In December 1892, Mr. Forrest, a contractor, accidentally left his expensive watch on a railway carriage buffer while working at High Blantyre Station. After realizing it was missing, he searched the area and eventually found it lying on the track about half a mile away, making it a fortunate recovery.
On May 13, 1893, John Hamilton, a 41-year-old man from High Blantyre, tragically died after tripping over a signal wire while crossing the rail line to catch a train to Glasgow. He was struck by a moving train, leaving behind a widow and three children. This incident followed a similar tragedy just weeks prior.
Summer 1894, saw an influx of miners into the Blantyre area. Though this was just before a general mining strike, word had spread beforehand that the new Priory Colliery was about to be sunk and that further opportunities existed in other mines in the District. Some of these incoming miners were from England and Ireland, […]
Pictured around the late 1890’s is the exact location of this next story, Railway Cabin number 4 on the Caledonian Railway, Hamilton to Strathaven branch. A wonderful, clear and detailed photo shared by Alex Bowie shows the line looking over to Larkfield. The line splits in two, the mineral line on the right heading towards […]
A snippet from the Hamilton Herald 2nd October 1896, a newspaper describing the Blantyre column news from 127 years ago. Hope you find these jottings interesting. This was the news that week: “We see from the papers that Mr Carnegie has been opening a library at Auchterarder. Could some of our local dignitaries not whisper […]
An amusing Blantyre story was retold in the local newspapers in October 1897. It took place on Wednesday 29th September 1897 (nearly 126 years ago). That afternoon, passengers at Blantyre Station awaiting the arrival of the Glasgow train were “tickled pink” on seeing a hare running along the track in front of the approaching train. […]
There’s a good story from 1898 about a particular Blantyre businessman who was well known for his meanness. When travelling by railway as he often did, he would keep the railway porters at Blantyre busily attending to his luggage, getting them to load the bags on to the train carriage. He would meander, acting indecisively […]