streets in blantyre.....

[drapadew]

Margaret.
If you looked directly across the Glasgow Road(Main Street) from Patersons the painters, there would be Craig Street,I have been unable so far to come up with any old photo of Craig Street,but I hope some day I will and if I do, I will most certainly add it to the Gallery.
Maybe someone else has one and would like to add it to the Blantyre collection.Did you see the two great photos that someone entered into the gallery of the Murrays Raws and Dixon Raws Houses,these are the type of photos we would love to have for a reference to in the future.
Craig Street as we once knew it has been cut in half by the new shopping center,Main store on the sight being "Asda supermarket".It took up the first half of Logan Street,Craig Street And Victoria Street one huge store and parking lot.
I am enclosing four photos of the present look, for comparison to what it was in the 1930's

#1 would be the corner of Church Street P37.The one with the girl standing close to the telephone box and the street sign of Church Street.
File4/628
#2 Would be the corner of Logan Street P39.The two boys and a man with the Priory Bars wines sign on the other side of the street
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#3 Would be at the bus stop,where you could only get off but not on ,right across from the "DOOKIT' this is the main entrance into the shopping center.
File3/628
#4 Would be the corner of Victoria Street,where the the policeman stands with the building of Nessies School over his shoulder.Front cover page of the book "OLD BLANTYRE" by Ronda Wilson.
File7/628
These new photo positions are in no way precise,but they are at the least only feet away from the old positions shown on the "OLD BLANTYRE" book.Made these comparisons on my last trip to Blantyre 2006.

Where the Central Buildings ends on the Glasgow Road there was an open piece of land before you hit the corner of Craig Street.Why this was never built on in my lifetime in Blantyre, I do not know, as it had a very prominent position on the Main Street.
On the other corner of Craig Street stood Harpers Garage,this was the main garage in Blantyre for Repairs and the fueling of any cars that came through the village and was the main garage for the hire of limousines for weddings,funerals etc..If you look at Page 40,the one with the new Post Office on the corner of Logan Street follow the Central Buildings along and you will see a couple of B.P. petrol signs,this would be the forecourt of the garage.That piece of sunlight you see at the end of the Central Buildings is being cast over the open piece of land I just spoke about.This piece of land ran for about 100yds on the left hand side of the Craig Street traveling South and was also a short cut for us Logan Street kids to cut across for our trip to school and to make our way west through Blantyre.
There were about six private bungalows after the open space,then a sawmill and Joiners yard. Then about another 100yds of 2 storey Tenement type buildings,with the stairs and toilets attached to the back side of the building.We are now about half way up the left hand side of Craig Street.

If we go back down to the start of Craig street on the right hand side going South. The Harpers Garage and the works yard took up about 100yds and where it finished it was on the same line as the Bungalows on the other left hand side of the road and here we had the start of about six Bungalows on this right hand side of the street,a bit of uniformity.But unlike the other side of the street where we had a line of 2storey tenements.On this side of the road we had a long line of attached single homes with a confectionery store at each end of this block,both of which did very well with the three schools in near proximity.Calder Street School(senior)---Nessies School(junior) and Auchinraith School.At the end of the Bungalows on this right hand side of Craig Street was an opening which a lot of the kids used as a shortcut over to Nessies School and for anyone traveling west.This entrance opened up on to a field or waste ground,where all the kids in the neighborhood met to play,it also led over to the Honeymoon in Victoria street where I was born,so as you can imagine I knew this area fairly well,even after we left this area I went back often to play with my wee pals.I have a couple of photos of us kids from that area which I will post soon in the Gallery when I can come across them.
At the other end of this block was an other piece of waste ground on the corner of Calder Street.This street with the exception of some new buildings etc remains the same today as back in the 1930s.I will cover Calder Street some time in the future.
On the other corner of Calder Street stood and still stands the Blantyre Miners Welfare Hall,here too was a place that we as children spent a lot of our time.
The property of the welfare ran up Craig Street where it met up with a couple of more Bungalows here on the right hand side of the road.The entrance to a council house scheme started here. Margaret this street entrance was called Hardie Street,where your dad and his family lived,it also consisted of 57 Small Crescent where your cousin Alex and his family lived.There are another two streets which are a part of this council project and they are, a part of Victoria Street which ran up through the middle of the scheme and Morris Crescent.All of these homes are still standing and occupied.
On the other left hand side of Craig Street after the 2storey type tenement there were around 10 more Bungalows, they ran all the way up the street where they met up with the Auchinraith School on Auchinraith Road. Craig Street ended at Auchinraith Road as did many of the Streets we have previously covered.The school ran up Auchinraith road for Approx 100yds ,then there was a small cut off with about 4 Bungalows,this street or cut off was called Anford Place after which came the top end of Logan Street.

