A sad tale unfolded on Sunday 23rd March 1913 at the Village Mills, Blantyre. A tragic double drowning took the lives of two people, one of them only a boy. Some boys had been playing near the edge of the River Clyde which was flowing higher than normal due to Spring rainfall. To everyone’s horror, […]
Tag: mill
Pattonholm Ford the Medieval Road
In the centuries before Bardykes Road existed, a small medieval path linked a couple of the hamlets within Blantyre. Pattonholm Path linked Loanend Road/Spittal through the Calder Braes at Dysholm field, past the old mill , over the River Calder itself and up into the old Village at Barnhill (at the Hoolets Nest). This medieval […]
Origins of “The Village” name
The arrival in 1785 of David Dale and the construction of his first cotton-spinning mill changed Blantyre’s environment literally overnight. The quiet, peaceful, rural community disappeared as the industrial revolution took its grip on the town. A second spinning mill was constructed in 1791 causing another surge in the population. Half the population at this […]
Dyewood Mill Lost in Time?
The majestic mills in Low Blantyre weren’t the only mills in the town. There were at least half a dozen smaller mills dotted around the Parish. Most are easily located, but there is one that is now elusive thanks to the growth of the Calder claiming it back. Dyewood Mill Dyewood Mill or Dyesholm Bridge […]
David Dale’s Mills
David Dale was a Scottish entrepreneur who was instrumental in establishing Scotland’s cotton milling industry. He was born in Ayreshire in 1739. In 1783 he met Sir Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning frame, at a dinner in Glasgow. Next day the pair went to the Falls of Clyde to see if the power […]
School for Mill Workers
Kirkton (later known as High Blantyre) was firstly a rural community. It was through the Industrial Revolution in the 1770’s that ‘Low Blantyre’ was developed with its close proximity to the river Clyde. In 1785 everything in Blantyre changed when David Dale erected the first cotton spinning mill on the banks of the Clyde. The […]
Ramble by the River
This author of this account is lost in time now, but was likely written by a Victorian tourist in the mid 1880s. Such accounts of our town and it’s beauty need to be preserved in time, along with this wonderful old photo. “The line between Glasgow and Blantyre, a distance of some seven miles, passes […]