Normally we could not allow images from a book to be reproduced on TalkingScot, but we have the kind permission from Stenlake Publishing for these pictures from "Old Blantyre" submitted by drapadew.
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Page 37 - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-420
Front cover - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-423
All the best,
Andrew Paterson
streets in blantyre.....
Moderators: Global Moderators, Russell
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drapadew
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:54 am
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Margaret
- Posts: 162
- Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:11 am
- Location: Gold Coast Queensland
Photos
Hello TDH
Great photos, cant wait to get my book so I can see them all, I think my cousin is also sending me a book about Glasgow way back as well. I will be away till April 1st, doing the hard job of minding my little Grand Daughter in sunny Queensland so will catch up when i returne. Hopefully by then I will have my Blantyre Book
Great photos, cant wait to get my book so I can see them all, I think my cousin is also sending me a book about Glasgow way back as well. I will be away till April 1st, doing the hard job of minding my little Grand Daughter in sunny Queensland so will catch up when i returne. Hopefully by then I will have my Blantyre Book
Cheers
Margaret
researching:: Morton, Miller, Finlay, McDonald, Bullock, Forrester. Glasgow and Kilmarnock areas
Margaret
researching:: Morton, Miller, Finlay, McDonald, Bullock, Forrester. Glasgow and Kilmarnock areas
-
drapadew
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:54 am
-
drapadew
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:54 am
Margaret.
Thank you Andrew!.
Margaret.
When we Travel west from Murrays Raws on the Main Street,the next block was taken up by the Stonefield Church and the Church Manse,they were built in the 1880,s and of course the Street running off from the Main Street was called Church Street.
One of the features of the Church was its steeple,and tower, housing a large bell,which when rung could be heard throughout most of Blantyre.Another feature was the large size masonry stone wall with black iron railings with various gate openings at front and side,the front gates being the most impressive.The church burned down in the early 1970.s
All of these iron railings and all iron railings without exception in the whole of Blantyre, and anything else with iron in it's content was cut down,early 1940's,and used in the war effort.This was very necessary at the time but not a pleasant sight to see after it was done, there was a nakedness throughout the whole village and for many many years after the war ended and even up to the present day most of the iron work has never has been replaced.Most of the Population of Blantyre today has no memory of this event and accepts it as is,but these iron railings throughout Blantyre lent a slight Victorian tinge of privacy to the various buildings and surroundings.If you are walking through Blantyre and are passing a wall take a look and you will most likely see small pieces of iron embedded in the masonry.You can also see a fair amount of the iron railings in the pictures in the 'OLD BLANTYRE' book.
Church Street was a fairly upscale area to live in.Most if not all of the homes were of a large masonry stone just like the church,they were a bungalow type home with all the latest conveniences.A small Street with roughly 6 homes east side and 10 on the west side. Situated three quarters of the way down on the west side there was a small wooded area which ran from Church Street through to the next street west called Logan Street,This small wooded area was called St John's wood,why I do not know?in all my years living there I had maybe heard it called by this name a couple of times at the most ,and yet the name has stuck in my memory.There is a story to be told on this little wooded area which I will cover when we move on to the Logan Street Saga.
Church Street ended into a pasture for cows at it's top end,unlike most of the other streets running south which so far have all finished up in Auchinraith Road.
On the opposite corner from the church stood one of the five red public telephone boxes we had in Blantyre.
1 Church Street
2 Springwells
3 Main Street High Blantyre
4 Station Road Village
5 Stonefield Road.
We had phones in the main post office and another in the sub-post office near Bears Raws,there was also a post office in High Blantyre,which would have a phone and the last one that I can think of was in the Miners Welfare Hall.This I believe was all the public phones in Blantyre and they were never used There may have been more but that’s all that I can remember,The only time I ever saw them used was for an emergency,calling for the doctor or ambulance.
