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The population of the mining village of Bothwellhaugh was evacuated in 1965 to make way for a new motorway and country park construction programme, incorporating a man-made loch. Its residents were moved to nearby towns, and the ruins of the village lie underwater to this day.
This amateur film was shot on 8mm by local shopkeeper Joe Griffiths between 1962 and 1965. Initially a typical home movie taken for pleasure, as the villagers became aware of the threat to their way of life and impending removal, Griffiths' film became a more deliberate record of a community in its final years. The film conveys a poignancy heightened by the forced destruction of a community and with only folk memory and Griffiths' film as the remnants of their way of life.
Kenneth Broom
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Extract (2:20)
