Category: www.historic-Hamilton.co.uk

HAMILTON FOLK.

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I am always looking to add pictures of people from Hamilton to this folder and I thought it was about time that I added a picture of myself & my wife Emma.

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Garry McCallum and I am originally from Burbank, I run Historic Hamilton and am responsible for all the stories that you hopefully enjoy reading.

As Historic Hamilton is nearly two years old I thought it would be good to put a face to the name that you see and read about.

If you would like to add someone to the “Hamilton Folk” album, then please feel free to send us your pictures and we will share with everyone in the group.

Garry

THE LAST MILK RUN BY HORSE & CART IN HAMILTON.

Last Milk Horse1

THE LAST MILK RUN BY HORSE & CART IN HAMILTON.
This picture tells a story of long tradition that has sadly gone. In the 1960s and for generations before the people in the picture, deliveries were done by Horse & Cart.
 
Before the days of the milk van, you wouldn’t look twice at a horse walking up your street. This picture was taken because it was the very last day of the milk being delivered by horse and cart, and it was this very picture that appeared in the Hamilton Advertiser. The exact date is unknown; however, it is believed to be sometime in the early 1960s. The young man feeding the horse is Tom Little and the woman leaning against the fence is Tom’s mum Jeannie Little.
 
The snapshot was taken outside the house of Tom Little at 17 Linden Lea and it was sent to us by Jane Little, who is Tom’s daughter. Jane told us:
 
“My dad is feeding the horse a treat, while my gran looks on. He didn’t work for the dairy. The dairyman is behind my dad, unfortunately out of sight. This interaction was also filmed and included in a film about “Old Hamilton” that I remember going to see with my mum and gran at the Hamilton Library sometime in the mid- to late-1970s. One of my dad’s younger brothers also appeared in that clip, running from the house to the pavement when the horse pulled up. I don’t have an exact date for the picture, but dad was born in 1947 so I’m thinking this was probably sometime between 1960 and 1963, based on how old he looks. My grandparents were Bill and Jeannie Little who lived at 17 Linden Lea.”
 
Bill & Jeannie raised 5 children, Tom was the oldest. Tom married Martha Courtney in 1965, and the family emigrated to Canada in 1980.
 
We would like to thank Jane for sharing her picture of her dad and the last milk delivery by Horse & Cart in Hamilton.

THE AZTEC BAR.

Aztec Bar.

Lucy MacKinnon sent us a picture of the Aztec Bar which was just off Townhead Street. Did you drink at the Aztec? Tell us your stories, or even better, send us your pictures.

MURDER IN QUARRY STREET (1857)

Quarry Street Murder1

A very brutal murder took place on the evening of Saturday the 10th of October 1857, between eight and nine o’clock, which caused great distress in the town. David Paterson, a weaver to trade, had proceeded to the house of Thomas Reilly an Irishman, living in 46 Quarry Street, who kept a “wee pawn” establishment, and dealt in buying and selling cotton waste and such like material, including weavers’ weft, when an altercation arose between the two, and a scuffle took place within the house, in the course of which Reilly dealt the David Paterson several blows, in consequence of which he died in a few minutes.
 
Some individuals who were outside saw, through the window of the house, and seen the several of the blows given; and a woman, who was in the house at the time, says that Paterson took off his coat at first, and challenged Reilly to fight with him; while another eye-witness says, that after Paterson had seated himself in an arm-chair at the side of the fire, Reilly deliberately barred the outer door, and then passionately struck him while a sitting on the chair.
The first blow sent his head right against the jamb at the fire-place, and after he was in that twisted and helpless position, Reilly continued to strike him several heavy and brutal blows, till the cries of parties at the window compelled him to stop. It seems these blows had been more than enough to finish the unfortunate man.
Reilly afterwards attempted to revive him by throwing cold water in his face and bathing his head. On finding that Paterson was apparently dying, Reilly left the house immediately and absconded. Dr. Miller was sent for, who arrived just at the moment the deceased breathed his last.
 
The woman that was in the house at the time of the incident, gave a statement to the police and it was noted that should the woman’s statement prove correct, the case against Reilly was not ultimately so serious as It would otherwise have been, and only be a charge of manslaughter or culpable homicide. It was also noted, both parties were the worse of liquor. David Paterson left a widow and three young children.
 
The body of David Paterson was taken charge of during the night of Saturday and Sunday, in Reilly’s house, where the Vicious attack occurred, by Quintin, one of the town’s officers, until Sunday, when a post mortem examination was made.
 
David was buried at the Hamilton Parish Church yard and on his death cert, there was no parent’s names recorded. The stated time of death was 8:30pm and the cause of death was effusion of blood from the skull. The death was registered Five months later on behalf of the procurator fiscal Thomas Dykes.
 
