Main Street

Main Street, High Blantyre, was once a thriving Shopping Centre as can be seen by this photo. High Blantyre Co-op on the right and Gilchrist’s on the left. Is that Jock Stein’s cart?

Elizabeth Weaver: Do you remember Co checks – might have been cheques, but don’t think so – which were plastic tokens you could only spend at the Co? Ours were kept in a wee bowl in the living room press. Think we used them at the Co baker’s van.

Your Social Comments:

Elizabeth Weaver: Oh, the Co! Where the grocer’s floor was covered in sawdust and you bought your cheese off the whole cheese, cut with wire. We had two Co numbers – ours and Grandpa’s and you had to use the right one… I hated going on my own, and made myself recite the number all the way there in case I got it wrong. ( Scott 1470 and Weaver 4734, I believe.)

Christina Frame: Elizabeth, your post Brings back so many memories, it was my Granny who shopped in the Co, my Mammy shopped in Geordie Nelson’s. Wee grocery store on the other side of the road but further down. It was great when Granny got her Co rebate as it meant a new pair of shoes for me.

Jim McDougall: Looking at High Blantyre Main Street in these old photos, then looking at the present, I know what I prefer.

Elizabeth Weaver: You could do all your messages at the Co in those days – grocers, drapers, hardware, butchers. It’s a shame isn’t it? The place was so vibrant back then – it hadn’t changed much by the 50’s, and it was a bustling wee place. Changed days.

Letitia Mitchell: I worked in the drapers when I left school about 1968 loved it.

Margaret Steven McAuliffe: I used to go into the Co-op on the way home from school and buy a penny worth of broken biscuits.

Elizabeth Weaver: I have another memory which I possibly shouldn’t share… one of my Auchinraith classmates used to go with her daddy to the bakery at night so he could prepare the ovens etc. He told us to stay away from the room where he was working so we wandered around the stores where the icing sugar was kept in huge casks. Open casks. Too tempting for 7-year-olds… we were still licking our fingers when he came back. Never looked at a Co iced bun in quite the same way again.

Ann-Marie Phillips: Thanks for sharing this photo. It’s nice to see where dad grew up.

Christina Frame: Love it

This is Main Street, looking towards Auchinraith. Blakeley’s is hidden in the picture on the left. The road leading off to the left is Broompark Road. The little huts were the Orange Hall and a garage. Today these buildings on the left are now two Chinese takeaways and the Spice Club.

Rose Lee: Is the larger building on the left on the corner of Broompark Road, building with Blakeley’s bar?

Thomas Barrett: Yeah just before Blakeley’s

Caroline Lee: The bank on the left, which is now Chinese. Further down in 60’s shop, post Office, DIY shop not sure what they were called, then think it was wood painted blue, after the end of the row chippie.

Thomas Barrett: There was a butchers as well, Hobson’s.

Anne Mckillop: The co-op drapery was at the same side as Blakeley’s

Jim Brown: The shop on the left was Smith’s electrical, one of the huts beyond was the Orange Hall. The shops in the distance were Broons (which may have been a bank) the Post Office (a taxi office as well, Hobson’s butchers, a clothes shop and Bunt McStravichs chippie (Ginos)

Rita Johnston: I was born across the road in a tenement building, 303 Main Street High Blantyre, their was a Co -op across the road where the large pole is and Blakley’s Bar at the corner.

High Blantyre Co-op, a thriving shopping centre of its time. You could do all your shopping at the Co-op in those days, as it had a grocers, drapers, hardware, butchers and bakers.

Stephen Kelly: Is the co building in the picture where Londis is now? Or Costcutter or whatever it’s called?

Blantyre’s Ain: Yes Stephen. The Co-op is now the modern Costcutter. The above houses are still there too. However, the buildings on the left side of the Co-op are long gone and are now the entrance to the wee car park, Ladbrokes, The butchers, Jinxys Bakers and Lloyds Chemist.

Michael Mcginley: The man with the bunnet looks like he’s shuffling a deck of cards.

Elizabeth Dobson Grieve: Notice how the co-op building took up the whole length of the row. Now Costcutters just takes up a short part of it, along with the Cyber Cafe and whatever else is there.

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