Of course its biggest usage was for the Bookies.Five minutes after every race on the horse racing cards throughout the British Isles,the runner as he was called waited near the phone box for the results to be phoned through,he noted down the results First, Second And Third and the price the horse was returned at, he then ran as fast as he was able to the particular back Street where the bookie kept his board up on display,showing all the racing schedules for that day.All of the miners from Blantyre loved a 'WEE FLUTTER' on the horses, as it was called.
Of course this was illegal,and many a police raid was to be seen, the police knew every Bookie in Blantyre and would regularly pull them in and they would go to court in Hamilton,pay their fine and be out for the first race on the racing cards.
The police could only arrest the Bookies if they caught them with betting slips on their person,so again there was always a look out to watch for the appearance of the police and also another fast runner standing by,his job was to grab all betting slips and run like H$*L so the police did not have any evidence of gambling.All good clean fun,the police were very lenient in their adaptation of the law in Blantyre.But they did have the respect of the miners.We had about 10 Bookies in Blantyre,all had their own little area and the business was handed down from father to son.I can never remember any of them going broke so they must have made some kind of a living out of the poor miners,with their sixpence and shilling bets.
As I write this article on the phones Margaret I can truthfully say that during the 1930-40-up until the early fifties the phone as a way of communicating in Blantyre was not generally used,first of all, none of the working class could afford one and secondly there was a certain fear or a dislike for them. I can recall when I was about sixteen I answered my first phone call and I was very apprehensive in doing so,and that was because my employment at that time required me to do so. I suppose it must have taken me a couple of days of calling and receiving calls before I got over my apprehension.
If we wanted to deliver a message,or get in touch with some one ,we just as a matter of fact,either walked ,rode our bikes or opened the window and shouted it out,somehow the message always got there without the telephone,and life went on.
The old telephone box was a great place to meet people when it rained,you would always find them with two or three people in them and no one using the phone.(We did not have many Gene Kelly's in Blantyre,and those that we did have, where not that good at dancing with an umberella.)
If we start to travel west from the cobblers shop on the corner of Clark Street.Two shops west of him there was one of the three ironmongers stores in Blantyre.This store like most ironmongers stores in the 1930.s sold anything and everything.Again what I can recall most of in this particular store was the smell,it was not unique to this store,but it was unique to the three ironmongers stores,What the smell derived from I do not know,I suppose it must have come from a concoction of all the other volatile smells in the store,all I do know was it was always present when you visited any of the three ironmongers in Blantyre
We had a furniture store, grocery store, Fish and chips,and a few small paper and confectionery stores and the always present cigarette and tobacco stores,in the same block which finished at John Street.
The main Cigarettes smoked at this time were named Capstan, Players,and the inevitable 'Nail In The Coffin' as it was called
THE WOODBINE,the cheapest and the most unhealthiest piece of crap produced as a cigarette for the working class.
Even then everyone including myself knew that they were killers,but once hooked in the ignorance of youth,I think it was even harder to break away from than it is today.I started as a 12year old in school and after about 100tries of quitting I managed to break the habit when I was 29years old.
During the war years it was very hard to find cigarettes for sale,Tobacco was not considered a very important commodity for the war effort, space on ships were more confined to goods that would feed the populace at large and munitions etc were the most important.This shortage of all goods of course created a black market for nearly everything that was in short supply,But if you had the money it was available at a price.
One of the tobaccos that the government introduced into the economy was called PASSHA.This was a Turkish type of cigarette,with a very distinctive Turkish flavor.If you had been smoking say Capstan or Players all of your life and then all you could buy was this one and only type cigarette,life for some,with the war,shortage of descent food.knowing that this could be your last day alive,well it just was not right that if you did have to go, you should be at least smoking a descent cigarette rather than this PASSHA muck.
