Today, we’re looking at the controversial subject of some of the privately owned roads in Blantyre that had by the Millennium got into a poor standard. With the council choosing not to adopt them previously, expectation was on the residents of each street to look after them. All these photos date from the year 2000. […]
Tag: Watson street
1961 High Blantyre Aerial
Taken from high above Burnbank Hillhouse, this aerial photo from 1961 looks back towards High Blantyre. At a time before the EK Expressway, you can see the relatively new Kirkton Avenue and Waverley Terrace in the Housing Estate in the foreground, which had only been constructed a few years earlier. The fields to the […]
Husband Disagrees with Police
On Tuesday 21st August 1923, the Blantyre police completed their investigation in connection with a drowning the previous week, in a tributary of the Clyde. Mrs. O’Brien, the wife of a miner who lived at Watson Street had disappeared from home on the Friday night. Police were of the opinion that there was no […]
Robert Smith of Pilot Acre
In April 2016, I received an email from Janet Hogan who said, “My G/grandfather Robert Smith, born 1837 Ireland, moved to Scotland and in the 1901 census he was living at Pilot Acre, Stonefield, Lanarks with niece Maggie Pollock. I believe Robert died between 1901-11 but I have searched and searched on quite a few websites, […]
More of Blantyre Ontario
I wrote last year about a little 19th Century town in Ontario, Canada called “Blantyre”. It had only 50 people living there and in modern times had become a “ghost town”. You can read the article here. https://blantyreproject.com/2015/12/16/the-canadian-blantyre/ I’ve now had a couple of Canadian ex-pats point out this little town to me, but nobody has […]
Illegal Watson Street Dentist
An offence, which Sheriff M’Donald said was punishable by a penalty of £lOO, was admitted in Hamilton Sheriff Court in October 1933 by James William Dunn, of 7 Watson Street, High Blantyre. He was accused having, between June 19, 1929, and September 18. 1933. practised dentistry from his home without being registered in the Dentists’ Register […]
1929 Construction of The Steel Houses
Back in the 1920’s, some of my family line emigrated from Blantyre to Canada. Moving from Broompark Road, they ended up in New Brunswick. I keep in contact with my mother’s cousin who has been kind enough over the years to write and send me some Blantyre related photos and items. Perhaps unseen online, is […]
1967 Watson Place to Australia
Jim Cochrane sent in these photos, which remarkably show his family Bedford Van in 1967, travelling from Watson Place , Blantyre, over to Australia by ship, for a holiday, then back again! A great part of that holiday must have been spent actually on the ship itself. What an adventure. Pictured is the lockup garage at […]
The Watson Street Fire 1948
During 1948, ten families were rendered homeless when fire ravaged through their Watson Street homes. Almost 40 people lost their homes and most of their possessions , being forced to stay temporarily after the fire in the YMCA. The fire had started early one morning at 12 Watson Street and destroyed the two storey building. […]