 7th November 1909, a terrible fire took place at Douglas Street, burning down a tenement building and taking the lives of 2 people. The sensational commentary was told in some detail in local newspapers and is retold here. Attached also, for the first time seen online in this clarity from 1910 -1915 is […]
Nystagmus is a condition of involuntary eye movement, acquired in infancy or later in life, that may result in reduced or limited vision. Due to the involuntary movement of the eye, it is often called “dancing eyes”. It can be brought on by vertigo, or fear or confined spaces, and as such was often known as […]
Continued from Part 2 By 1920, Jim’s quoiting skills were becoming well known and in February that year Tom Weir, of the Parkhead Club, challenged Nimmo for £100 a side. (a sum worth £4,600 in todays money!). He taunted the Auchentibber club, “Come away boys, who’ll tackle the Parkhead wonder?” A fortnight later the Auchentibber […]