On the east corner of John Street,there was a shoe store called Marshalls which always displayed a fair amount of shoes and Wellington boots hanging at the door entrance of the store.We youngsters use to run by and see how many we could hit and unloosen from their hook and fall to the ground.We must have had a great affection for this particular store or person that owned it,as we made up a wee song that went like this
I hid a wee monkey I feed it on Marshalls Breed(bread)
Marshall! Marshall! stick it up your as!#%le ma wee monkeys deed(dead)
We must have really loved that guy to have made up such a wonderful wee song,Of course it is easy to see that us Blantyre boys were influenced greatly by the Burns school of thought in our songs and poetry.
All the way from Clark Street to John Street bottom floor on Main Street were all stores within a tenement type building as described on previous tenement type buildings.Through the close and up the stairs to the living quarters.
On the other corner of John Street was the Castle Bar a well known pub and very well frequented place to drink. Unlike today when most pubs are owned by Breweries the pubs in them there days were privately owned,and the owners carried what ever types he knew would sell in his particular area,but it was the same old story after the third round of drinks who cared what type it was.A good drink for a miner if he could afford it was 6 individual drams of whiskey with each dram followed with a pint of beer as a chaser, he would generally make this last from say 6oclock to 10oclock closing time.
Experience talking.Hic!Today, two beers and I am ready for bed.
On the right side of John Street proceeding north were some of the latest council houses, like those in Springwells.When these homes were first put up around the early 1930's.they were lit by gas only in the main living room,there would be two gas mantles above the fireplace,this was all the light you had in your home. This accommodation by the way was a 100% better than the raws that most people came from.The home usually consist of two bedrooms,one larger than the other for the parents,a bathroom, living room,and a scullery. But do remember the families of those days were from 6 to 12 kids in a home,things were pretty crowded then. Behind and in the wall of your fireplace there was a water tank,this was there so that when you had a fire going the heat from the fire through convection and conduction would heat up the water and pass on the heat to a 20-30gal tank usually situated in the scullery,which nine times out of ten was through the wall from the living room .All of the council homes were standardized. The council did all repairs painting etc to the homes.One of the great innovations shortly after the war years was the immersion heater,this was basically a large electric coil that was put into the holding tank in the scullery and instead of waiting for you fire to heat your water supply it was just a matter of throwing a switch and your water was heated in a much shorter period.This was at the time a dramatic occurrence to the then council home owners ,my family being one of them.With the fire in the grate only,no matter how long you tried to heat your water for a bath it never got that warm for a decent bath ,all of that changed with the immersion heater.It was lovely! The parents always tried to encourage their children to use the local baths and swimming pools,both as a place to wash and have a life saving swim, if the occasion ever arose they were ready. The only problem with that scenario was that the children after spending an hour or so in the pool were fit to eat a horse when they got out of the water,This became a big problem for the local carters,as many a horse was disappearing,so they had to cut down the time a child spent in the pool to around half an hour and they only eat half a horse. Margaret! why do you always think I am kidding you? I don’t think I have ever been as hungry as when I was a youngster coming out of a swimming pool,they use to sell us all the old stale cookies and buns and we thought them delicious.The baths and swimming pool that we used was in Hamilton so you had to walk or catch a bus for the 3mile trip there. A lot of people will remember the Bakers just around the corner in Almada Street from the Hamilton Baths,I bet that place made a fortune from all of the kids that eat up all that they had to offer.I saw kids eat a loaf of plain bread,for that was all that was left for eating,where did that hunger come from?
With the continuation of John Street on the right hand side,we had the Blantyre Iron Foundry Works,The next place was the Aitkenhead Slaughter house,used for butchering horse and cattle from the farms in the local area,
On the Left hand side traveling north down John Street,half of the street was taken up by tenement type buildings,again just like the one we have already covered Through the close,and up the back stairs to living quarters, with wash houses and clothes lines at the back of the properties.
