Memories of Juniper Green
Reminiscences from schoolchildren when the bulldozer came to Juniper Green
The BBC Radio programme "Where I Live" broadcast as part of a series called "Scottish Studies" in the Spring term of 1982 featured three children from Juniper Green Primary School. The three children quoted would be in primary five and therefore aged between 9 and 10 years old. Two of them are talking about a new by-pass being built near their homes. The three comments came from respectively Shelley Irwin, Kevin Anderson and Karen Brown.
When the City by-pass was built the Juniper Green Bowling Club had to move one mile further west into the heart of the village
"I live in a cul-de-sac that is quiet and friendly. There was a field near my house but they started to make a road. It was very noisy when they started to work in the morning at 7am, all the diggers and trucks."
"I live in Juniper Green Edinburgh near the grain mill. I think my house was built around 1939. I like living there as I see all the lorries. The house is near a river. The sounds of the mill don't really bother me but when the by-pass was opened it was a bit noisy until I got used to it."
"In my street there is a wall and in the wall is a blue door and that is my gang hut. I like my street because it is quiet and every summer I ride my bike. When it is over my sister and I go out into the garden to play. Behind my house there are trees and behind the trees there is a golf course. We sometimes find golf balls in our garden. We have found two while we have lived there. One day in the winter my sister and I went out in the snow, the snow was nearly over the top of our boots. In summer I like to watch the buds opening on the trees."
A view of the village in 2007 with the City by-pass cutting through the Juniper Green landscape