Tag: mcneil

Pit Sinker Incident, 1894

Blantyre Mining
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The job of being a pit ‘sinker’ was certainly a backbreaking, dangerous one. Manually digging out the debris from a new mine shaft, ever increasingly working deeper in that vertical hellhole in a time before proper mechanisation. The threat of collapse was always present, the reduction in fresh air made the simple act of breathing […]

Death of a Glasgow Oarsman

Blantyre People
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James Banks M’Neill, well known aquatic circles, died on Friday 11th October 1878 at Blantyre, in his 49th year. He was a boatbuilder, a most successful teacher of swimming, and in his youthful days a splendid oarsman. He built boats, hired them out and was the originator and first secretary of the City of Glasgow […]