Auchinraith Road made a sharp left hand turn and went under the Railway Bridge for half a mile to meet up with the High Blantyre Main Street(An other story)The Auchinraith junction railway line is now running past Craig street,Logan Street, Elm Street(Murreys Raws) Herbertson Street and then going over a bridge at the Glasgow Road (Main Street) past the Greyhound Track and Bairds Raws to meet up with the lines running to Glasgow- West and Hamilton- East.This is all part of the new Motorway,running from the M74 AT Uddingston to A725 East Kilbride.

We go back down Craig Street to Harpers Garage on to the Glasgow Road (Main Street)Right after the garage was a 2 type tenement building with stairs and toilets attached at the back of the building.Down below we had a couple of stores of significance.One being the local pawn shop and the other was the offices of one of our two doctors in Blantyre, Dr Gordon.
We also had living upstairs in one of the homes a very prominent boxer who had fought Benny Lynch the world flyweight champion,his name was Boy Macintosh.I don't think he did much fighting after he met Benny,I can remember him going through the Blantyre Streets punching air and my Dad told me he had taken one H*&L of a beating.We had to pass this building when we were going to school and my young brother was attacked by a dog that came out from the back of this building. The dog saw us running, because we were late for school and for some reason took a bite at my brother's rear-end,lucky he was running at the time so the dog could not sink his teeth in,but he did draw blood with the scrapes from his teeth.
After this 2 storey block came Nessies School.See cover page of the book "OLD BLANTYRE".If you look over the right shoulder of the policeman and directly above his head ,that building you see would be a part of Nessies School,The other building jotting out would be the Dr Gordon and Pawn shop building.

This whole of the Glasgow Road(Main Street) and the whole area going North and South for about 100yds approx and all that is running West from the start of Blantyre just past Springwells and up to Victoria street has been torn down and revamped.Everything I have shown you in the six Photos of "OLD BLANTYRE" that I have posted has all gone.MY! MY! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO BLANTYRE.
Sure they built in a nice big Supermarket and a few other stores,and a very nice Blantyre Leisure Center(where the MAGICAL!! DOOKIT stood) that was badly needed, but to me in doing so they took away all that which to my generation plus was the center of Blantyre.Margaret I feel that I would like to say a lot more on this subject but wisdom obtained in old age tells me to leave it alone.What I have learned about politics is that if you want to be political and good at it then you have to spend your whole life doing it,or those that have will bury you.We the public mostly just dabble in politics and the planning commissions have all the answers to suit the questions that may be asked,and why shouldn't they. Its a life's work to them.To us it is just a stop off at the polling both every so often and the next day everything is forgotten.
I will now put away my soap box, and get back on to OLD BLANTYRE STREETS.