When the story of the murder went to press in the Hamilton Advertiser on Monday the 12th of October 1857, Reilly was still at large and had not been apprehended, although several of the officers of justice were on the alert. It was rumoured that Thomas Reilly was still lurking about Hamilton. Thomas Reilly was an Irishman, and a private in the 1st Regiment of Royal Lanarkshire, Militia.
 
I would like to thank Angela at the Hamilton Reference Library for taking the time to look for further info on the murder and what became of Thomas Reilly, however, the trail go’s cold after 17th of October 1857. I can only assume that Thomas Reilly left Hamilton,

MIND THE CB RADIO CRAZE OF 1981?

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MIND THE CB RADIO CRAZE OF 1981?
The story below was sent to Historic Hamilton by David Cairns.
 
My brother Scott had a wine coloured Hillman Avenger, and in one fell swoop, he doubled the value of the car by paying aboot forty quid tae have a CB Radio fitted tae the car fae a wee shoap next tae the Santa Lucia just aff Gateside Street.
 
Smokey and the Bandit was no’ long oot, Convoy the movie, and CW McCall was in the charts wi’ the theme song… #Pig-pen this here’s a Rubber Duck#…and all that..
 
CB’s were illegal. I don’t think the Polis could be arsed though, as every car fitted with a CB had a 6 foot tall antenna bolted tae the roof of your car…so it really wouldnae have been too difficult for the ‘Smokies’ to work it oot…never heard of anyone getting caught wi’ wan though…
 
‘Smokies’ were the Polis. Hamilton was ‘Circle City’…it had a language of it’s ain, all designed tae confuse the ‘Smokies’ in case they were listening in…
 
An ‘eyeball’ was a meeting in person…kind of like an Eighties version of ‘Tinder’…safe sex was hiding roon’ the corner and up a street in case your ‘eyeball’ was a ‘baikey’…and worse than that , was if she was a baikey, and you were hiding up a street …’just in case’…there would be another 5 folk hiding up the same street waiting to see whit she looked like…cos everybody could listen in..
A wee hoose by Dunn’s the Butcher on Meikle Earnock Road selt ‘Eyeball Cards’… they were aboot £2-00 for a hundred, and ye were meant tae hand over yer ‘Eyeball Card’ if ye met somebody and you were supposed tae collect them.
 
Loads of folk were oot on the ‘wind-up’…me and my mate Alan Hinshalwood Hinshy sat in my brothers car at the top of Balmore Drive talking to ‘Spyo-Gyra’…there was some racket coming fae his end…claimed he was in a helicopter flying ower Strathy Park,,,we were believing it, cos it sounded like a helicopter…until we realised we could SEE fucking Strathy Park fae Balmore Drive…cunt must have taped ‘Airwolf’…and ye were such a fanny if ye ever fell for a wind-up.
 
Hinshy had some irate big brother oan wan night, saying he was gaunnae gie him a doin’ for no’ turnin’ up tae eyeball his sister…she went hame and wiz greetin’ all night. Hinshy and me really couldnae mind but the guy was threatening to ‘twist yer ba’s aroon’ yer neck”..so we decided, for Hinshy’s future children’s sake, that we should attend this ‘eyeball’ which was to take place at the Chippy roon’ the corner fae the Ranch, in Eddlewood.
 
When we walked roon’ the corner, there was aboot 8 guys fae Eddlewood that we were at the Grammar wi’ (one was Jim McDowell)…all burst intae applause and started bellowing with laughter…oor faces went rid…but we pretended it wisnae us …and we just fancied a stroll oot tae the Eddlewood chippy for a bag of chips…then we had nae money…and hud tae leave withoot chips, wi’ mair laughter following us doon the street…we were arguin’ like a married couple..”fucking dick..telt ye it was a wind-up”..” Did ye fuck, you said we better in case the guy came up tae Meiky lookin’ fur us”, ” Naw ah never”…and so it went oan…
 
Jim Broon in my year at the Grammar, and his pal, bolted a car battery and a CB tae a Bogey and wheeled it aboot Fairhill cos they didnae have a motor…or IS that a motor in Fairhill…I don’t know…
 
My handle was FrizzleChip…anybody else mind the days…what was your handle….” Pick a Channel”…
 
 
What was your Handle? Don’t be shy now!

The Odeon & Trocadero

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The Odeon showing the Empire strikes back and return of the Jedi, in May 1997. You can also see half of the Troc nightclub with a fence around it, this may have been one of the last pictures taken of the Trocadero before it was demolished. Thank you to Lucy MacKinnon for sending this to us, this picture was shared from Lucy’s dad’s 1997 collection.
 