The next part of the street was the start of the Blantyre Public Park,this side of the park contained the two football fields,where you could at most times find a football game of sorts going on.Sunday afternoon was special when the teams from other villages in the area came to play the local boys and of course a little gambling went on the results.At the end of John Street there was a fairly large close opening going under the railway lines which led out on to the River Clyde Braes,a good view of the surrounding area of the valley and the Blantyre Village area could be seen from here. Do not misunderstand me when I say Blantyre Village, it's that there was a part of Blantyre called the Village,it was like a village within a village. This was the area that David Livingstone was born and crew up in, I will cover that some other time.
Also running along at the bottom of John Street was a continuation of the short-cut from Bairds Raws-Forrest Street and then on to the Blantyre Railway Station.The name John Street was the second name given to this street,in its first use as a street it was called New Station Road,where the John came from I do not know,but will try to find out.
The page #37 taken from the OLD BLANTYRE book now in the TalkingScot Gallery shows Marshalls on one corner and the Castle Bar on the other Page #34 covers most all of the other streets I have spoken of. The front of the book with the policeman shows Nessies School over his shoulder to the right,this was where your Grandad John Morton worked as a janitor.The name Nessie was the name of a schoolmaster John Nessie who came with his family to Blantyre from Glasgow to run the school when it opened in the late 1800's. Nessies school is now gone and a ASDA Supermarket now stands in is place.
TALE OF A MINER FROM JOHN STREET.My buddy of 60years Sam D,thought you may be interested in hearing true stories about the miners that lived and worked in Blantyre.Sam was employed as a miner for 12years at the Dixons pit in High Blantyre.
This miner who we will call John from John Street was a rather tall man for a miner,he had a permanent stoop which was in extreme and he at all times was bent over,This affliction down the mine did not stop him from being one of the top producing miners in the pit.He could only turn his head to the side to talk to you,and he did like to talk,when it came to kidding and joking he was always capable of giving back more chaff than he received.
Three o'clock when this particular shift finished the miners were all crowding around the area awaiting the cage to arrive to take them up to ground level,when it arrived they all started to pile in,and one of the miners noticed John still sitting on his stool that he normally used while awaiting the arrival of the cage,HEY JOHN!! he shouts out,LET'S GO.no answer from John.The miner approached John to wake him up with a nudge.But alas John in that 10-15 mins of time had while waiting ,had left this world without a murmur.As you can imagine there were a lot of tears flowed and thoughts ran wild,with the thought that could have been me,or some day they may have to take me up out of the mine dead because of an explosion or cave in ,or the roof falling down.The miners lived with these thoughts constantly,it was not that they wanted to be remembered of such happenings but their personal safety demanded that they were at all times aware of what could happen.Of course they had to leave John there until the safety inspector and doctor had done their examinations into cause of death,and that meant that the other miners on their way up also witnessed the tragedy.
There was many a drunk in Blantyre that night.The mining communities in all small villages were a close lot and a lost of a miner was felt by everyone.
A morbid tale but a true one in the death of a miner.
I do hope you enjoy your visit with your Grand children,talk to you when I get back from Blantyre Scotland and the surrounding areas.
I am enclosing photo to the Gallery of Sam and I to cheer you up. I am the one with the nice hair'do reading the 'OLD BLANTYRE' book.
Regards
TDH.
Thank you Andrew!.
Margaret.
When we Travel west from Murrays Raws on the Main Street,the next block was taken up by the Stonefield Church and the Church Manse,they were built in the 1880,s and of course the Street running off from the Main Street was called Church Street.
One of the features of the Church was its steeple,and tower, housing a large bell,which when rung could be heard throughout most of Blantyre.Another feature was the large size masonry stone wall with black iron railings with various gate openings at front and side,the front gates being the most impressive.The church burned down in the early 1970.s
All of these iron railings and all iron railings without exception in the whole of Blantyre, and anything else with iron in it's content was cut down,early 1940's,and used in the war effort.This was very necessary at the time but not a pleasant sight to see after it was done, there was a nakedness throughout the whole village and for many many years after the war ended and even up to the present day most of the iron work has never has been replaced.Most of the Population of Blantyre today has no memory of this event and accepts it as is,but these iron railings throughout Blantyre lent a slight Victorian tinge of privacy to the various buildings and surroundings.If you are walking through Blantyre and are passing a wall take a look and you will most likely see small pieces of iron embedded in the masonry.You can also see a fair amount of the iron railings in the pictures in the 'OLD BLANTYRE' book.
