The Population of Baberton

Buying your House and Moving In

Buying a house in the early 1970s, when in Scotland only about 30% of residential property was in the private sector, was both aspirational and a leap of faith.  There were many hurdles to jump before you could even think about getting on the housing ladder.  Building societies, a main lending source,  each had their own lending policies, and banks and building societies often gave their own employees preferential interest rates to buy.  You had to be able to produce evidence of salary, often without overtime or extras being taken into account.  The income of a spouse (usually the wife or female partner) was only ever grudgingly taken into account – after all you might stop work to have a baby!  All the time each quarter prices kept rising.  And builders like Wimpey, who were building Baberton Mains, only released a certain number of dwellings in “phases”.  

What made buying a new house most attractive was the fixed price.  Wimpey allowed a plot to be reserved for £50.  And whilst the house was being built the price was held.  Wimpey estates had a variety of house types which encouraged different types of family to  move.  There were  detached houses,terraced houses and semi detached houses (see images below)

Semi detached houses Detached houses Terrace

Moving In

A personal "Moving in" Story

We were buying a new house – off plan – and it was moving in day in October 1977.  Our lawyer had confirmed that the money was in place, and we had gone with a Mitchell’s 3-ton truck to retrieve our belongings from our in-laws who had kindly packed our whole flat into their garage for the 2 weeks we had between giving up the rented flat, and moving in.  Children were left with the in-laws to be treated to lots of sweeties and chips for lunch.

Once the van was packed, we made our way from West Lothian to Baberton to pick up the keys at the site office and thence around to 34 Baberton Mains Way.  The house was a small 2-bedroom semi, all we could afford, with a lovely open staircase at the end of the lounge.  The roads hadn’t been made up, but there was hardcore, which was extremely muddy.  The floors in the house were tiled of course, so at least the kitchen and lounge could be washed.

We had a steady stream of tradesmen when we arrived in the afternoon – gas, electricity, Wimpey contractors.  The wiring in the house was slightly strange, “up is on” became a familiar cry to any visitors in the first week or so, when they couldn’t figure out why appliances or switches weren’t working.  The missing bath panel appeared.  The loft insulation was missing and although replacement rolls had been delivered to the site office at the foot of Baberton Mains Hill, they had been pinched before being delivered to us.  Eventually some appeared.  I don’t think we had realised just how many snags there could be to a new house.  The one thing we almost forgot, only discovered when my father-in-law got into his car to go home, after the fish and chip tea, was that he had the budgie cage on the back seat, complete with budgie.

Money was tight, the mortgage rate was somewhere between 8.5 and 9.0%.  Little did we know that in the following 5 years it would rise to around 15%.  We did wonder if we could manage and the financial situation sent me back to work, with tremendous support from my Mum who was there for the kids when they came out of school. Always the goal was to have our own house hopefully to pass on to the next generation.

Filling the house with totally new furniture, carpets and appliances was a struggle.  And running a car! Well!  Nonetheless, here we are, and some of the generation that grew up here in the 70s and 80s are returning with their own children to perhaps rekindle happy memories and to go to “their” school.

Proud owner of a bike given as a present on moving in

This is a personal moving in story. No doubt there are more interesting stories out there – do you have one you would like to let us have? Or maybe you have some photos of an interesting interior?   See “Contact Us” above.

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