Before coming to live in Baberton Mains we lived in an upper villa flat in Sighthill. From our back windows we had a panoramic view over the Farm Holdings and Fernieflats Farm to Juniper Green and the Pentlands. I often pram pushed up the old Wester Hailes Road and along the original road leading to Baberton Mains Farm.

However, all good things come to an end and our idyllic view was ruined by the building of Wester Hailes houses and the shopping complex now known as Westside Plaza. We could still see Fernieflats buildings and surrounding fields and I remember we often remarked on how many seagulls landed on the field and wondered just what the big attraction was. Since living in Baberton our garden has been perpetually over run by slugs, snails, earwigs, ants, woodlice and sundry other creepie crawlies so I now understand it was an abundant source of easily accessible food! One day I looked out of the window and was astonished to see a small aeroplane standing in the Fernieflats field! Later that day we read in the Edinburgh Evening News that a plane had indeed landed there, but I cannot now recall the reason why it did that. About this time we started to think that we should probably move to somewhere we could still have a decent view from our windows and preferably downstairs living rooms. One day we visited Kirkliston to look at Wimpey Houses there but I was not convinced that I wanted to move that far from town although I did like the houses. The estate agent very kindly told us that Wimpey would sometime in the future be building at Baberton. We decided to wait for that event and I kept a close watch on the part of the area I could still see from my window. In the summer of 1972 I saw what I thought to be houses being built, so one evening we had a walk up to see what was happening and sure enough several houses had been newly built, including three "show houses" at the top of Baberton Mains Terrace. At that time the entrance to the estate was from the old Wester Hailes road directly on to the Terrace. We were attracted to the thought of living in the area but were leaving for a holiday at the end of the following week so decided to wait until we came home to make a final decision on which house we wanted. Procrastination never pays of course and by the time we returned to make a definite reservation two weeks later, the price had risen by £500! However, we had a choice of several houses to choose from and finally settled on a corner site with a large garden and have never regretted doing so. We made sure that the adjoining wall was to the north of our house and the sun shone through the front windows in the morning, the side windows in the middle of the day and the back windows in the afternoon and evening. When we were working all this out we were looking at pegs in the ground and I was picturing where I would be standing in front of the kitchen sink and looking down on the passing traffic! Of course when the road was finally made on a higher level the passing traffic ended up looking down on me!

We then settled down to the business of selling our own home as we knew we would have about six months to do so. Everything worked out well as we sold at the end of 1972 having been given an entry date to Baberton Mains for January of 1973. We actually moved on 31st January 1973.

The first street to be completed if I remember correctly was Baberton Mains Grove and at least three houses there were occupied by people from Sighthill. 

When we eventually moved to Baberton Mains we discovered there were quite a few people who had moved from Sighthill but unfortunately most of the originals living near us have now departed this world or have moved to a different location. It was raining on the day we moved in and before darkness fell, my brother toiled to erect a shed in the back garden to hold our garden tools and equipment. We concentrated on getting beds made up for the family and ourselves and trying to fix curtains on the windows. There was no panel on which to affix curtain rails so we ended up using sticky tape to hang a temporary window covering!

We soon settled down to life at Baberton Mains arranging for milk to be delivered from the dairy at Colinton. It was an ideal arrangement until years later it mysteriously disappeared every morning from our doorstep and I had to reluctantly ask the dairy to stop the delivery. I was still a stay-at-home housewife in these days so spent a lot of time digging over the garden. I remember one day the spade hit something solid and after an hour of clearing away soil a huge boulder was exposed. There was no way I could move it and as I stood wondering just how I was going to get rid of it, Sir Galahad in the form of a Wimpey workman with a pronounced Irish accent, arrived with a digger truck. "You've got a bit of a problem" said he. "Stand back and I'll give you a hand!" He then proceeded to dig the boulder out and as the scoop rose into the air it was followed by a long length of farm fence! I do wonder where it eventually ended up! I also dug up a multitude of pieces of china and I think our house would probably be situated on the site of the Fernieflats farmhouse. Our house was the last to be built in a Westward direction at that time and when the houses in Baberton Mains Gardens were completed, building moved in a South East direction and the exit road Baberton Mains View was constructed. Meanwhile the cement mixer remained as our next door neighbour for a long time after that until eventually the construction of Baberton Mains Drive was continued Westwards to join up with its other part coming down the hill from the South. The last of the Baberton Mains Drive houses were constructed and occupied in 1975. The next phase was then built and No 1 Baberton Mains Way was occupied in January 1977, with the final houses in Baberton Mains Wood being completed later in 1977. The second estate exit road opened up in June 1986, passing underneath the railway and on to Westburn.