Church Street was a fairly upscale area to live in.Most if not all of the homes were of a large masonry stone just like the church,they were a bungalow type home with all the latest conveniences.A small Street with roughly 6 homes east side and 10 on the west side. Situated three quarters of the way down on the west side there was a small wooded area which ran from Church Street through to the next street west called Logan Street,This small wooded area was called St John's wood,why I do not know?in all my years living there I had maybe heard it called by this name a couple of times at the most ,and yet the name has stuck in my memory.There is a story to be told on this little wooded area which I will cover when we move on to the Logan Street Saga.
Church Street ended into a pasture for cows at it's top end,unlike most of the other streets running south which so far have all finished up in Auchinraith Road.
On the opposite corner from the church stood one of the five red public telephone boxes we had in Blantyre.
1 Church Street
2 Springwells
3 Main Street High Blantyre
4 Station Road Village
5 Stonefield Road.
We had phones in the main post office and another in the sub-post office near Bears Raws,there was also a post office in High Blantyre,which would have a phone and the last one that I can think of was in the Miners Welfare Hall.This I believe was all the public phones in Blantyre and they were never used There may have been more but that’s all that I can remember,The only time I ever saw them used was for an emergency,calling for the doctor or ambulance.
Of course its biggest usage was for the Bookies.Five minutes after every race on the horse racing cards throughout the British Isles,the runner as he was called waited near the phone box for the results to be phoned through,he noted down the results First, Second And Third and the price the horse was returned at, he then ran as fast as he was able to the particular back Street where the bookie kept his board up on display,showing all the racing schedules for that day.All of the miners from Blantyre loved a 'WEE FLUTTER' on the horses, as it was called.
Of course this was illegal,and many a police raid was to be seen, the police knew every Bookie in Blantyre and would regularly pull them in and they would go to court in Hamilton,pay their fine and be out for the first race on the racing cards.
The police could only arrest the Bookies if they caught them with betting slips on their person,so again there was always a look out to watch for the appearance of the police and also another fast runner standing by,his job was to grab all betting slips and run like H$*L so the police did not have any evidence of gambling.All good clean fun,the police were very lenient in their adaptation of the law in Blantyre.But they did have the respect of the miners.We had about 10 Bookies in Blantyre,all had their own little area and the business was handed down from father to son.I can never remember any of them going broke so they must have made some kind of a living out of the poor miners,with their sixpence and shilling bets.
As I write this article on the phones Margaret I can truthfully say that during the 1930-40-up until the early fifties the phone as a way of communicating in Blantyre was not generally used,first of all, none of the working class could afford one and secondly there was a certain fear or a dislike for them. I can recall when I was about sixteen I answered my first phone call and I was very apprehensive in doing so,and that was because my employment at that time required me to do so. I suppose it must have taken me a couple of days of calling and receiving calls before I got over my apprehension.
If we wanted to deliver a message,or get in touch with some one ,we just as a matter of fact,either walked ,rode our bikes or opened the window and shouted it out,somehow the message always got there without the telephone,and life went on.
The old telephone box was a great place to meet people when it rained,you would always find them with two or three people in them and no one using the phone.(We did not have many Gene Kelly's in Blantyre,and those that we did have, where not that good at dancing with an umberella.)
