Pictorial History of Auld Blantyre

High Blantyre

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High Blantyre looking towards Auchinraith Road, 1903.

The first settlement in Blantyre would have been in the north of the parish, near to the Priory on the banks of the Clyde.

Niaroo - Entrance to a Caravan Park off Pathfoot

Pech Brae - c1915

Pech Brae led down to Milheugh House (the Cawther, the river Calder) and appears as Pathfoot on maps of 1899. This steep runway (it gets much steeper as you round the bend) was renamed by locals on account of the vast amount of "pech" needed to get up it. More

Pech Brae - c1915

General's Bridge

General's Bridge was named after General Peter of Crossbasket House (below). This scene has changed little today, except that there is now less vegetation which has opened up the view at the back. More

Crossbasket House, photographed c. 1908. By the 1950's the old mansion house was being let out as flats and was later taken over as a private hospital. Today it is the property of an American religious group, and the sign ouside reads 'Christian Centre of the Latter Rain Ministeries'. The approach to... (more)

Crossbasket House 1908

Stonymeadow/ Calderwood Castle

I have just been looking at your website with photos of Old Blantyre. I have sent you two attachments of a farm house known as Stonymeadow. We believe it is in the Blantyre area some time before 1870. One of the photos is captioned "Stonymeadow/ Calderwood Castle " You are welcome to use these if they are of the relevant area of Blantyre. If you know if this building still exists I would love to hear from you. My family the Boyd's lived here for seven years before emigrating to NZ. Thank you, Guthrie J Boyd Phoenix AZ USA

My family the Boyd's lived here for seven years before emigrating to NZ.

Thank you
Guthrie J Boyd
Phoenix AZ
USA

Old Boyd Farm
Stoney Meadows

Hi,
I was wondering if you had any information about this home. My granny lived there until 1921 when she came to Canada. One pic is original and one is from when I took a trip in 2005 so I know it is still standing. It was and still is called Stoneymeadow, her family ran the little store but other than that I do not know too much. Her family last name was Jamieson. If anyone knows any history it would be greatly appreciated.
Darlene Davis

Milheugh House was in the posession of the Millar family from the fourteenth century onwards. There were originally mills on the land which were a profitable source of income for the family. One time resident Andrew Millar (1735 - 1801) was Professor of Law at Glasgow University for forty years and the first... more

Milheugh House
River Calder

Barnhill 1910

Barnhill was a fermtoun situated at the bend between Bardykes and Hunthill Road. All the buildings in this picture (c.1910) except for thos on the right, have been demolished and replaced by a parking area for the Clyde Valley Community Forest project. more

Taken a few years earlier than the one above, this picture, looking from Bardykes Road, gives a better view of the Barnhill-Tavern; still standing and still quaint, known locally as 'The Hoolet's Nest'. Fifty years ago the proprietor was Nelly Moya, eventually succeeded by Peter... (more)

Barnhill-Tavern
The Hoolet's Nest

The Oldest House in
Blantyre

Brownlee Cottage in Bardykes Road in 1933, one of the oldest inhabited houses in Scotland. It was built in 1536, and has been in the same family since that date.
(Adjacent to the Hoolets Nest Pub)

The old cottage hospital stands at no. 63 Bardykes Road, just along from Barnhill. Blantyre had a fever hospital from around 1860, but at the turn of the century local doctors started to appeal for additional resources, and in February 1906 a public meeting was held... (more)

Blantyre Cottage Hospital

Greenhall House
Bardykes Estate

In the mid-nineteenth century Blantyre had 37 heritors, each of whom paid feu-duty to Lord Blantyre for their lands. Usually this took the form of cash, but not in the case of the Bardykes Estate, in the possession of the Jackson family from 1525. The Jacksons held on to the lands on the rather bizarre condition... (more)

In 1860 a flying machine was built at the Smiddy in Broompark Road, 43 years before the first manned flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903. (More)

The Smiddy

High Blantyre

High Blantyre, looking towards the Cross from the old railway bridge coming from Stoney Meadow. The wall the wee boy is sitting on carries on to become part of the bridge. The road to the right we callled "The Brickie", the church was almost right in front of you when you turned to the right, the road lead  to the railway station and the brickworks. More

The Hamilton and Strathavon Railway opened High Blantyre Station in 1863, although it was taken over by the Caledonian Railway the following year. They ran a service for various industries in the area including Quarter Ironworks, Dixon's Pits and the Blantyre... (more)

High Blantyre Station
1910

High Blantyre Station

More

The tiny hamlet of Auchentibber, a couple of miles south of High Blantyre, was once a thriving community of around sixty dwellings whose inhabitants worked in the nearby stone quaries. Its wonderful and wacky Italian Gardens were built in a mutually beneficial partnership between J.B. Struthers, the Auchentibber (more)

The Gardens,
Auchentibber,
High Blantyre

Auchentibber's Quoiting
Club

Auchentibber's Quoiting Club was almost as famous as its surrounding gardens, and the village won the Scottish Cup in 1928, twenty years after this picture was taken. Today, Auchentibber has shrunk to a handful of houses contained in one tiny street. (more)

Auchentibber Store c1890

Today, Auchentibber has shrunk to a handful of houses contained in one tiny street. It still has the substantial war memorial (with pillars from Hamilton Palace), and this marks the start of where the garden walkways would have been. More

Bob Souter, Landlord of the Auchintibber Inn and some locals.

Bob Souter and son.

Bob Souter and Friends

High Blantyre School

High Blantyre Primary School

High Blantyre Primary School

High Blantyre School

High Blantyre 1 - 2

Glasgow Road 1 - 2

Low Blantyre

Blantyreferme

Blantyre Folk 1 - 2

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