Reilly's Corner

An Expat's Views On Chapelhall after a visit in 1999

Name: George Reilly, 3rd child in family of 12 children ( 2 deceased).
Born: 44 Queens Crescent Chapelhall, moved to 35 School St.

Hello, Geordie Reilly here.
My wife and I went from Queensland, Australia to visit my Ma and family in 35 School St., Chapelhall in June 99. On arriving in the village via Airdrie and the Monkland Glen, I was immediately thrilled to see that not much had changed.

"Stangoes" garage or what used to be on the right hand side coming into the village, looked so familiar. The "Factories" on the left hand side brought back fond memories of my childhood days, climbing walls and pinching fiberglass rods which we used as spearsto spear the ground of course. My Uncle Matt McMahon 44 Queens Crescent used to be the watch keeper around the factories and had an Alsation dog "Rinty" once owned by my Ma. Rinty used to be sent home to No. 44 with my uncles pay packet in his mouth and as far as I am aware never once lost it.

Chapelhall Cross and the old Swan Hotel still standing, still looking on the outside as it used to 30 years before.Stranges coalyard with the high wall, still with coal trucks inside the yard. I saw what was once the Police Station, a burned out shell of a pub! The Glen Hotel.

McAleers fruit shop that used to be in Lachope Street was no where to be seen, but the "Brigit" was still there, the short cut through from Lachope St to? . I smiled as I saw the old Co-op buildings on the left of the main street and bought a tandoora from the Curry Shop a few days lateryummy. And Hugh Gibsons barber shop like I had never even left it!! I spent some time in that old chairMaggie Talloes ice cream shop now sells lovely fish and chips, chicken and chips with white onions are nice for dinner also. What used to be Goldies paper shop now has new owners and I am sure not the first new owners since I last bought the Dandy and the Beano from there. And look at this!! Tom Post office is now part of the off sales shop and the Post Office building now sells bakery goods. My cousin Linda was on the look out for us when we called in to surprise her.

The Railway Inn, is still standing, Tom O Rourke's pub! I took my wife into the lounge where I had been given a farewell party so many years before; yes it has changed a lot, much for the good in my opinion. I wonder who can remember Charlie Bartons cobbler shop? On the left before what we called the New Line Brae, the road we trudged through rain or sleet to get to Saint Alyoiusis school on weekdays and chapel on Sundays, not to mention Stations Of The Cross, confessions etc. Where would I be now without all that? Where indeed?
The old Railway Bridge had gone long before I left Chapelhall but the sides still stood, not now! I think I found a small piece of the sandstone wall that used to be a part of the bridge and also bordered the grass area across from the library building. The stone outside Dan Murphys door, His Grocery shop and later a betting shop used to be on the sight where the library is. The second in the village the first being between Goldies and what was Mary Tallos ice cream shop, now the Fish n chip shop, memories come flooding back. The railway line is all but gone in the village area; we did find the old bridge up the line a bit when we went in search of the Rookery at "Woodnuke".
I filmed the entire area as far as I could see from a mound of dirt that had been pushed up to unload machines from trucks. My wife and I went shopping in what I knew as the "WEE" school still in Lauchope Street at the bottom of Gibb Street, it has had some changes I am told. My wife loved the wild flowers growing in the spare ground where the "WEE Ireland" used to stand, behind the bus shelter if going to Holytown, on the library side of the "WEE schoolnow a supermarket.

Maggie Shaws shop is still standing but closed as were the house she used to live in, I scrambled around the bushes in front searching for long lost memories and found to my delight found some amid the ruins. Gibb street! Ashbins, confirmation white suit what do they have In common? Nothing to most people, but my Ma still remembers when I left her at St Aloysius after making my confirmation, and I went home alone. All the ashbins were put out in Gibb Street and I decided to play leapfrog! Needless to say by the time I had leaped a dozen or so bins, my backside was dragging slightly on the remaining bins. I didnt notice any thing wrong when I got home and changed, but my ma did when she picked up the rented white suit to take it back. Ouch! It wisna me ma, a big boy done it and ran away! The schemes of my childhood still look the same. Nothing much has changed in the general outlook of the "old schemes.

A friend of mine went to visit my Ma a year or so before us, and took a video of the road in from Airdrie to School Street On the video I saw the school in School Street which was built in our play area and cricket field that wee as children thought was "our bit" and resented the council building a school there. The one major thing that surprised me on that video, was the veiw from the corner of School Street and what was Sherdale Avenue, now Coracle Crescent I was truly amazed at how far can be seen and swear that view was never there as a child, or maybe I wasnt interested in so far away! We stayed in School Street with my niece Sharon and her husband Stewart and their lovely wee daughter, my great niece Natalie, and a host of animals too many to name, we were made so welcome. No one minded us rising at daybreak and making breakfast then going for a wander around the village filming flowers and plants in peoples gardens.

I was warned the Police were after us for being so active so early in the morning, but nothing came of that. My Ma and family made my wife and myself feel so loved and wanted, the month there was just not enough time. We did on our first morning jaunt, go down to the Viaduct and the Monkland canal, oh boy! What a change, all those lovely trees and pathways, we both love the yellow flowering Gorse bushes, which is a scourge in most places, in New Zealand we saw hills covered with lovely yellow Gorse bushes and as I filmed the Kiwi (new Zealander) traveling companion was verbally blasting the Scot who brought the curse to his country where it grows rampant. I still love it. After going down to the Canal Bridge which is still as noisy, we headed for the "Woods" where I spent a lot of my ill gotten youth. The "Big Swing" which consisted of a one inch or more thick rope borrowed from the railway station and tied to a high branch, then when jumped on swung out over the sewer that the canal was then.was gone! There is a swing there today but I could not believe it was the "Big Swing" maybe I have just grown up and the swing was never that "Big" at all, In my memory it will always be "Big". As a matter of fact, the whole "Wood was gone!

Before I knew it we were looking down on the "Swamp" and into the bottom of the Monkland Estate Which used to be the Monkland Hotel. In my youth a person named Victor Susoon owned the Hotel? And he employed a game keeper/watchman who took great delight in firing a shotgun over our heads if we went anywhere near the area. Swallowing my disappointment that the trees that live so well in my memory were no where to be seen, we carried on up to the "Maggie Lauder" the mound of dirt was still sitting there where I left it. The number of times we defended that hill will never be known, and of course the times we attacked it are as many. Easter Sunday we used to walk down there, under the railway bridge which is nowhere to be seen now days, and roll our hard boiled, colored eggs down the side of that mound of dirt hopping they would hit a well placed rock at the bottom so we could then peel and eat them Child hood pleasures indeed, no chocolate for us.