If we start to travel west from the cobblers shop on the corner of Clark Street.Two shops west of him there was one of the three ironmongers stores in Blantyre.This store like most ironmongers stores in the 1930.s sold anything and everything.Again what I can recall most of in this particular store was the smell,it was not unique to this store,but it was unique to the three ironmongers stores,What the smell derived from I do not know,I suppose it must have come from a concoction of all the other volatile smells in the store,all I do know was it was always present when you visited any of the three ironmongers in Blantyre
We had a furniture store, grocery store, Fish and chips,and a few small paper and confectionery stores and the always present cigarette and tobacco stores,in the same block which finished at John Street.
The main Cigarettes smoked at this time were named Capstan, Players,and the inevitable 'Nail In The Coffin' as it was called
THE WOODBINE,the cheapest and the most unhealthiest piece of crap produced as a cigarette for the working class.
Even then everyone including myself knew that they were killers,but once hooked in the ignorance of youth,I think it was even harder to break away from than it is today.I started as a 12year old in school and after about 100tries of quitting I managed to break the habit when I was 29years old.
During the war years it was very hard to find cigarettes for sale,Tobacco was not considered a very important commodity for the war effort, space on ships were more confined to goods that would feed the populace at large and munitions etc were the most important.This shortage of all goods of course created a black market for nearly everything that was in short supply,But if you had the money it was available at a price.
One of the tobaccos that the government introduced into the economy was called PASSHA.This was a Turkish type of cigarette,with a very distinctive Turkish flavor.If you had been smoking say Capstan or Players all of your life and then all you could buy was this one and only type cigarette,life for some,with the war,shortage of descent food.knowing that this could be your last day alive,well it just was not right that if you did have to go, you should be at least smoking a descent cigarette rather than this PASSHA muck.
On the east corner of John Street,there was a shoe store called Marshalls which always displayed a fair amount of shoes and Wellington boots hanging at the door entrance of the store.We youngsters use to run by and see how many we could hit and unloosen from their hook and fall to the ground.We must have had a great affection for this particular store or person that owned it,as we made up a wee song that went like this
I hid a wee monkey I feed it on Marshalls Breed(bread)
Marshall! Marshall! stick it up your as!#%le ma wee monkeys deed(dead)
We must have really loved that guy to have made up such a wonderful wee song,Of course it is easy to see that us Blantyre boys were influenced greatly by the Burns school of thought in our songs and poetry.
All the way from Clark Street to John Street bottom floor on Main Street were all stores within a tenement type building as described on previous tenement type buildings.Through the close and up the stairs to the living quarters.
On the other corner of John Street was the Castle Bar a well known pub and very well frequented place to drink. Unlike today when most pubs are owned by Breweries the pubs in them there days were privately owned,and the owners carried what ever types he knew would sell in his particular area,but it was the same old story after the third round of drinks who cared what type it was.A good drink for a miner if he could afford it was 6 individual drams of whiskey with each dram followed with a pint of beer as a chaser, he would generally make this last from say 6oclock to 10oclock closing time.
Experience talking.Hic!Today, two beers and I am ready for bed.
