Memories of Juniper Green
I remember... traveling to Edinburgh
The number 8 bus would travel from Waverley Bridge to Juniper Green via Slateford
I remember, I remember the house where I was born, Redthorne in Juniper Green (opposite Iceland). Redthorne was originally a small farm with a byre for 24 cows and grazing down the Back Braes.
At one time the village was surrounded by farms, Whitelaw, Baberton, Fernieflat, Wester Hailes, now mostly housing developments. In the village itself were Bryce's Farm (now Anchor Houses) and Bloomiehall Farm on the way to what is now Bloomiehall Park (Woodhall Thistle, the local football team whose home ground was Bloomiehall Park, were winners of the King's Cup in 1937!). On the other side of the 'Burn' were, and still are, Woodhall, Easter Kinleith, Mid Kinleith, Wester Kinleith and Rosebank farms.
The 'Burn' - the Water of Leith - was a happy hunting ground for children. We fished for minnows, collected frogspawn and kept it until tadpoles and then little frogs grew. Bird watching for herons, dippers, kingfishers, etc. was another pastime and everyone had an egg collection! Not allowed now. We also swam in the 'Burn' and the boys dived into the Dookin' Hole.
Apart from the fun, the 'Burn' was a hive of industry with paper mills at Balerno, Kinleith (Currie),
Mossie Mill (Currie Muirend) and Woodhall at Juniper Green. Each of these mills made different types of paper.
Kinleith was originally owned by the three Finlay brothers and on a visit to Ontario I discovered,
at St. Catherine, the same brothers had started a paper mill there, also called Kinleith.
The following is an extract from a Toronto publication dated 1947:
the three Scotsmen who did so much to further the excellence of Canadian fine papers were the Finlay
Brothers - Edward, James D. and William Gilroy. They were all born in Juniper Green, near Edinburgh,
and all learned the craft of papermaking in the famous Kinleith Mill there.
There were also snuff mills. I particularly remember Jen Muir's. There, there was a large cauldron of snuff and we loved having a sniff, which made us sneeze non-stop.
The only way into town was the railway train (the station was down behind St. Margaret's Court) and what a treat that was, especially going through the tunnel at Colinton. We walked through the fields to Colinton and took the tram to town. Later, we could go all the way to Granton or Portobello for one and a half pennies (old money).
When I started work, I went by train to the Caledonian (Caley) Station.
I earned 10 shillings per week which was good - the average was 7 shillings and 6 old pence.
Later, the Corporation ran a bus (number 8) from Waverley Bridge to Juniper Green.
Both the train and bus services were terrific.
The train would whistle to let us know it was coming and if you were at the top of the Station Brae you had to run.
I went down behind the house and along the Woodhall Mill track and if I wasn't quite there, the driver would wait for me!
If there was a queue for the number 8 bus at Waverley or the West End, the conductor would call,
Juniper Green passengers first
so we were never left behind by the short-distance travellers.
When the SMT buses started running, they would drop me off at my gate at lunch time.
One day I was window gazing at Wilkie's and the conductor got off the bus, came along and asked,
Are you going home or are you shopping?
It's changed days now!