My diary states that I travelled into town by bus on 1st December 1986 so can only presume I was using a No. 33 which did extend into the estate after the road to Westburn opened. For some time we also had little green minibuses coming to this area but they were uncomfortable to say the least and eventually the service ceased to exist. The bus terminus was situated at Westburn and still remains there which can cause a wearisome wait until it climbs up into Baberton Mains. It can take half an hour to come home from shops that can be reached in 10 minutes by walking. However, if there is shopping to be carried, the hill can be a fair trial to the older generation who have now to depend on the bus.

When we first moved in the topsoil which had been removed from the field was piled up in the centre of the estate and was eventually made into a park. Certainly not much of it was returned to the house gardens and most of us have solid clay as garden soil! We had a lovely view from our dining room window across the fields to Baberton House and could watch cattle, grouse, a horse and various other animals feeding happily there. Everyone was very friendly in these days and I often hosted morning coffee and home bakes when the summer came round and received similar invitations in return. Life was good!

Until the roads were properly finished, Wimpey arranged to have a temporary route to Juniper Green constructed by means of a stile on to the Golf Course road and I helped many a young mother to lift her pram/pushchair over it! That would be in the days before buggies became the "in thing" and coach built prams and sturdy pushchairs were still the normal mode of transporting babies and young children. Most house owners were also car owners but cars were kept either in a garage or on a driveway and not parked on roadways. Now of course cars form one of the estate's nightmare aspects with most garages being used as store rooms and many houses having two or three cars parked in front of anyone's house where there happens to be parking space. This often gives the impression of residing in the middle of a car park but is certainly not a malaise peculiar to Baberton Mains alone but more a sign of the modern way of life.

We used to take an evening walk around the estate to see how work was progressing and to note the different styles of houses peculiar to the particular phase being built. One thing we did notice was the subtle reduction in size of rooms and quality of fitments supplied. My daughter was still attending Murrayburn School but approaching the time when she would be going on to secondary education. To begin with I would walk with her down to Sighthill until she reached her old familiar route through the houses there and would meet her when it was time to walk back home. However, when it was obvious that she would be going to Firrhill Secondary school I arranged for her to have the last six months of primary education at Juniper Green School so that she would know the classmates with whom she would be moving. The school had to accommodate many more pupils because of the increase of children of school age in the area and my daughter recalls that she and another Baberton Mains friend although doing Primary 7 work, had to sit in the Primary 6 classroom! Both Primary 6 and Primary 7 were housed in temporary classroom units located behind the old Lodge house which was situated outside the original school playground. When The Terrace was the only road entrance to the estate there was an informal pedestrian path from the Gardens through a field and thence along beside the railway to Wester Hailes road. This pathway was used a lot but was bisected by the building of the Bypass. My daughter used it to arrive at the bus stop where she and other school friends could board the No. 32 bus which deposited them close to the Firrhill School gates. That path was superseded by a tarmacadam pathway and pedestrian bridge over the bypass which is still used on a daily basis. Like most of the present day paths it has now become more of a convenient place to walk the dog and allow it to leave behind the usual mess!

Some 40 years on we are still happily living in Baberton Mains .

Mary Hinselwood May 2013

NOTES Not sure if the compass directions are completely accurate so that could be checked. When I mention dates of occupation of certain houses the information came from the actual householders so can be taken as accurate. I cannot trace exact dates of buses running into the estate but perhaps someone else can do that. I have given approximate dates where possible.