Down Memory Lane

On parade...are the lads of the New Lanark Boys Brigade, probably in the immediate lead up to the start of World War Two. This is another wonderful image of the village’s past loaned to us by Willie Simpson, brought up there but now a longtime resident of Crossford, further down the Clyde. Photos like this and others Willie has kindly recently loaned to the Gazette for publication illustrates just what a large, active community there once was at New Lanark. At one stage it is thought that the population of the `new’ Lanark outstripped that of the `old’ Lanark up the hill, employment at the riverside mills attracting thousands from around the country and beyond to live and work there. Much of the population at one time were made up of economic `refugees’ from Ulster and the Highlands, the latter heritage still evident in streetnames like Caithness Row. For those who only remember New Lanark as a virtual ghost town in the late Sixties and early Seventies, pictures like this are a real eye-opener. Happily, the past thirty years have seen the village being reborn as one of Scotland’s industrial heritage gems and at least partly re-populated.

100 YEARS AGO

* Carluke Primrose Flute Band was to give a programme of music in Carluke’s Wee Moss the following day from 3 to 4.30pm.

* Planning permission was given to Carluke’s R and W Scott Ltd to use a house at 53 Clyde Street as a store.

* As its structure was unsafe, Carluke’s Old Mill had been demolished by explosives in the interests of public safety.

* Three Biggar women were fined a total of £8 at Lanark Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to being the owners of dogs which chased flocks of sheep during the lambing at local farms. One of the dogs pulled a lamb to the ground before biting it.

* A painter was fined £20 at Lanark Sheriff Court after admitting breaking into a Lesmahagow hotel with intent to steal.

* Braxfield (Lanark) Bowling Club were given permission to sell soft drinks in their clubhouse during the season.

* As part of a £1500 programme to mark Commonwealth Technical Training Week, Lanarkshire Education Authority was to make awards to 50 outstanding young students.

50 YEARS AGO

* Lanark writers (solicitors) Andrew Ballantyne, WR Chrystal and William Tennant were appointed agents for the poor for the next year.

* DM Robertson’s ‘Malgot’ entry was victorious in Lanark Model Yacht Club’s monthly medal competition at Lanark Loch.

* Two miners were each fined 10s or seven days’ imprisonment at Lanark Burgh Court, after admitting a breach of the peace at a late hour in Bernard’s Wynd on Friday night.

* Tailor Charles Braidwood, who was just about to leave Lanark for Australia, received a travelling trunk and travel bag from friends and work colleagues at Lanark train station.

* German miner Mathias Romer, who had lived in Lanark for 12 years, was declared a naturalised British subject.

* The annual socialist May Day at Garrion Bridge was presided over by Mr Robert Smillie, with principal speaker being James Connolly.

* Billy Fordyce of Lanark United scored in the Scots miners May Day national 7-1 win over France at Edinburgh. He played at right half.