On 11th November 2014, Megan McHugh contacted me on Facebook to say, “This is Robert Hastie, my Great-Grandfather. He was in WWI.” Attached was an old photo of Robert in uniform. Wanting to help Megan more with filling in some details about Roberts life, and with her help by providing me with a few comments, […]
You’ll notice I say “row” and not “rows” here. Unlike most other miners rows houses in Blantyre, Auchinraith Row was a single row of miners homes. Built in 1874 by Messrs Merry and Cunningham these homes remained the property of the colliery which was sited nearby. The row sat to the East of the modern […]
Frances Murphy (nee Docherty) [Recorded 3/2/2014] I was born Frances Docherty on 26 October 1931 in my parents’ home at 12 Watson Street High Blantyre, on the outskirts of Glasgow in Scotland. I was the eldest of nine children, seven brothers followed by my sister who was born after I married. Our village was also […]
Thank you to Mary Crowe for emailing me this old payslip of our Uncle Edward McGuire, who used to work with the Summerlee Iron Company, a miner at Bardykes Colliery. From the 11th January 1930, the slip records the tonnage of coal extracted, and has a lot of welfare benefits such as doctors pay, infirmary […]
Only a year after the High Blantyre Industrial Estate opened, a new type of industry arrived at the factories in 1947 in the form of Simplicity Patterns Ltd of London. This proved to be a wonderful source of employment for many people in Blantyre, both women and men alike. Indeed, the timing and arrival of […]
I recently told a news story about two Blantyre miners who died in a pitfall accident in 1901. Henry Tennant and James McGurk. You can read it here http://blantyreproject.com/2013/08/22/im-away-then/ I was emailed by Mr Patrick Whelan who said, “Dear Mr.Veverka, In the process of doing some ancestry research I came upon the article on your […]
Wednesday 24th July 1901 started like any other day in Blantyre that decade. The menfolk set off from their houses , mostly to the pit. Blantyre residents James McGurk and Henry Tennant were no exception. They made their way to Auchenraith Colliery belonging to Messrs Merry and Cunninghame. James and Henry collected their mining gear […]