Down Memory Lane

JASON T. Forgie, managing director of William Baird and Co. coalmasters, was elected chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the use of electricity in the coal mines of Britain.Read

Down Memory Lane

AN ALL-DAY sitting was assured in the trial by Sheriff and jury in Hamilton, set for March 16, for the four people implicated in what were known as ‘the Newarthill burglaries’.Read

Down Memory Lane

JAMES Murray, formerly of Hamilton, had the honour of addressing the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the scientific work of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition, which he had taken part in as a biologist.Read

Down Memory Lane

COMPLAINTS were made regarding the prevalence of the playing of street organs in Hamilton. However, it was pointed out that under law any householder – personally or by his servant, or by a police constable – could tell them to move away. Anybody who continued to play an instrument in the street or sing in the street after being asked to depart was liable for a fine of up to 20s. Unless a complaint was made by a householder that a street musician or singer refuses to desist, the authorities were powerless.Read

Down Memory Lane

A BOTHWELL burglar who feasted sumptuously on pheasant, roast pork and whisky then fell asleep was given four years’ jail, time enough to digest his “gargantuan repast”.Read

Down Memory Lane

THE first case at Hamilton Sheriff Court of a deported Pole returning to the UK came before Sheriff Thomson. Charles Rutkowski, a miner, had been deported under the Aliens Act 1905 in June, 1909, but was recently found at Bothwell Castle Colliery. He was given one month’s imprisonment, with hard labour.Read

Burns Suppers through the ages.

ADDRESSING THE HAGGIS: for children at Neilsland Primary School in Hamilton, school meals turned to a Burns Supper with the help of popular Scottish singer Bill McCue. For months, P6 and P7 pupils had been working on a project looking at Scottish life, history and culture, leading up to the natural finale in January, 1990.Read

Down Memory Lane

MOTHERWELL laid claim to two links connecting it to the National Bard. In Mr Gilbert Burns Begg, they could claim as townsman a grand nephew of Robert Burns, Mr Begg being a grandson of the poet’s brother Gilbert. A less well-known link was the fact that a Mrs Weir, of Hamilton Road, was a great grand-daughter of Burns’s ‘Bonnie Annie’.Read

Down Memory Lane

THE “veteran pedestrian” Mark All, who passed through Hamilton last summer on his task of walking 10,000 miles in 200 days, again passed through the town, having covered 5958 miles in 115 days. Aged 80, Mark was still going strong and looked likely to complete his task.Read

Vox pop.....

WITH Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle overlooked for a Brit Award, we took to the streets of Hamilton to ask if the Scots singer should have been included.Read

Down Memory Lane

MELTING snow and the accompanying rains of a stormy week saw the River Clyde burst its banks in several places throughout Lanarkshire. At Bothwell Bridge the haughs were picturesque, with the water covering several acres of fields.Read

Down Memory Lane.

A COURT to dispose of Hogmanay and early New Year offenders was held in the Burgh Buildings on January 1. A seasonable spirit of leniency seemed to have prevailed at the court as all prisoners were either admonished or allowed to go on forfeit of a pledge. These admonitions served to cover the aberrations due to Hogmanay excess.Read

A look back at some festive photographs in December 1989.

ALI Baba and the Forty Thieves played to sell-out audiences in Blantyre in December, 1989.Read

Down Memory Lane

“The Road to Heaven” was the title of a prayer book stolen by a burglar in Hamilton. It was reported that it led him to a pawnshop and subsequent arrest.Read

Down Memory Lane

POST Office staff were praised after they managed to get a strangely-addressed letter to the rightful place. The card had no address but on the writing side there was ‘Wednesday to Mr James Dow of the Blan – some sticks for firewood’. The card was posted in Glasgow and postal authorities there had sent it on to Blantyre, writing ‘try Dow, timber merchant, Blantyre’. It so happened that it was intended for Mr James Dow of the Blantyre Saw Mills, who intended to have the bit of paper framed and saved as the nucleus for a Blantyre museum.Read

Pupil and teacher from Hamitlon Grammar reach final of Face of 2010.

HAMILTON GRAMMAR produced two model citizens as both a teacher and a pupil made it through to the final of our Face of 2010 competition.Read

Down Memory Lane

AT Hamilton Sheriff Court Sheriff Thomson sentenced a postal worker to three months’ imprisonment for stealing a postal order for 2 shillings. After it had been missing for some time it was traced to a Fifeshire village, where it had been cashed a fortnight after it had disappeared. Suspicion fell on the young Blantyre postman and he was convicted by a jury of having stolen the item.Read

Vox Pop on X Factor winner Joe McElderry

GEORDIE Joe McElderry changed his life on Sunday by winning the 2009 X Factor and a £1m record contract. We took to the streets of Hamilton to find out if the right person won the popular contest.Read

Down Memory Lane

THE oldest inhabitant of Stonehouse Parish, Miss Agnes Millar, died aged 94.Read

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