If we go back to Petersons paint shop on the right hand side of the Glasgow Road (Main Street) on the opposite corner stood the Cosy Corner bar.
(I have to make a correction here!! in my last ramblings I said that the bar on the corner of John Street was called the Cosy Corner it was NOT!! it was NOT!!.It was called the Castle Bar.CORRECTION APPLIED.)
This whole block of homes and stores can be seen on the cover page with the policeman ,left hand side looking at photo with Nessies School and the block further on which held the pawn shop over his left shoulder,this in turn would be next to Harpers Garage on the corner of Craig Street.Two pasted billboards on the wall with a Camp Coffee advert above,this was Craig Street.Going back across the road after the Cosy Corner bar was one of the other three Italian family ice cream stores in Blantyre owned by Peter Valerio.Peter's special was a double chocolate side covered wafer with his special flavored ice cream (each of the brothers had their own type of flavour)he also did a great snowball ice cream YUM!! YUM!!.I sure did like that one.There were a couple of more shops after him and then we came to another pub called the Central Bar this would be right in the center of this block,right about where you see all the kids standing on the cover photo of the policeman left hand side.We had a lot of bars in Blantyre!.(This would be the Central point of the Main Street in Blantyre.)
You can see where one block ended and another one started in this photo.The three storey block was a private one owned by the Stewart Family.Old Mrs Stewart as we called her owned this block and had her Apothecary Store down stairs right where you can see the old truck and the shade pulled down.Now!! to us here was a place of awe and mystery,one walked into her store and the smells were out of this world and alien to anything else you had ever encountered.She had those large magnificent shaped jars with a lid on each,which I have never seen anywhere else in my travels,each and everyone holding a specific herb or Chemical,and every one neatly labeled.One always approached this store with a certain amount of reverence,it was as if you were afraid that she may have the power to cast a spell on your being. I know that we did some time refer to the lady as being a witch. I think this was just our childish thoughts or a way to try and scare each other.
One of the the items I remember buying at this store was, and I am sure nearly every other boy in Blantyre remembers this too, his purchase of Cinnamon Stick.
We bought this as it was available to us and not being habitual, lit it and smoked it at the age of 9years,It did not give us a high or any felling of euphoria, you could just smoke it like your elders did with their cigarettes and feel like some big guy.Another favorite item from the store was the Liqurice Root.A real good chew.This is one of the basic flavouring products used in the manufacture of the Liqurice Candy.She also sold another specialalty and at the time a recognized cure for all that ails you, Sidlitz powder?.This was wrapped up by Mrs Stewart in a white parchment paper as were all purchases made at her store.In Blantyre if you had a Headache,Hangover, Stomach Pain, Toothache, Backache, you name it,the cure all was the Sidlitz powder I suppose over the years she must have sold more of these powders than anything else in her store.If I can recall correctly she always wore long black clothes,maybe that is why we hung the witch moniker on her,and she was considered one of the rich elite of Blantyre. There were a couple of other stores in her building the names I have forgotten.If you look carefully at the photo depicting her building,that is the cover page with the policeman,left hand side with the two trucks outside and the awning seemingly overlapping the trucks.This 3 storey building is quite different from the regular run of the mill tenement type building we associate with the Blantyre Main Street(GlasgowRoad).I would think that she had this building built to her own specifications,(or someone else?)I think this had to be the only unattached building having high gables and bay windows in all of Blantyre as you can see from the photo it stood out among the rest.Mrs Stewart was one of the old type of chemist and her dispensing of the old type of remedies was greatly appreciated by the senior community of Blantyre.I do believe that Mrs Stewart would have been a Doctor of Apothcary in her own right.
Next door was the home and printing works of Clifford the printers,who published the weekly Blantyre Gazette,anything and everything that happened in Blantyre was published here, whether it was good or bad material. The Blantyre Gazette is archived at the premises of the Hamilton Advertiser.I do hope that some day they will put it on a DVD for the future Blantyre historians.
Next door to the publishers was Patersons the painters work yard.Not to be seen on any photo!.

AH! Nessies School Margaret, where your Grandad John Morton was the school janitor. He must have loved his job spending a lot of years there and how lucky he was to see all of those thousands of junior (5-10years)faces over the years.I am sure he has to be remembered on many occasions when these now Grandads and Grandmothers think back to their schooldays,just like I do.
As I mentioned in one of my previous write up's,the name Nessies was taken from the first headmaster to run the school John Ness.John and his wife Mary came from Glasgow to Blantyre to run the school and they raised a family there. Johns family is available on the 1881 census for any one who is interested in this name and family.
Got a lot of arranging to do for my next trip Margaret,(One month)should end up in Scotland around the 3rd March for a couple of days.
I will also be back over to London in July 6-7th for the start of the 'TOUR DE FRANCE' so if you and Russ are anywhere near I will take you up on that offer of a good pint of beer. CHEERS!!
TDH