On the right side of John Street proceeding north were some of the latest council houses, like those in Springwells.When these homes were first put up around the early 1930's.they were lit by gas only in the main living room,there would be two gas mantles above the fireplace,this was all the light you had in your home. This accommodation by the way was a 100% better than the raws that most people came from.The home usually consist of two bedrooms,one larger than the other for the parents,a bathroom, living room,and a scullery. But do remember the families of those days were from 6 to 12 kids in a home,things were pretty crowded then. Behind and in the wall of your fireplace there was a water tank,this was there so that when you had a fire going the heat from the fire through convection and conduction would heat up the water and pass on the heat to a 20-30gal tank usually situated in the scullery,which nine times out of ten was through the wall from the living room .All of the council homes were standardized. The council did all repairs painting etc to the homes.One of the great innovations shortly after the war years was the immersion heater,this was basically a large electric coil that was put into the holding tank in the scullery and instead of waiting for you fire to heat your water supply it was just a matter of throwing a switch and your water was heated in a much shorter period.This was at the time a dramatic occurrence to the then council home owners ,my family being one of them.With the fire in the grate only,no matter how long you tried to heat your water for a bath it never got that warm for a decent bath ,all of that changed with the immersion heater.It was lovely! The parents always tried to encourage their children to use the local baths and swimming pools,both as a place to wash and have a life saving swim, if the occasion ever arose they were ready. The only problem with that scenario was that the children after spending an hour or so in the pool were fit to eat a horse when they got out of the water,This became a big problem for the local carters,as many a horse was disappearing,so they had to cut down the time a child spent in the pool to around half an hour and they only eat half a horse. Margaret! why do you always think I am kidding you? I don’t think I have ever been as hungry as when I was a youngster coming out of a swimming pool,they use to sell us all the old stale cookies and buns and we thought them delicious.The baths and swimming pool that we used was in Hamilton so you had to walk or catch a bus for the 3mile trip there. A lot of people will remember the Bakers just around the corner in Almada Street from the Hamilton Baths,I bet that place made a fortune from all of the kids that eat up all that they had to offer.I saw kids eat a loaf of plain bread,for that was all that was left for eating,where did that hunger come from?
With the continuation of John Street on the right hand side,we had the Blantyre Iron Foundry Works,The next place was the Aitkenhead Slaughter house,used for butchering horse and cattle from the farms in the local area,
On the Left hand side traveling north down John Street,half of the street was taken up by tenement type buildings,again just like the one we have already covered Through the close,and up the back stairs to living quarters, with wash houses and clothes lines at the back of the properties.
The next part of the street was the start of the Blantyre Public Park,this side of the park contained the two football fields,where you could at most times find a football game of sorts going on.Sunday afternoon was special when the teams from other villages in the area came to play the local boys and of course a little gambling went on the results.At the end of John Street there was a fairly large close opening going under the railway lines which led out on to the River Clyde Braes,a good view of the surrounding area of the valley and the Blantyre Village area could be seen from here. Do not misunderstand me when I say Blantyre Village, it's that there was a part of Blantyre called the Village,it was like a village within a village. This was the area that David Livingstone was born and crew up in, I will cover that some other time.
Also running along at the bottom of John Street was a continuation of the short-cut from Bairds Raws-Forrest Street and then on to the Blantyre Railway Station.The name John Street was the second name given to this street,in its first use as a street it was called New Station Road,where the John came from I do not know,but will try to find out.
The page #37 taken from the OLD BLANTYRE book now in the TalkingScot Gallery shows Marshalls on one corner and the Castle Bar on the other Page #34 covers most all of the other streets I have spoken of. The front of the book with the policeman shows Nessies School over his shoulder to the right,this was where your Grandad John Morton worked as a janitor.The name Nessie was the name of a schoolmaster John Nessie who came with his family to Blantyre from Glasgow to run the school when it opened in the late 1800's. Nessies school is now gone and a ASDA Supermarket now stands in is place.
TALE OF A MINER FROM JOHN STREET.My buddy of 60years Sam D,thought you may be interested in hearing true stories about the miners that lived and worked in Blantyre.Sam was employed as a miner for 12years at the Dixons pit in High Blantyre.
This miner who we will call John from John Street was a rather tall man for a miner,he had a permanent stoop which was in extreme and he at all times was bent over,This affliction down the mine did not stop him from being one of the top producing miners in the pit.He could only turn his head to the side to talk to you,and he did like to talk,when it came to kidding and joking he was always capable of giving back more chaff than he received.
