Blantyre (GB)

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Blantyre Undated Double Circle.
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Blantyre is a town and civil parish in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, with a population of 16,900. It is bounded by the River Clyde to the north, the Rotten Calder to the west, the Park Burn to the east and the Rotten Burn to the south.

Blantyre was the birthplace of David Livingstone, the 19th-century explorer and missionary, and because of Livingstone's work, the second-largest city in Malawi is named after it.

Further north of the town centre is The Village, the oldest industrially developed part of Blantyre which was previously a mill settlement on the River Clyde. Near to the town's train station, it is the only part which is north of the railway lines. Next to the David Livingstone Centre, at the end of Station Road, is an iron suspension footbridge which crosses the Clyde giving pedestrian access to Bothwell.

High Blantyre is the area to the east and south of Burnbrae Road which continues to High Blantyre Cross at the north. It is thought to be the area of earliest settlement, with a Bronze Age village near Auchintibber 2 miles (3 km) south of Blantyre Parish Church (High Blantyre).

'Blantyre Station was located at the west end of High Blantyre. The station is now dismantled.


Mine disaster

On 22 October 1877, Blantyre was the site of the Blantyre mining disaster, where 207 miners (men and boys) were killed when a coal mine exploded due to methane gas. A monument to the disaster, of which the youngest victim was a boy of 11, is at High Blantyre cross. The site of the mine now lies under the East Kilbride expressway.

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Blantyre (GB)

Blantyre Undated Double Circle on Poor Letter to Paisley.
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Blantyre Station

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Detail of station cancel.

High Blantyre

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