On January 7, 1893, a severe cold snap in Central Scotland famously froze the River Clyde, creating a safe surface for ice activities. Locals enjoyed skating and improvised rinks, with enthusiastic crowds and no reported accidents. A photo from February 2021 commemorates this historic event and its legacy.
Blantyre Project reader Martin Weir, recently sent me an interesting message. Martin, is a keen metal detectorist and being from East Kilbride, with permission has searched several fields between Blantyre and his hometown over the years. One of the fields he has searched is on the boundary between East Kilbride and Blantyre, and he’s actually […]
This great photo was taken by the RAF In 1950. It features the village and Station Road area. My friends Gordon Cook and Alex Rochead and I were recently discussing features in this photograph trying to work out what row of homes were previously called “Glasgow Row” and if they still existed by that time. […]
A previously unseen photo from the early 1960’s. This is Blantyre Weir spanning the River Clyde. Photographed from the Blantyre side looking across to Bothwell. This was before the hydro building was constructed and perhaps taken in Winter or Spring. The opposite riverbank at Bothwell looks different these days, now with modern large homes recently […]
A little piece of really old history for you today! I’ve found evidence of a former weir, that seems to have been forgotten about. Spanning the River Clyde between Craighead and Bothwell, I only noticed the ruin of this weir on the corner of an old 1806 Architects plan drawing for the then new weir […]
In 1838, an argument raged between a Mr Wallace who lived downstream of Blantyre and with Messrs Henry Monteith & Co, the owners of Blantyre Mills. The problem was that Monteith had fully dammed the Clyde, by upgrading the weir and suddenly downstream, where once had hundreds of years of Salmon thriving, were now suddenly […]
A peculiar story happened in Blantyre in July 1906 which ended up being a waste of police resources and embarrassing for all concerned. On Sunday 7th July 1906, around 11pm a worried mother reported to police that her boy was missing and she feared he had drowned. The story given to police was that around […]