In October 1977 we got keys to our new house in Baberton Mains. This was in the last phase of building the estate and our address was 34 Baberton Mains Way. The Way runs parallel to the drive of Baberton House and their drive had an avenue of tall mature trees. The new house cost £13,900 and was a two bedroom, sitting room and eat-in kitchen and importantly a garden. The staircase, which was open slatted, led out of the living room and was a feature we really liked. We had come from a flat, with 2 boys aged almost 4 and 8. Before we bought the house, Jackie Ritchie, the Wimpey salesman, had tried valiantly to get us to buy the next model up (which had a box room) – but money was tight and we just couldn’t afford it. House prices generally in 1977 were rising quickly, and having lost out on a flat or two (and also having had to pay for a survey on these), we were attracted to a fixed price new house. Mortgages were not so easy to come by either and we had to rely on Robert’s salary – without taking into account any on-call work which he did as a biomedical scientist.
We got the keys on 20 October 1977, and unfortunately on handover day there was no gas meter nor electricity connected, no bath panel and no loft insulation. I remember seeing a delivery of loft insulation to the site office and thinking “That’ll be our insulation then” – but the next day when I went along to ask about it, it had disappeared. A couple of days later my father-in-law helped us move in with a Mitchell’s self-drive 3 ton truck which had most of our belongings in it. We had given in the keys to the flat a week earlier, so our in-laws kindly stored our furniture in their garage until we got the house keys. We had stayed with my Mum in the interim week. I remember before we moved in we had borrowed my in-laws’ car and come up to the estate to seek a few details from Jackie Ritchie when we met a cow in the middle of the road. The bypass hadn’t been built then and there were still fields in that location. Robert stopped the car and I got out to shoo the animal away, with Robert shouting after me “That’s not a cow, it’s a bull!” Needless to say I was back in the car quickly and we went to the site office to report it.
The houses in phase 4 were built to metric dimensions although I believe the original houses were still on the Imperial standard. I well remember one weekend my husband trying to repair some piping under the kitchen sink, and he couldn’t understand why his fittings (O rings I think) were not quite right. Of course when he was working on the pipes the water was off – no at all convenient when you have kids who needed the loo. We paid a plumber weekend rates to come out – and he soon sussed we needed metric fittings.
Strangely the house in the Way was zoned into Midlothian for voting purposes. There were about 20 houses in this small sliver of the estate. It was sorted out eventually but it may have had something to do with the old Parish boundaries.
We stayed here I suppose because it was convenient, although at first we didn’t have a car and had to walk to the bus or the shops along Baberton Mains Rise and then down the “railway path”. The path took a slightly different wiggly route then and was changed quite a bit when the bypass was built. I well remember having to pull the tartan shopping trolley after having visited either Presto or the Co-op at Wester Hailes. Our oldest son joined Juniper Green Primary. It wasn’t too easy for him to make friends at first, he joined in Primary 3 – there were many who had been there all their schooldays. Our youngest went to Nursery at the high flats in Sighthill – that was a long walk! A couple of months later he went to “big school” with his brother.
My husband was a biomedical scientist in the biochemistry lab in the Royal Infirmary, which is the modern term for his job, but in those days I think he was described as a medical laboratory scientific officer. We met each other in the lab because I did the same job. He travelled to work by bus at first, which wasn’t too easy when he was on duty till 10pm – he had to make sure he was up at the High Street by 10.30pm to catch a No 30 bus home. The 30 stopped at the Wester Hailes Centre and he had to walk up the railway path, BM Rise and then the Way – about 12 minutes. It was bliss when we finally managed to afford an old Vauxhall Viva Estate. I didn’t work outside our home at that time and even though money was tight we managed.
When our youngest was due to go to school, I decided (with my Mum who had just retired) that I would get a job. I didn’t want to go back to the Lab. - one of us doing odd duties and overnights was enough – so I applied to the Civil Service and got a post initially as a typist in Crown Office. My husband stayed in the Royal Infirmary all his working life, but I moved to General Register Office, Registers of Scotland and then to Scottish Office on promotion each time, but still in the Civil Service. My Mum came out to Baberton every day from Gardners Crescent and gave the boys their tea and looked after them in the holidays. She also baby-sat our black Labrador, Rory. It was she who got to know the neighbours (and the gossip!)
In 1984 we were able to move to our present detached 3 bedroom house in Baberton Mains Drive, so that the boys could have a bedroom each. We have been here ever since, as have most of our neighbours. Turnover of houses here has been very small.
Donald (the oldest) moved from Juniper Green Primary to Firrhill High School for his secondary career in 1981. Balerno High School was not yet complete and JG children were zoned into the Firrhill catchment. Russell however, in 1986 I think, went to Currie High School. Unfortunately when the time came to choose his GCSE subjects, the school could not offer him Chemistry, Physics and Biology at O grade so on his behalf I applied to Balerno, Boroughmuir and the Royal High who all did the 3 sciences. Mr Farquharson, head at the Royal High phoned us and offered Russell a place. It was certainly a good move for him and he caught the 32 bus to and from school every day.
