As Blantyre settled from the shock of World War II breaking out, life had to continue for our town, and that included children trying to enjoy themselves as best as they could. The Hamilton Advertiser told the story on 21st September 1940. A group of local children formed “The Thornhill Gang.” The boys and girls styled themselves […]
The “Arctic Convoys – Men and Ice” exhibition opens this Monday in Edinburgh and tells the stories of survivors of the Arctic Convoys. These were the brave sailors who worked in some of the harshest conditions of the war, on board ships, on frozen, icy waters in bitter cold Arctic winds, all the time fearing the German U-boats below. The […]
This poem was in all probability written by the brother of Robert Henry/Hendry one of Blantyre’s sons killed during the Second World War. Wilma Bolton has recently sent it over to Blantyre Project for archiving. BROTHER! How sorely we miss you— you so wholehearted and true; Sacrificed in the blast of war’s madness, when the stirring […]
On Sunday 18th January 2015, I was visited by George Park and his elderly mother and her sister at my home in High Blantyre. We shared a great afternoon where I was intrigued by some of the stories and tales they were able to tell me. George’s mother is in her 90s and originally from […]
Jim Cochrane shared this WW2 photo with us, adding, “The Far east in WW2. The person on the right is my Great uncle Donny or Donald Marshall Calderside Farm. Don`t know what the Uniform is or the Rank, but i know he was in Burma. He trained as an Electrician and worked for the GPO […]
Betty Weaver (nee Scott), formerly of Victoria Street shared a treasured photo of her as a baby along with her grandpa around 1948. She told me, “here I’m helping Grandpa Scott to cut the rhubarb so we could have ‘rhubarb and sugar’ to eat – the rhubarb was washed and cut into a small stalk […]
Blantyre’s residents were excited and thrilled when it was announced in 1939 that the Blantyre Picture House Company were going to build a “state of the art” cinema on Glasgow Road. The Broadway Cinema was to be located on spare ground at the corner of Station Road and Glasgow Road at the junction. Construction took place […]