Three o'clock when this particular shift finished the miners were all crowding around the area awaiting the cage to arrive to take them up to ground level,when it arrived they all started to pile in,and one of the miners noticed John still sitting on his stool that he normally used while awaiting the arrival of the cage,HEY JOHN!! he shouts out,LET'S GO.no answer from John.The miner approached John to wake him up with a nudge.But alas John in that 10-15 mins of time had while waiting ,had left this world without a murmur.As you can imagine there were a lot of tears flowed and thoughts ran wild,with the thought that could have been me,or some day they may have to take me up out of the mine dead because of an explosion or cave in ,or the roof falling down.The miners lived with these thoughts constantly,it was not that they wanted to be remembered of such happenings but their personal safety demanded that they were at all times aware of what could happen.Of course they had to leave John there until the safety inspector and doctor had done their examinations into cause of death,and that meant that the other miners on their way up also witnessed the tragedy.
There was many a drunk in Blantyre that night.The mining communities in all small villages were a close lot and a lost of a miner was felt by everyone.
A morbid tale but a true one in the death of a miner.
I do hope you enjoy your visit with your Grand children,talk to you when I get back from Blantyre Scotland and the surrounding areas.
I am enclosing photo to the Gallery of Sam and I to cheer you up. I am the one with the nice hair'do reading the 'OLD BLANTYRE' book.
Regards
TDH.
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AndrewP
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6189
- Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:36 am
- Location: Edinburgh
Revised (better quality) copies of the above pictures submitted by drapadew to the TallkingScot Gallery are now at:AndrewP wrote:Normally we could not allow images from a book to be reproduced on TalkingScot, but we have the kind permission from Stenlake Publishing for these pictures from "Old Blantyre" submitted by drapadew.
Page 34 - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-419
Page 37 - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-420
Front cover - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-423
All the best,
Andrew Paterson
Front cover - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-464
Page 34 - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-463
Page 37 - http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-465
The earlier copies will be deleted from the Gallery.
All the best,
Andrew Paterson
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katyt
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:00 pm
- Location: Essex, UK
priory avenue
sorry for slow reply, pc on the blink!
wanted to say thanks to mctaz for the info on priory avenue, i have passed it on to parents who are very pleased, so thanks again, kt:)
wanted to say thanks to mctaz for the info on priory avenue, i have passed it on to parents who are very pleased, so thanks again, kt:)
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drapadew
- Posts: 92
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:54 am
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mctaz
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:47 pm
- Location: Tazmania
Most of the photos from "Auld Blantyre" can be seen at: http://www.blantyre.biz/AuldBlantyre.htm where the publishers have granted permission for reproducing them online. The website also has a wealth of other information on the town.
Another website that may be of interest is at: www.blantyrepast.com which has a focus on Blantyre's mining heritage.
Regards
Jim
Another website that may be of interest is at: www.blantyrepast.com which has a focus on Blantyre's mining heritage.
Regards
Jim
Scotland: Rouse, Innes, Fotheringham, Imrie, McCready
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Ulster: Rouse, McGavigan, Gillespie, Mullen, McGovern
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Ulster: Rouse, McGavigan, Gillespie, Mullen, McGovern
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Margaret
- Posts: 162
- Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 7:11 am
- Location: Gold Coast Queensland
Old blantyre
Hello Mctaz
Many thanks for the pages on Blantyre, they are a good read
. I hope to that you have enjoyed Drapadews stories about his boyhood days in Blantyre, I am looking forward to recieving my copy of the book so that I can go page to page and see where my families lived and played. You certianly live in a place with lots of history here in Aussie, visited there last year could have stayed longer.
Many thanks for the pages on Blantyre, they are a good read
. I hope to that you have enjoyed Drapadews stories about his boyhood days in Blantyre, I am looking forward to recieving my copy of the book so that I can go page to page and see where my families lived and played. You certianly live in a place with lots of history here in Aussie, visited there last year could have stayed longer.Cheers
Margaret
researching:: Morton, Miller, Finlay, McDonald, Bullock, Forrester. Glasgow and Kilmarnock areas
Margaret
researching:: Morton, Miller, Finlay, McDonald, Bullock, Forrester. Glasgow and Kilmarnock areas