Pictorial History of Auld Blantyre

Low Blantyre

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Station Road connected Blantyre Mills to the main Glasgow - Hamilton Road, and the first houses built on it developed out from the main thoroughfare. This picture was taken around 1910, looking towards the Livingstone Memorial. The space on the left has been filled in with another house and the whole of the right hand side has been rebuilt with modern dwellings.

Station Road 1910

The Pilgrimage

The postcard was addressed to Mrs Muskett, 298 Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London.. Dated: Sept 26 1905

The Message reads: We are having time of it will write tomorrow we are now waiting to see him with love Annie'

Station Road

Remember when the streets were this quiet?

Can anyone identify the girls, maybe it's you!

If so, maybe you can date the picture. Circa 1950 - 52
See Update

Blantyre Station 1900

In 1849 the Caledonian Railway opened its Rutherglen - Hamilton route which included a stop at Blantyre. Although originally intended as a goods line for Lanarkshire's coal and iron output, passengers soon became an important source of revenue, and Low Blantyre Station was rebuilt in... (more)

Steam Train coming from Glasgow via Newton.

Pey Brig

Footpath Bridge from Livingstone's to Bothwell.

My Dad told the story of one foggy winter's night, when he was crossing the Bridge, coming towards him was a very tall man in a Top Hat and Cape carrying a Cane. As they met in the middle of the Bridge, the Tall Man said, "It's a fine night for a Murder!". My Dad reckond he broke the four minute mile on the way home. More

Station Road, The Village, Blantyre

Workers Village Gates

Workers Village Gates

Latterly, the family living on the left side were the Semple's and on the right hand side lived the Strang's

Blantyre Mills were established by David Dale and James Monteith in the 1780's for the spinning of water twist yarn. the mills expanded steadily throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, with the introduction of Turkey Red dyeing in 1804 (the second such factory in Scotland), and a weaving factory in 1813. (more)

Blantyre Mills
established in the 1780's

Blantyre Mills 1903

The bell tower on the roof of the building was probably used for summoning workers at the ungodly hour of 6.00 a.m. Staff were employed to work 77 hours a week with breaks amounting to less than two hours per day, and although this regime sounds gruelling, (more)

A workers village was built around the mills c. 1830, and by 1836 its population was approaching 2000. Facilities for the self-sufficient mill community included a public washing house, bleaching green, graveyard and school. (more)

Workers Village c.1830

Mill Village Post Office

This c.1903 picture shows the edge of the mill village, now the approach to David Livingstones Memorial. The village gates stood on this road near the bridge, and were closed every night after a 10.00 p.m. curfew. the round building on the right is marked as the site of the post office in maps of 1899, (more)

Blantyre Mill School was built in the late 1820's on a site to the north of the village, and also functioned as a chapel when required. Its most famous pupil was the Victorian missionary David Livingstone, born in 1813. Livingstone started work at the age of ten, (more)

Blantyre Mill School

Shuttle Row

Shuttle Row, built around 1780, was home to twenty-four families, including David Livingstone's. Conditions were basic, and its turret walls were inset with cast iron 'jaw-boxes' where sewerage was deposited, which must have made the approach to the house particularly unpleasant. (more)

Conditions were basic, and its turret walls were inset with cast iron 'jaw-boxes' where sewerage was deposited, which must have made the approach to the house particularly unpleasant.

Shuttle Row Before it was Restored

Shuttle Row and Mill from across the Clyde

It is said that David Livingstone, after walking home from his studies at Glasgow University, so late at night, he had to sleep on the step because he could not raise his family.

Livingstone's Birth Place from Bothwell Woods and the Mills where Livingstone worked.

See Also: Blantyre Mills 1780

.............. Blantyre Mills 1903

Livies from Bothwell Woods

The Lido

Doon the water fur a swim. This was considered a good day out during the summer holidays.

The Clyde and the Cauther (River Calder) were great attractions for a fun day for all the kids in Blantyre.

Many learned to swim in these rivers, long before they ever experienced a swimming pool.

More

Livingstone's entire family once lived in this tiny room, photographed in the 1920's. The old village grounds were purchased in 1927 to create the David Livingstone Memorial, and two years were spent working on the Shuttle Row tenement before the museum opened. Generations of curators must... (more)

Livingstone's Birth Room

Model of Hut where Livingstone died.

Livingstone sailed for Algoa Bay, South Africa, in December 1840. His first stop was a mission station in Kruman in what is now Botswana, and it was there that he met Mary Moffat whom he married in 1845. After Mary died in 1862, Livingstone was commissioned... (more)

Livingstone meets local Tribes...

Livingstone Ponders the Slavery problem...

Livingstone becomes sick and is unable to walk...

Livingstone found dead by his servants in a pose of Prayer...

Livingstone Museum Sangwali - Built and maintained by an African, Linus. This museum is the Worlds only museum that was built and maintained by an African in honour of a European explorer and missionary. More

Livingstone and Lion Bronze Statue at Livingstones Memorial Museum. More

Livingstone's Park, 1933. Over the decades, the David Livingstone Memorial has become a standard venue for children's outings, although locals comment that no one from Blantyre ever visits it! I remember a member of my family (name kept secret by the will to live) went on a mystery tour in Hamilton... and where was the mystery destination? David Livingstone's Memorial!... needless to say... they walked home.

Childrens Playground 1933

The Old Mill

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in April 2001 in advance of proposed relandscaping around the site of Blantyre Lodge, the old mill manager's house, within the grounds of the David Livingstone Centre. Trench 1 examined the southern side of the former turning circle in front of the former house and revealed layers of gravel over a sandstone foundation. More

Blantyre Mills from Bothwell c1870

Meeting of the Rotten Calder and River Clyde... Haughhead Pit in the distance.

'Twas in that year of 1866 that John Scott a well known Fruit Grower from Carluke, leased Boathouse Farm. The holding is beautifully situated upon the south bank of the Clyde, some 200 yards upstream of Haughhead Bridge (The Rid Brig) in Blantyre.

Boat House Blantyre.

The Priory - Blantyre

The Priory, dating from the thirteenth century or earlier, was situated at the banks of the Clyde opposite Bothwell Castle. One victorian commentator said of the scene:

The Crucifiction

The Via dela Rosa

The Stone Man

Bothwell Castle across the Clyde

Hydro Power Station - River Clyde

High Blantyre 1 - 2

Glasgow Road 1 - 2

Low Blantyre

Blantyreferme

Blantyre Folk 1 - 2

Everything Else