1881 British Census
Dwelling: Hamilton & Glasgow Rd School Masters House Census Place: Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Source: FHL Film 0203615 GRO Ref Volume 624 EnumDist 6 Page 28


Marr Age Sex Birthplace
John NESS M 47 M Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Head
Occ: Head Master Public Sch
Mary NESS M 45 F Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Wife
James F. NESS U 19 M Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Son
Occ: Student In Arts
Andrew R. NESS 16 M Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Son
Occ: Pupil Teacher
John R. NESS 13 M Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Son
Occ: Scholar
Alexander O. S. NESS 11 M Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Son
Occ: Scholar
William A. NESS 9 M Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Son
Occ: Scholar
Archibald Me. NESS 9 M Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Son
Mary MC CORGERY U 21 F Blantyre, Lanark, Scotland
Rei: Servant
Occ: General Serv (Dom)

[Margaret]

Hello there TDH
Just printed out your latest memories and will sit down with a cool drink (43cls here today) and enjoy my latest trip through the streets of Blantyre. I will send you a PM with the dates that we will be in London (great to know we can shout you a pint) or nearby it will be late August and early Sept. I actually have to now visit Essex, as my Uncle owned the first 3 clylinder Rolls Royce and he bequeathed it to the Scottish Auto Club (which is now not in operation) the car is somewhere in Essex and they are going to give me a letter of introduction so that I can go and see it for old times sake. Just a little bit of trivia for you..

[drapadew]

Andrew!
Permission to post two photo's of the Honeymoon Kid's Blantyre 1928-1932
TDH

[AndrewP]

Permission to post two photo's of the Honeymoon Kid's Blantyre 1928-1932

If you own the copyright, or have the permission of the copyright holder.

All the best,

AndrewP

[drapadew]

Andrew!
Having a problem uploading the two photo,s.
Error---reading

Disk quato exceeded
TDH

[AndrewP]

You must be near the limit of the Gallery space that is allotted to your UserName. Upload them to the Pictures of Places etc. part of the Gallery and the links will be placed in your post, after the approval that goes with that part of the Gallery. That part of the Gallery is not subject to the same quota limits.

All the best,

AndrewP

[drapadew]

Andrew
Still have the same problem.
Tried uploading to all parts of the photo gallery ,with the exception of Certificate Deciphering.
Error reads
"You have a space quota of 1024K your files currently use OK,
Adding this file would make you exceed your quota"
TDH

[drapadew]

Andrew.
Have you any other suggestions on how I may upload the two forementioned photo,s to the gallery
TDH

[drapadew]

Thank You Andrew!
Margaret.
Well its getting pretty close to my trip.so this will be the last bit of correspondence until the end of March 2007.
Calder Street runs from East to West.It starts halfway up Craig Street which is running North to South and ends at Stonefield Road which is also running North to South,it also bisects Victoria Street ,and Priory Street.
On the corner with Craig Street and the left hand side of Calder Street, traveling West, stands the Blantyre Miners Welfare Hall.This hall played a big part in the life's of all who lived in Blantyre.It had all types of social activity going on from Bowling, Boxing, Gymnastics, Billiards, and Dancing, it opened early and closed late for the miners.I suppose you could say that it was the main meeting place in all of Blantyre.There was always something taking part at all times of the day.One of the main attractions for the boys and men was the Billiard,and Snooker room.I did, and a lot of other miners sons,spent a lot of hours in there learning to play snooker.
Friday was the big day of the week after the miners were paid.Anyone who fancied himself as a good player was in there looking for a game to win some money and at times a lot of money changed hands.The miners would gamble on anything,so if it was raining ,they would be in the snooker room for a bit of action.Quite often you would get some out of town guy like AXE,who would come in from Hamilton and take on the best at that time in Blantyre.Of course this was all prearranged about a week ahead so all the miners who were interested in this would have learned about the match by word of mouth at their local mines.Although there was not supposed to be any gambling in the Welfare Hall it was very hard to control and a guy with thick rimmed glasses was usually employed as the attendant, I kid you not Margaret!

