Memories of Juniper Green
Memories of a large employer in Juniper Green ...
Taken from the Evening News 21/11/1966 it shows the presentation to John Loudon (centre) and his wife (seated) after 44 years service. Taken at the John Bryce Ltd company annual dance.
The Bryce family moved to Juniper Green from Currie around 1881 when John Bryce (Contractors) Ltd was established to carry paper to and from Woodhall Mill. From its earliest days in the 1880s, the company grew to employ almost 80 people by 1970.
Mr Loudon started driving the company's only horse and cart in the 1920s from its yard in Belmont Avenue (now Juniper Avenue) and the related petrol station on Lanark Road (the site of Iceland today).
The Bryces were a well known family in the area. So well kent that Wimpey named a street after them in the new Currie estate which backed on to their property in Belmont (now Juniper) Avenue. James ran the Temperance Hall and Lodge in Currie, and a milk business. It was his son John who spawned the various businesses that appeared in and around Juniper Green in the last 150 years. John himself as mentioned ran the haulage business which bears his name from Juniper Avenue. It was later taken over by his son Andrew, and latterly by my father, Alastair. The haulage business remained in Juniper Green until early 1970s when it became too large to run from a small residential street (you can still see the scars on some of the houses in Belmont Avenue where the lorries failed to make the turn into the yard cleanly). At that time the Council was seeking a site to relocate the bowling club which had to make way for the new City Bypass. John Bryce (Contractors) Ltd sold its Lanark Road site for the purpose (now Iceland) and made the move to Turnhouse Road. The company continued to trade there for many years with Woodhall Mill its main customer. When the mill was closed by its Canadian owners, the haulage business lost its main customer. After 100 years, it ceased to trade as a haulage business.
John Bryce's other sons were equally industrious. The Petrol Station on Lanark Road was originally his son James' coal merchant business. It was carried on by his sons Jim and Tom.
As well as keeping the haulage business, Andrew (mentioned above) kept pigs at Belmont Avenue during the Second World War. John's son John junior's dairy business ran a small office and sweet shop at the same site. John later moved his cows from Belmont Avenue to Whitelaw Farm near Baberton.
The Bryce lorries were a feature of the annual Infirmary pageant that ran between the two World Wars. The galas continued for a few years after the Second World War.
As another contributor to this website wrote two of John's daughters lived at St Anns. The big House on the north side of Belmont Road at the end of a long beech drive. John also lived there. My father has memories of visiting the property and of the sundial that stood in front of the house.
This image shows the 1965 John Bryce Ltd company football team. rear left Marshall Bryce, rear right Alastair Bryce, front right Dougie Ewen
The company were an integral part of the village of Juniper Green and many can look back with pleasure at the fun in work and with their pals during their leisure time.