West from Logan Street

Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Blantyre history

West from Logan Street

Another bite sized chunk of Blantyre History

Hello there Drapadew
So good to see you back online, I now have a copy of the Blantyre book, so will be able to see where we are. How was your summer and golf and how is your friend Sam, I have never found the photo of you both yet. Well tomorrow we will be booking our tickets to the UK for next July, so now I am hoping that I can have a pint in that wee pub in Blantyre next August.

Hi Margaret.
Yes we did enjoy our summer, we played a lot of golf and recalled many old things about our Blantyre past. I have misplaced the photo of Sam and I, but as soon as I come across it I will repost. The other one must be flying around out there in space.
Good to hear that you and Russ are back on your travels to Scotland, I may get there myself in February for a couple of days, just a stop over from another trip I will be on.
My regards to everyone in 0Z
TDH

Hello there TDH
More great memories as we stroll through Blantyre, I was just thinking how today our life is in so much of a hurry that we don’t get to meet folk in our street, and how James could name all the families in Logan Street. My Mum must have carried on many scottish traditions with us as so many things you talk about are very similar to my years of growing up in New Zealand with Scottish Parents.

I have just found where I lived in Kilmarnock so now I am looking forward to being able to visit the street and walk to the school (which is still showing on the map) and maybe the park is still there that as a 6 year old I ran through the knee high leaves in the Autumn… and the policeman walking us home to the corner because it was nearly dark in the afternoons… and hot meals at lunchtime in the hall at school.
Well we are having really hot weather here just now, should get to over 100 fah today.
Must away hope to hear from you soon.
Cheers
Margaret

Looking West from Church Street

Margaret!
As we leave John Street and the Castle Vaults owned By John Forbes. The building with the turreted roof. See photo P37 OLD BLANTYRE. If you use this turreted roof as a reference point it will help you to place most of the streets and stores that I am talking about in this wee chat we are having. This is more or less the central point of the Glasgow Road (Main Street) in Blantyre. You can also see in the different photos the changes that had taken in the Glasgow Road (Main street) over the years.

If we take p37 as the central point, you see the girl standing fairly close to the telephone box at the corner of Church Street she is looking across the road at a van just outside the MARSHALL’S shoe shop, on the other corner from the Castle Vaults. Behind her to her right would be the the Stonefield Church (which burned down In the 1970’s) to her left would be the block which contained the Masonic Hall, Peter Craig the butcher’s and on to the Priory Bar. On the Corner of Logan Street you can just see the Ironmongers store entrance (mustard colour).

Looking East from Logan Street A better view can be seen in p39, just where it says wines is the Priory Bar. The Man and the two boys are standing outside the Ironmongers, which in the 1950’s a good part of this building was torn down and a new Post Office built. You can see that new Post Office where the two boys are standing. If you keep looking along to the right of the picture at the roof line, where it makes the a high point and a flag pole sits on top, this is the Masonic Hall and directly across the road is John Street. I do hope I am not repeating myself too much in my descriptions, but these history lessons do call for a precise and elaborate depiction for any future generations to follow.
Margaret, I would again like to point out that all I am writing to you about is what I can recall from my youthful memory and are not taken from any historical books or notes, just from my plain old memory.

But before we leave John Street I would like you to look closely at the photo P37 OLD BLANTYRE with some magnification and tell me if you notice something strange about this photo, it is only after looking at it so often that I think I picked up a strange happening taking place within this photo.

I know it is a little late for Halloween, but I sure would like someone else to see what I think I see. When I look at this photo now I see a photo which I once thought to be a photo that had been taken just of this area, but now I am not so sure about that. I do believe that it tells a story of sorts. Have a look and tell me what you think.

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Continuing the conversation between Thomas Dunsmuir Hartman in Chicago (known as TDH or Drapadew) and originally from Logan Street, Blantyre and Margaret in Queensland Australia on TalkingScot.

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