On Tuesday 22nd July 1913, fire filled the air at the bottom of Forrest Street, with plumes of smoke and flame that could be seen from High Blantyre. That afternoon, the former oil refining works belonging to Messrs William Sommerville and Sons and situated at the bottom of Forrest Street. Blantyre, was destroyed by fire. […]
Thank you to Australian lady, Marg Broadley for sending me these photos back in June. Apologies, only getting round to uploading them now. Pictured is a wedding in Blantyre in 1917. The wedding is that of Marg’s great aunt Helen Smail Sommerville, who married Thomas Campbell Hunter. The wedding party are pictures on the grass […]
Sentence of 30 days imprisonment was imposed on William Sommerville Ritchie, a young unemployed farm servant, who appeared in custody before Sheriff Brown Hamilton Sheriff Court on Boxing Day 1933. He had pleaded guilty to 2 charges of breaking into a shed situated in Barnhill Nursery on Hunthill Road, on December 25th and opening two lockfast […]
Saturday 15th August 1936 saw a memorable visit by the combined Rotary clubs of Hamilton and Motherwell in something of an annual pilgrimage to the Livingstone Memorial at Blantyre. (Pictured is David Livingstone Memorial Centre drawn by Mary Sommerville Gossman, a few years earlier in 1930) The party was received by Mr Robert M’Callum, the Curator, […]