In 1892, a report highlighted the dire housing conditions in Victorian Blantyre, revealing severe overcrowding and poor sanitation. It reported incidents of numerous occupants living in cramped spaces and called for urgent regulatory measures. This situation reflected the harsh realities faced by families in industrial Blantyre during that era.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. The classic symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough with blood-containing sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. It was historically called “consumption” due to the weight loss. Tuberculosis […]
Wow. Finally, an excellent picture of High Blantyre Prefabs in their entirety. This aerial view from 1961 looks westwards from above Burnbank back over to Blantyre. The industrial estate sneaking into the picture to the left, but its the former Prefabs that are the main focus. To the back of the photo are the […]
I’ve recently uncovered a further piece of the jigsaw which saw the fate of Auchentibber sealed. In June 1928, a petition by a number of residents of Auchentibber (still being referred to as Auchintibber in the 1920s) was presented to the District Committee. The petition was to raise concerns that the dwindling community in […]
August 23rd 1938 and the women of Blantyre march from the town heading towards Lanark County Council in Hamilton. The organised march was to demonstrate at the unsatisfactory housing shortage occurring in Blantyre at the time. Married women with prams pushed their children all the way into Hamilton to register their protest at lack of […]
On the dark, Winter afternoon of Wednesday 25th January 1928, a Burns Supper at Waterloo Row, Low Blantyre had catastrophic and terrible consequences for many local people. The dilapidated row of seventeen two apartment Miner’s houses situated on the banks of the River Clyde was entirely and quickly wiped out by raging fires rendering 108 […]
By 1935, Blantyre’s Calder Street was quickly becoming a well known and established thoroughfare. By that time it was home to the red sandstone secondary school and at the junction with Victoria Street, the police station was another prominent building. The street led from the Church (where the current Asda entrance is), past the library […]