Do you have an old picture from around Hamilton? If you do, then we want to see it. Send you old pictures direct to the Facebook Page or by email to historichamilton@icloud.com

SOUTH LANARKSHIRE COUNCIL TO SELL ITS FIRST 5 FLOORS TO LINK HOUSING FOR AFFORDABLE 1 BEDROOM FLATS.

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Today we heard the news that SLC has sold the first 5 floors of its council headquarters to the Link housing association. The office floor space will be converted into Bedsits and to maximise the profit they will be converting the fire escape stairs into communal showers & toilets with the toilets on the left-hand side and the showers on the right. They won’t be installing baths as it will be take up too much space.

The Boss of SLC Eddie McAvoy told Historic Hamilton that he was planning to turn the roof area of the county buildings into a communal drying green and 5 a side football pitch with astroturf included.

Link housing has also applied for planning permission for one-half of the outdoor fountain to be used as a communal outdoor pool which will come with a 30p charge to use it.

With the first 5 floors of the SLC headquarters being sold off what does this mean for the rest South Lanarkshire’s tallest building?

Wishing you all a Happy April Fools Day from all at Historic Hamilton.

A PLANK OAN WHEELS ? AYE ? AYE- POPEYE !

The following story was sent to Historic Hamilton by David Cairns.

Jimmy Scott fae Ratho Park was the first guy ever-ever in the history of the entire world inside my mind, to imagine, design and build a plank on wheels…he even invented the name…”Skate-Plank”…the name never stuck..but his invention did…today…kids the world over…call it a ‘Skateboard’…the best, crazy-fast craze to come and go I ever saw growing up in Hamilton.

Early summer 1977, I saw Jimmy Scott wheeling his way doon the path that ran fae the top of Balmore Drive over tae Ratho Park…he wisnae on roller skates..they were for lassies..and it wisnae a bogey…too wee for a bogey ?? I decided I needed tae go over and talk to Jimmy aboot this contraption. Jimmy was 2 years older than me, and we were only pals part-time…other times, we wurnae on speaking terms…last time I saw him, he’d been oot on the skite in Hamilton aboot 1986 and he was staggering hame at three in the morning in a tee-shirt…and it was freezin’..I gave him a lift..he was a nice guy..wish I’d played with him mair…

Anyway, this ‘ thing’..plank hing ?..it was a dod of plank, and two halfs of a roller skate nailed through the dod …and that was pretty much it. He pushed off at the top and was travelling about a quarter the pace my granny wheeled a supermarket trolley full of cans of prunes, and by the time he got half way doon the slope..he was flyin’ aboot as fast as I could swim…and then jumped aff…cos of the speed…I mean…you could die…Jeezo…this was real breakneck stuff.

Mair and mair kids were coming for a shot..bless him, Jimmy let everybody have a go. Within a week, my next door neighbour Stuart Baird’s maw went oot and bought him an £18 clear, blue SKUDA board..with a kickboard tail. We were all now in an arms race…like it or not…anybody in the scheme who’s birthday was in the summer or Autumn, was getting a skate-plank…everybody else had tae get an emergency wan….oh, the embarrassment…the shame…we got wan oot the Catalogue Clubby book….a ‘SuperFlyerDeluxe’ widden monstrosity with a rubber bung on the underside heel. It was aboot two foot long, made of wood, and had the logo painted in blue on the tap…all the paint came aff in a week, all the rubber came aff the wheels in a fortnight, and all that…for £6-99.

The wheels wore doon intae a sideywyse ‘v’ shape. The ‘trucks’ were hopeless, and if ye went faster than 10 mile an hoor, ye gote a deadly speed wobble and fell aff….
During that time, ye could only see skateboarding on a wee snippet at the start of ‘World of Sport’ with Dickie Davis on a Saturday before the wrestling. Britain had some guy called Tim Levis who could slalom in and oot o’ tin cans and was going tae the world skateboarding championships in California, where the Yanks claimed, it had been invented…wis it fuck, it was Ratho Park, Meikle Earnock.

That sent ye oot ontae Meikle Earnock’s famous hilly paths, but, as it was September by then, the paths were already covered by Cooncil issue winter road salt. We had tae come doon oot of the altitude of Meiky tae find the best path in Hamilton…the long, path that ran fae Eddlewood Boolin’ Club, doon ower the Fairhill bing and ran steep doon tae Fairhill Avenue at Mill Road..that path was fucken dangerous. A speed wobble was the speed at which a board began to vibrate in the ‘trucks’..but if ye could control it AND were brave enough…ye could get through it….so on that lower path, headin doon parallel tae Buchan Street…I went through the first wobble…and went full pelt tae the bottom…but got another wan at twice the speed..I shit it…and jumped aff…and accidentally broke the world triple jump record en route tae a triple somersault and a triple salchow before skidding tae a halt with blood pouring oot all the new holes in my wooly jumper..it wis fucken magic.

