When misfortune befell upon the Park family in Springtime 1904, a change in direction was needed. David Park and his family lived in Musselburgh but when he became unemployed, he decided to pursue work with William Baird as a miner at Craighead, Blantyre. The family packed up and left Musselburgh for good arriving in Blantyre […]
I recently uncovered this bizarre and remarkable story of a Blantyre tram being “subject to a heist”. Late on Saturday 9th April 1927, around 11.15pm, the last tramcar of the evening from Cambuslang was proceeding to the Power Station at Hamilton Road, Motherwell. To do this, it had to go through Blantyre as usual. Being so […]
Thank you to Nick Rice, who brought this story to my attention. Nick is related to the McWilliams of Blantyre and told this story of his ancestor. On the evening of Friday 13th September 1907, a somewhat extraordinary accident occurred at Blantyre’s Glasgow Road when a (tram)car belonging to the Lanarkshire Tramway Company ran into […]
1910 The Spittal Bridge, or more commonly known as “The Priory Bridge”. Located just off Glasgow Road, the bridge still exists today but is often missed. In this old (and nicely colourised) postcard, a tramcar passes over on it’s way to Cambuslang. Blantyre’s existing tramlines (which opened in 1903) were extended in 1906 and opened […]