Shared here by Gordon Cook is a picture taken in 1902 of miners descending in a cage. It is basically a cattle grid with chains, there is nothing to hold on to, and they were not slow in rising or descending either! Gordon told me, “Just a week after the overwinding accident of 1878 […]
A third pit disaster in the space of 2 years fell upon Dixons Collieries this time on the 2nd of July 1879, with the loss of 28 lives. The 1879 disaster occurred in the ell coal, the shallowest of the three seams. The coal was worked from number 1 pit, which was the downcast. […]
Just 1 year after the Blantyre Pit Disaster of 1877, William Dixons Ltd suffered another terrible below.Putting a more personal insight into this, Mr Thomas Murdoch had died in 1877 in the explosion, then his brother and father died a few months later in the following incident. We can only imagine how the rest of the […]
Taken from the forthcoming detailed book, “Blantyre Explained” by Paul D Veverka (c) 2016, here’s an extended article about Blantyre’s Auchinraith Pit Explosion in 1930. Pictured is a newspaper article from the Motherwell Times from that fateful day. On Saturday 30th August 1930, a huge explosion occurred at Number 1 pit, Auchinraith colliery belonging to Messrs’ […]
A sad coincidence in connection with the funerals of the victims of the 1930 Auchenraith Blantyre Colliery explosion occurred and is re-told here in a short, but remarkable story. Two ladies living in Wishaw had decided to attend the funerals of the victims in Blantyre. The first one called upon the second one at her Wishaw […]
SHAFT COLLAPSES AT PIT. Coal production at Blantyre Colliery was brought to a standstill in the first week of August 1957 by the partial collapse of the shaft of No. 1 Pit that first Monday of the month. Some 450 men are affected right away, but many were given other jobs on the surface. So it came […]
You may have seen this little colourised photo of Blantyre Blacksmiths on Andy Paterson’s excellent website where he has colorised Blantyre postcards and photos. I thought I’d upload the high resolution black and white original version to show a little more detail, as it doesn’t appear to be anywhere online yet. The photo is taken […]