Roon’ aboot that time, a new ‘ Skate-Park’ opened in Kelvingrove Park in Glesga, and Jimmy Scott was the guest of honour and opened it. Ye had tae have safety gear if I mind right, so my mam got us fucken auld yellow miners helmets. Even worse, some folk had skate pads on their elbows and knees made oot o’ auld socks.
It was a special treat that day, going to the park in Glesga, but fuck me, we were oot oor depth..kids were wheechin’ aboot upside doon and back tae front and never came aff…not like today, when they seem tae spend a’ their time jumpin aff the fucken hing.

Back in Hamilton, Christmas was coming, and I had my eye oan a £15 board oot a wee shoap near Woodside Road in Hamilton. Oor Scott on the other hand, was after a ‘Grentek Coyote’…I think that had to be ordered oot a magazine? it was £15 tae..and it was a much better board. Murray Clark and seven of his pals got in the Hamilton Ady for forming an ‘Octomaran’ where eight of them joined together and went doon a hill.

The Cooncil then gote tae work building us a long overdue ‘Skate-Park’..wan tae be proud of. They picked the site…Fairhill Bing !! doon on the grass near the bottom. The story wis at the time, a company were gaunae put in Snake runs and Torpedo Bowls and a half pipe and what have ye, for aboot £15,000…the Cooncil worked oot wi’ a bookies pencil oan the back of a fag packet in Skeltons, that they could dae it for aboot ten thoosand…and so , it came tae pass, that a concrete fucking carbuncle was built over a weekend…and before the concrete set, the locals in Fairhill threw bricks, shoes and auld wellys, car batteries and a shopping basket, two cookers and a Labrador intae the setting concrete…and totally fucked the project up afore the fuckin thing was built. It lay like that, collecting rainwater for about two years…then it was bulldozed…ye can still see a big bump at the bottom of the hill where it wis , I heard they buried a couple of Cooncilors in there tae.

That Christmas…everybody and their aunty woke up tae Grentek Coyotes, proper knee pads and helmets, skateboard annuals full of the best Californian Parks and pictures of skimpy bikini clad groupies…and seven fit snaw drifts…wish I’d got a fuckin sledge !

ALMADA STREET & BOTHWELL ROAD NOW AND THEN.

Almada & Bothwell Road Lucy MacKinnon.

Looking back to May 1997 this picture was taken at the junction between Almada Street & Bothwell Road. The old gatekeepers house that was situated at the entrance of the Furlongs was carefully taken down brick by brick and relocated to Muir Street.

Most of you will also remember the public toilets on Bothwell Road that were closed down due to frequent visitors at night! And by May 1997 the old Hamilton Bus Depo was gone.

Douglas Park snapped up the vacant land and built a fancy car sales room selling luxury cars.

Picture courtesy of Lucy MacKinnon.

Almada Street Junction.

BURNBANK SWIFTS 1885-1962.

BURNBANK SWIFTS 1885-1962.

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Burnbank Athletic or Burnbank Swifts were a local football club based in Burnbank, who played primarily in the Scottish Junior football association competitions from 1885 until they went out of business in 1962.

They won the Scottish Junior on five occasions.  Formed in 1885 as Burnbank Swifts, the club were one of the most successful sides in the early years of the Junior game. They provided four of the team which played England in the first Scotland Junior international fixture in May 1889, with forward Jock Espie scoring the sides first ever goal.

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Back Row L-R. J Newall, B Gillies, J Allan, P Cuthbertson, Jackie Tait, W Summers.

Front Row L-R J Gracie, J Pollock, M Paton, J Mitchell, W McAdam.

Espie later enjoyed a career in England with Burnley and Manchester City while full-back Bob Foyers went on to play for Newcastle United and the Scotland senior side. Having won the Scottish Junior Cup twice in succession in 1888–89 and 1889–90, the club turned to Senior football and entered the 1890-91 Scottish Cup.

An 11–0 thrashing of United Abstainers Athletic was an auspicious debut and Burnbank eventually reached the fourth round before losing 1–0 to Royal Albert. The Swifts briefly joined the Scottish Football Federation for a season in 1891 before leaving to concentrate on cups and friendly matches then flirted again with league football in 1895, joining the Scottish Football Alliance but again, only for one season.

The club returned to Junior football in 1898 and changed their name to Burnbank Athletic in 1900. This immediately preceded their third Scottish Junior Cup victory in 1900–01 and Athletic went on to win the trophy twice more in 1910–11 and 1944–45. The club went out of business in 1962.

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Other former Burnbank players include Tommy Cairns, Bobby Shearer, Willie Telfer and Jimmy Watson who all went on to win full international caps for Scotland later in their careers.

More to come on the Burnbank Swifts.