When we came to Baberton there were no buses in the estate. This was proving to be a problem to the teenagers when they wanted to spread their wings a little. SMT started a “C5” service which was a kind of small mini-bus affair which you could hail anywhere in the estate. It must have been around 1985 I think because we were in this house in the Drive. After quite a lot of opposition LRT also started a scheduled service “33”, which still runs into the centre of town. LRT told us that it was in 1987 the service 33 started. The opposition to the bus was quite marked – I remember a “sit-down” in the road which was written up in the Evening News. I’m not sure why the opposition was so marked, maybe snobbery, maybe safety, but anyway the C5s disappeared, the No 33 LRT arrived. This was much to my personal annoyance since the C5 had been a direct route to Meadowbank House where I worked at the time.
The school was for us the centre of social interaction – unless of course you went to the local Church in Juniper Green. The school janitor, Mr Bates (Alfie) used to run the very successful school football team. Donald didn’t quite make it into the team, but Russell did and he absolutely loved it – being the goalie. The school team was his passport to other teams and he played for Salvesen boys (which included Jackie McNamara) and for Tynecastle boys. It was possible to hire the big hall at the school and Robert and I used to play badminton with other parents and even neighbours without children at the school came along. Once Wester Hailes Education Centre was built we used the very good facilities there, which were open to the whole community. I remember WHEC advertising a basketball course in the summer, and Donald and his friend Graham signed up for it. Well, we and Graham’s parents got a letter from the PE teacher saying the course was not designed for our children; it was for the deprived children of Wester Hailes. This was like a red rag to a bull for me and I complained to the Director of Education, receiving an apology and an offer of a place – although we didn’t take it up. Inverted snobbery or what?
Much of the grown-ups socialising was done in the local cul-de-sacs. Meals in each other’s houses, outings and so on were pretty local.
When we moved to our present house the bypass was just past the planning stage. While the fields were still there in the summer there were children camping in the fields sometimes and availing themselves of our doorstep milk from time to time. For years I had my milk delivered to the back door. The bypass has been shielded from our house by a large banking, planted with a mix of deciduous and evergreens. It works well as a sound baffle and is home to a number of bird species, squirrels and foxes – and the occasional group of drinking teenagers. When we stayed in Baberton Mains Way we were visited by a badger whose footprints were clearly left in the snow one winter – after he had emptied our metal dustbin.
When we moved to Baberton in 1977 Jackie Ritchie was promising all sorts of amenities – maybe a wee shop, certainly a playground in the green space in the middle of the estate and there was even talk of a pub. None of these materialised, which was a shame. My boys had tried to use some of the facilities at Westburn but had firmly been warned off, by the local Wester Hailes kids who were very proprietorial about the play facilities.
My boys used to go and play on the green space which we now know as Curriemuirend (this was before the bypass was built and the slip road didn’t exist). I think Baberton children would go there in preference to Bloomiehall in Juniper Green. There were 2 flat areas, and impromptu games of football, cricket and rounders were played. Some golf practice also took place. Many folk used to walk their dogs there too. In the winter there was an excellent sledging slope. Its use has diminished in the last 15 years. Some dog walkers feel “hemmed in” and unable to get a clear view now that there are groups of trees planted. A beautiful play park was vandalised and trashed – primarily because it was put in a place which was not able to be seen by responsible adults. Walking across it can be a lonely experience too. On the plus side it has had spring bulbs planted and is a treasured green space, something that is sadly lacking in the Estate itself.
Over the years you could say that all life is here. A murder or two, a rogue chased by the police over the back gardens, house-breakings, and an unfortunate child accident, as well as the many successes of young people. Reputedly at least 2 professional golfers and at least one television presenter grew up here. Most folk are hardworking, featuring engineers, taxi drivers, small business owners, hairdressers, bank staff and civil servants and university staff. Part of Baberton now has many retired people, who are now grandparents and helping their own children by looking after the grandchildren.
There are many more cars too in the estate. In the 70s children walked to school, often in large groups. Women doing the shopping either went up the hill to Juniper Green and the village shops or for those near the bottom of the estate they would walk down the railway path to the shops at Wester Hailes. There were 2 supermarkets at Wester Hailes, Presto (later Safeway) and the Co-op. Juniper Green had Scott’s the butcher and a greengrocer, post office, chip shop, pubs, chemist and sweetie shops. As people get older they appreciate having a car, but it does cut down social interaction.
I am now widowed and my children have left and made lives of their own. Will I stay in Baberton? Who knows, it is an area I know, with people I know and I love my garden and have good neighbours.