Memories of Juniper Green
Jean Brown and June Hannah remember...
In an interview with Liz Beevers and Christine McBean on 2nd October 2006.
Juniper Green School (June)
I was born in Edinburgh 23rd May 1930 but my parents moved to Woodhall Terrace in Juniper Green just after I was born so I have practically spent all my life here. I went to Juniper Green School.
I can remember the teachers quite well. The headmistress was Miss Black. Miss Fraser was another teacher and Miss Spanswick came later. She seemed young to us as all the others seemed old to us.
I would go home for lunch as I lived so close to the school. I think most of the children would go home for lunch. We used to get milk about 11am every morning, about one-third of a pint.
I was there until I was evacuated from Juniper Green to West Calder. I remember it well as I got onto the train down at the station and was issued with a tin of corned beef, a bar of York chocolate and a gas mask. To me West Calder was the other end of the Earth because I had no way of knowing how far away it was. My parents chose for me to go and all my time at West Calder school I didn't see any of my Juniper Green school mates. My sister, Jean, who is five years older than me came with me. I came back and finished my schooling at Juniper Green but I think I lost a year with all the moving. My brother was not evacuated: he joined the Royal Marines at the start of the War.
© Nutsend Productions
Bloomiehall Park where the school held its Sports' Day
I remember my sewing class during the War, that was after I had come back to Juniper Green. My mother had a lovely silk dress and I made a blouse out of it as we had a make-do -and -mend session. I was taught how to make dresses. I made a dress I was very fond of, a cotton dress with blue flowers on it, little sleeves but I don't remember the neck probably plain. There might have been a sewing machine but I know I didn't get to use it. It was all hand stitched. Later on I made my own clothes and got a treadle machine. The school games were held in Bloomiehall Park. I won the three-legged race on Sports Day in the park. We were given bags of buns and lemonade.
When I took my Qualifying Exam I had impetigo so I had to sit by myself to take it. I remember sitting there all on my own, I don't know how I passed! When I left I remember getting a prize at a prize-giving ceremony in the Hall. It was for an essay The headteacher presented the prize to me and my parents were there. I went on to Boroughmuir at aged 12 or 13.
Out and About (Jean and June)
I remember catching minnows in the Water of Leith, we did that a lot. We would put them in jam jars and bring them home. My brother swam in the river but I didn't. We used to go down there to play, my mother was a really caring mother but she didn't seem to worry: life felt safer in those days.
Juniper Green railway station where you could catch the train to Colinton or Balerno and cross the lines to go up the hill
Crossing the railway line was no bother. There was a little gate going up the hill. At the station you could buy a chocolate bar and go off for a walk up the hills. That was our treat and then we'd go for a walk, up to the farm then up the hill to the quarry, across the face of the hill, down the Poet's Glen and back through Currie home. I did that walk before the War. You would usually do that on a Sunday, a Sunday walk
June: I would walk with our next door neighbours, the young boy who died. We would go up the hill and have afternoon tea on a Sunday in the Marchbank Hotel or the Glenburn Hotel.
Jean: There was a local house too up at Balerno possibly at Logan Lea reservoir where you could get refreshments.
June: I remember my sister saying there was a van up at Harlaw where you could get drinks and things. That would be before the War.
I remember getting the train and going to Colinton library, that was a great adventure for me. We went to the library a lot my sister and I. That would be in the mid 1930s. You had to be quiet in the library. The library was up a lot of steps where the school used to be in Colinton (now a private house on Woodhall road). I don't remember going on the train on my own.
Staying in
Granny More's shop was down a few steps just west of the Kinleith Arms on Lanark Road
I remember playing a lot of games in the evenings and a lot of Monopoly. We played cards. I remember my mother singing and we listened to the radio a lot. I remember taking the accumulator up to Granny More's shop, it was quite heavy. It was dangerous too as it was acid but you didn't think about it then. Nowadays it would probably be against the law. It was down some steps near where the Kinleith Arms is but I don't know exactly where. I think it would be every fortnight or so. You left your one and you got another one.
Juniper Green in sickness and in health
I remember Dr Sellars coming to the house and standing in front of the fire warming himself. I cut my leg badly and I don't have very fond memories of that. He was a big man and he seemed quite old to me. I think he went around the village in a car. I don't remember a nurse or a midwife. I do remember that the boy next door to me died of pneumonia, his name was Graham. I'd been away that day and I knew that the boy had been ill and he had been a chum of mine living just next door. My mother was sitting in the kitchen and she had been with his mother when he died. My mother told me he had died and I think I had to take the message up to his aunt who lived up Foulis Crescent. I'd be about 13 at the time.
A few of my school friends died of TB. There was one girl along the road with it and she lived in this hut in a field at the end of Woodhall Terrace. I don't know if she was there all night but she was there during the day, they thought that fresh air was good for her.
I remember an inspector coming around to the houses and asking how many children slept in the same room. They wanted to know what accommodation we had and they must have thought it was being spread by people being too close to one another. I can think of at least 3 girls dying of TB. When I started working I remember one of my friends being sent away to a sanatorium in Switzerland in Davos, I used to write to her.
We got health checks in the school and of course we got our jags for smallpox, lined up at school. We got eye tests too. And I had to get glasses when I was quite young. I don't remember the nit nurse. I think I went to Currie for the dentist. I can remember the children's books we read while we waited.
The orchestra at Montpelier
Jean: My mother played the piano and she would go down to Montpelier to play. She went out to Canada in 1911. There was a John Miller in the orchestra and my uncle, John Muir, played the violin and Jimmy Leishman too.
Cooking and Heating
June: We had gas and I remember the little gas mantles. We had gas fires in the bedrooms and I remember my mother turning the fires down, but we had electricity installed about 1945/6.
We had coal fires and a range in the kitchen. I used to like coming down in the morning and getting the fire going. It was good to have breakfast in the warm. Then I would get the bus 15 to Boroughmuir and be there for 9am.
But to cook she had a New World gas cooker so although she had ovens at both sides of the fire she didn't use them to cook. In fact, she used to heat firewood in it. She would put the iron on top of it to keep it warm. The range would have gone when it was turned into two houses in 1965.
Gala Days
I remember the galas because the parade used to come past our house and went into a field opposite our house, there weren't the houses there are there today. This is Woodhall Terrace and this would be at the top of the Woodhall Drive.
I think they all used to come to that field. I remember watching all the wagons and carts coming along. These would be the Infirmary parades. My mother wasn't keen but I do remember a friend and I got dressed up as gypsies. My mother wasn't best pleased but I think we got into one of the carts.
That was a great occasion on gala day.
Sunday school picnics at Juniper Green
Christine: I came to Juniper Green park (Bloomiehall Park) from Portobello for my Sunday School picnic. We traveled in a double-decker bus. The local lorry driver would take up trestle tables for the picnic. They would be all set out with urns etc.