On Sunday 22nd September 1895, a mass meeting of miners took place outdoors at the Slag Road (which would eventually become Craig Street). The meeting was to consider miners wages and hours. Nothing at all existed either side of the Slag Road during that time, not even at the corners of a busy Glasgow Road, […]
In November 1896, reporters of the Hamilton Herald newspaper got talking to one of the well known colliery officials in Blantyre and wrote briefly about a sweeping change taking place in the shift patterns of miners. The observation was that Blantyre miners were now as accustomed to taking the Saturday as a holiday, just as […]
Another little snippet of history. In 1896, a spate of railway accidents, mainly fatal sadly hit Blantyre. Despite this flurry of accidents in a comparatively short space of time, trespassing on the railway continued, usually by miner on their way to or from the pits. The cross cross of railways throughout and around Blantyre usually […]
Part of the summary from the official Inquiry Report for “Blantyre Colliery Explosion” of 1877. Transcribed by myself word for word for the first time appearing online, this particular detailed section, summarises the firedamp and conditions leading to the explosion. THE FIREDAMP “Firedamp, or inflammable gas, was ordinarily given off in the working parts of […]
Part of the summary from the official Inquiry Report for “Blantyre Colliery Explosion” of 1877. Transcribed by myself word for word for the first time appearing online, this particular section, can be rather technical at times, but deservedly so, as it dealt with the important matter of ventilating the colliery. The information is in good […]
I hope nobody minds minor, incidental stories like these. Such events took place over 125 years ago, and do reflect actual events in Blantyre at the time. Such snippets help form a larger picture of what was going on, such as this story about hungry miners. Four Blantyre men, found themselves in bother with the […]
When we think of Coal Mining in Blantyre, we traditionally think of a very male orientated industry, but did you know at one time there were occasions where females where employed down in the depths of the pits or at the pithead, even in Blantyre! In December 1903, the annual conference of the Miner’s Federation […]