A Blantyre miner sleeping in his home after night shift work had a rude awakening on the morning of 26th December 1934 when he was almost buried under a fall of ceiling on his bed. For a few minutes he imagined he had been the victim of a roof fall in the pit. Practically the whole […]
A great photo of a man standing at the corner of High Blantyre Church Halls, at the Junction of Main Street and Hunthill Road. What makes this Kirkton photo all the more remarkable is that it was taken over 110 years ago, around 1905. Photographed by David Ritchie, shared here by Alex Bowie, I wondered […]
A fire at one of the main haulage roadways at Priory Colliery, Blantyre, near Glasgow, which was discovered on Tuesday 1st October 1935, proved more serious than at first supposed. The fire raged for 2 days. Fifty men with fire extinguishers laboured strenuously fighting the flames, but early on the 3rd October, it was decided to seal […]
Andrew Polland, a well-known junior footballer, of Purdie Street, Burnbank. was seriously injured while at work in Priory Blantyre, on Thursday 20th August 1936. Pollard, who was employed as a machineman, was engaged in cutting coal when he was struck by a heavy stone which fell after the machine had passed along the coal face. […]
Friday 13th of August 1937 proved to be a black, unlucky Friday at Blantyreferme. Pictured here in a similar era is a previously unseen photo online of Newton Colliery not far from Blantyreferme 1&2, shown to me by Alex Rochead. Five men were affected a serious, gassing accident in the Blantyre pit. Two of the […]
On 9th January 2015, April Leopold Hynes contacted me saying, “So excited to find this page! My family came from Blantyre in 1923 to US and they were the Strangs. Coal miners. Thomas J Strang and Margaret Hill Strang – children were Agnes (who died as a young girl) Thomas, James, Robert, Rosina and Mary.” […]
Unfortunately the name of this man is now lost in time, but we do know the photo is around 1900 and taken at Blantyre Village. A tired looking middle aged miner stands in a doorway, holding a pickaxe and miners lamp. Something very striking is the fact the man is severely bow-legged, but something quite […]