As you can imagine 2 0'Clock Friday the place always started to get filled up.Occasionally you would see a miner who slipped in still in his work clothes and a coal covered black face, afraid of missing the action,this was against the rules of the Welfare club and they were usually asked to leave,but the next week someone else would try it
.I think that if they had gone straight home the wife would have been demanding her part of the wages to run the household and pay off the bills(we called "this on the tick") and he might not have enough to drink and gamble with and with some those were the priorities .Not all miners were like this but a good percentage of them were.Think about it Margaret,You're a miner say 40years old ,you have worked down the pit's all your life,since you were ten and you live your life with the daily fear that something is going to happen to you one of these days while you are down the pit. Your father before you worked down the pit and they had nothing to give you for a little start in life,not even a guaranteed roof over your head,most homes were owned by the owners of the pits,so most times you started life with nothing but what you stood up in. Like most human beings mother nature comes along and tells that it is time to find a wife and procreate and before you know it you have at least half a dozen kids to feed.You never have had a holiday and you can't afford to go anywhere,you owe money to the company store and if you have worked all these years down the pit, health wise you are not in very good shape, just from the dust alone that you have inhaled all those years.It's impossible for us in our modern society to try and imagine what they the miners and their families went through,so if he is a miner living in this type of environment and all these pressure associated with his daily existence in a SERFDOM. I believe it would be more than just hard to function like a man,and being in such a frame of mind he would try to find some solace in drinking and gambling,which in the long run never really helped him,but it was all he had to ease that hurt of just existing and that we as modern people with all our education and all the great imaginative ideas that we can come up with are still in my mind a long way short of knowing what he our GGGrandfather WAS!. Like I say it was not a life! if anything, it may have been close to an existence.To-day the inside of the welfare has been gutted out and it is more like a huge modern social club.
After the Welfare on the left hand side going West on Calder Street is The Calder Street Public School,this meets up with Victoria Street which is traveling North and South. Across Victoria Street on the corner is the Blantyre Health Institute.This institute was used during the war years like a town hall,everything from Gas Masks,Cod liver oil,Orange Juice, Ration Books,everything that was in short supply and was controlled by the Government was distributed from here to those who were in the category of essential need.
I can remember four things in my life associated to the health institute,The first would be back around 1937 when we as a miner's family were taken up to the health institute to be deloused.I think the reason behind this,was coming from the raws into a new council house they wanted to make sure we did not bring any unwanted little beasties with us. When we came out of there we were all covered in a purple paint. Most families in Blantyre went through this, so it was in no way considered degrading,that's just the way it was. I and my three brothers,well we could not care less but my older sister,she was a different story,Mortified I believe was the word she used through her tears.
The second item was around about the same time and it is quite possible that they both went hand in hand.Our family and a lot of other families were all issued new clothes at the health institute.These cloths and footwear were all donations from the Toc-H. They consisted of a grey flannel jacket,shorts,a white silvery shirt and a pair of Clakity/Clickety Bit's.For the first month in Blantyre there were all these kids going around all wearing the same type clothes,but they soon got torn and dirty and were soon flung aside.Again my older sister rebelled with the idea of wearing those ankle length tie up boots,which immediately singled you out as some one who had to be supported through donations.Nothing would make her wear those boots,She was a red-head and had the anger and spirit that seems to go with them.
The third item was the time when the whole town alphabetically had to go to the health institute for a Smallpox inoculation(or jab's).I can remember the stories that went about on how sore(painful) it was passed around the town by those that had had their inoculation first the A.B.C.D.It was a painful procedure for us kids but it was blown all out of proportion,so by the time your name came up you were already petrified of what was going to happen to you.There was a lot of squealing and crying before the Doctor or Nurse got anywhere near you,all you had to hear was you'r next and it was your turn to do your thing,I can remember I was pretty good at it .This was the inoculation that left you marked for life.Two or three days after the jab's the whole injection site scabbed over for a couple of weeks and when the scab had formed into a crust it then dropped off and left you scarred for life.Also around about this same time in Blantyre we had Tuberculosis cases,Scarlet Fever,Diphteria, Scabies,Chicken Pox,Mump's,Whooping Cough,and Poliomyelitis and various other problems.We did not at this time have the National Health Service,so any ailments were taken to your local doctor and as most miner's in Blantyre did not have the money to spend on a doctor,it was the norm most of the time, to live and survive with it.There were not to many families in Blantyre that got away without any deaths in the family through all of these illnesses.Our family and a lot of the families that lived around us all suffered through the years 1926-1945.Those were hard times in Blantyre,more so if the head of the family was out of work up until 1939, as many a miner was.
The fourth item Margaret was to do with my own Father,although he had worked the pit's from when he was twelve until the beginning of the war 1939 he had managed to get himself from being a miner to being a member of the medical rescue team.He had gone to school to learn First Aid and had passed all his exams through the St Andrew"s Ambulance Association, putting him in a much cleaner job and environment and a better hourly salary.When war was declared he was immediately called into being a member of the National First Aid Post.Their job was to go to various parts of the country where a rescue team was needed. He spent a whole two weeks in the Clydebank blitz during which time we as a family never knew where he was until he came home.The First Aid Post was in the Blantyre Health Institute during the war and I used to visit my dad often on my way home from school.
The health institute still stands on the same spot,Corner of Calder Street and Victoria Street but has been enlarged to suit the increase of population.After the institute there was an open field which the farmer from Stonefield farm used for grazing his cows.This area is now a part of the Blantyre Nursery School and then followed by the Calderside Academy,both of which are new. Before they were built there was an open field and after them a coal contractors yard owned by Thomas Barclay &Son's. Netherfield Place. My dad also worked here from when he was a boy of ten until he went to the pits at twelve.He was carrying bags of coal on his back.

