“The House by the Mill in the Meadow” by James Cornfield (2004) Down Pech Brae by Calder’s stream, in autumn is a place so green, orange, gold and yellow too, all enhanced by old Millheugh, the place that Blantyre people know, as the House by the Mill in the Meadow to describe the scene […]
I was recently looking at old 1920s and 1930’s photos of the former Milheugh Bridge, i.e. the old arched stone bridge over the River Calder, prior to the 1950’s bridge currently there today. To my surprise, I noticed a peculiar detail which actually looks like an even older abutment or some kind of structure […]
On August 23rd 1808, Miss Mary Berry an English aristocrat with a flair for writing, wrote from her visit to Bothwell Castle House, to her friend and fellow writer, Joanna Baillie. Joanna was born at the Manse in Bothwell but at the time of the following letter in 1808, was living in England. Mary […]
Heritors – this was a term used by Lord Blantyre for people who had farmed the same land for more than 100 years and is known to have been used as early as 1740s although prior to that there was still evidence of landowners having land for many centurie in Blantyre. Landowners were frequently […]
To Calder Water, by John Struthers This poem was written 186 years ago in 1830, by John Struthers. John had quite the flair for poetry, especially when it came to describing our local nature. Beautiful flowers are described in our area, and those primroses and violet blooms can still be seen today. Where early violet […]
When the first 2016 snow fell in early January, my brother in law at Stonefield Crescent decided to make the most of it and get out and about with his 2 year old son, a first time in proper deeper snow. It was “About Time!” As you’ll see from this fantastic 2 minute video, which Andy […]
It’s always nice when people send in paintings of Blantyre. These two have pride of place on the wall of Isla Arendell, who told me, “One is by A.G Reid of the bridge in the Calder (Milheugh) and the other of Stonefield by a Walter McDonald. I remember my mother Nan McNally buying the latter […]