| Blantyre, South Lanarkshire |
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Blantyre is a Burgh in South Lanarkshire , Scotland . Essentially a large suburb of Hamilton (Blantyre's pop. ''c''17 000), it is best-known as the birthplace of David Livingstone , the well-known explorer and missionary who was the first white man to see (and name) the Victoria Falls . His former house is now a Museum which is at the end of Station Road, on the banks of the River Clyde . Also nearby is Bothwell Castle , dating from the Thirteenth Century . Blantyre has a number of smaller areas, each with their own identity. High Blantyre is the area to the west and north of Burnbrae Road and continues to High Blantyre cross at the north. It is thought to be the area of earliest settlement, with a possible bronze age village at the site of High Blantyre Church. Also to the north is Greenhall Park, where the River Calder , sometimes referred to as the Black Calder or Rotten Calder (and called the 'Cawder' by locals) flows to eventually join the Clyde near Flemington . Blantyre is loosely divided in half by Glasgow Road, to the east of which are Priory Bridge - the former Priory being home to monks from around 1235, Coatshill and the village, the oldest industrially developed part of Blantyre. Glasgow Road continues south via Springwell and eventually joins to Burnbank . Next to the David Livingstone museum, at the end of Station Road, is an iron suspension foot bridge which crosses the River Clyde giving pedestrian access to Bothwell . MINE DISASTER Blantyre is the site for the famous Blantyre Mining Disaster (1877), where 207 miners were killed when a coal mine exploded due to methane gas. There is little doubt that safety regulations were not adhered to. Christy Moore recorded a well-known version of the traditional song about this disaster. A monument to the disaster is at High Blantyre cross. The site of the mine now lies under the East Kilbride expressway. FOOTBALL Blantyre presently has a football club competing in Scottish Junior Football Association competitions, Blantyre Victoria F.C. . Known as the Vics, they won the Scottish Junior Cup (the highest achievement in junior football) in 1950, 1970 and 1982. There was previously another junior club in the town, Blantyre Celtic F.C. , but they went out of existence in the early 1990s . INSTITUTIONS Blantyre contains many amenities for such a small burgh, including:
YOUTH In 1986 Blantyre young people developed an organisation called Blantyre Youth Development Team - or BYDT - this organisation gained charity status in 1997, and created the Terminal One youth centre. Terminal One provides services to the young people of Blantyre and North Hamilton including music tuition, multimedia artistic tuition, recording studios, youth clubs, excursions, and self development programmes. It is funded by South Lanarkshire Council , the Scottish Arts Council and the Blantyre/North Hamilton SIP. DAVID LIVINGSTONE Blantyre's most famous son is the explorer David Livingstone , and there is a David Livingstone Centre at the bottom of Station Road. This centre includes a museum, a playpark, a cafe, a shop, an African Garden and several workshop studios. An adventure assault course also existed here until a young man died in 1995. Other famous faces from Blantyre include Ryan Fletcher (Actor), and Ronnie McCluskey (Journalist and Philanthropt) LOCATION AND GETTING THERE Blantyre is on the Hamilton Circle Railway line and can be reached in 20 minutes from Glasgow Central . By road it can be reached via the East Kilbride Expressway which connects to the M74 motorway which runs from Glasgow to Carlisle . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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