After Tom Barclay's came an other Council Housing Scheme which the Blantyre folks just called the Calder Street Council Houses, when making a reference to them.This Council Scheme was situated on a part of the property that once was known as DIXON'S RAW'S The raw's consisted of seven Streets Starting with Calder Street,Dixon Street, Hall Street and Park Street all traveling East to West the other three streets were Mill Street, Govan Street and Carfin Street.These three traveled North to South .This was a big Raw's and was the biggest in Blantyre The Calder Street Council houses still stand here although a lot of them have been bought from the South Lanarkshire County Council and made into private homes. The left hand side of Calder Street going North finishes here at the Junction of Stonefield Road.Going South from Stonefield Road are another row of Council Houses which runs down until it reaches a street coming in from the Glasgow Road(Main Street) running North to South,called Priory Street.This whole street is a part of the Calder Street Scheme and consists of all council homes.After Priory street traveling East we have a few more Council Homes after which we have a couple of small Grocery and Confectionery stores.Before they were built this was the entrance to the Stonefield Farm.After the stores we have a few bungalows which takes us up to the next street coming in from the Glasgow Road this road travels North to South.This road is called Victoria Street and travels all the way south to meet up with the High Blantyre Main Street.On the corner of Calder Street and Victoria Street is the Blantyre Police Station,The police station runs along until it meets up with the Blantyre Public Library after the Library. The Blantyre Heritage Society has a fair size collection of memorabilia held in the Library and also have a fair amount of statistics of old Blantyre on computer.I found some information that I was looking for on my family and I most certainly recommend that any one researching Blantyre who is from out of town make this a must visit.

Next the ASDA parking lot starts here and runs over to meet up with what's left of Logan Street.

Got to go Margaret ,the sun is calling and I am so looking forward to seeing that little white ball fly through the air.Fly out To-Day 2nd Feb.

Regards

TDH

[AndrewP]

Hi TDH,

Your pictures are uploaded to the Gallery at:

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1032
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1033

I had to convert them to jpg files. The Gallery doesn't like bitmap (bmp) images.

All the best,

AndrewP