Memories of Juniper Green
John Fisher remembers...
...in an interview with David Geary on Sunday 15th October 2006.
School and family
There were horses being used on the farms when John Fisher's father worked at Woodhall Mains Farm before the Second World War
I was born in 1925 and had to walk down the fields from Torphin Cottage where I lived to get to the school in Juniper Green. Bill Blair was born there too. My father worked on the Woodhall Farm. I was brought up on the farm and it was a treat to go in to Edinburgh so I didn't really know my way around the city then. If we went up town, we got home by getting the tramcar to Colinton. Its last stop was opposite the public toilets. I can remember people coming for a trip from the city to Bloomiehall Park.
The young boys used to go down and swim at the waterfalls just between the station and the paper mill. It was deep enough. The parents used to come and watch the kids diving and swimming and having a great time. That's where I learned to swim in the Water of Leith.
The building on Baberton Avenue that was the first school in Juniper Green and became the janitor's house from 1922
When I went to the school, the janitor stayed in the old school house. I remember a Miss Nell Fraser was my teacher at the school. Fraser is a well-known local name. Nell was actually at school with my father there. Nell taught Mrs Fisher at Balgreen School and then joined Juniper Green Primary and taught our children there. Our Grandchildren also went to Juniper Green School. Three generations of one family.
I was at school between 1930 and 1939 until I was 14 years old. You could leave when you were 14 in those days. Then as Juniper Green became part of Edinburgh I went to Tynecastle.
When I went to school, the tennis courts were there but there was a kitchen where there are new houses now, opposite the village hall. It was where they cooked all the meals for the schools. It used to be a row of farm cottages when I first went to school. Just at the entrance to Baberton Golf Club was a lodge house and that was where my mother and father lived later. My father worked on the Baberton Mains farm down by the golf course and he moved there during the war. Then eventually he got a job as a gardener at Baberton House. Prior to his death he lived in the lodge. It's knocked down now. Before the war there were big iron gates at the entrance to the golf club. But of course during the war the metal was taken away for the war effort.
I left school at 14 and like most boys got a local job delivering papers or you got a job in the mills. I got a job in the St Cuthberts store. At that time the baker's van was a horse and cart and 3 of them were in operation. They did all their baking at the back of the store. We went round in a square van round Blinkbonny and places like that.
The war
When I was fifteen it was the Second World War and I joined the land defence volunteers which was then changed to the home guard. Then when I was seventeen I joined the navy and was away for the second half of the war. I was on submarine patrol on a frigate in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean and later in the channel for D-Day.
Building the business: first the horse and cart
When I was de-mobbed I got a small sum of money and bought a horse and cart with it. I originally started to go round Juniper Green with this horse and cart selling fruit and vegetables. I bought it from a dealer called Stoddart and it cost me £32. The business started with a friend and we called it Downie and Fisher but he soon left and set up a gardening business from the nursery which used to be next to Lorimer House. I stayed on selling fruit and vegetables and my brother helped me for a while so I got two horses.
"Shop at your Door"
Eventually I bought an old 1932 Ford lorry from Eddie Downs in Colinton for £100 in the late 1940's. While my brother was still working with me we bought another vehicle which was an old army van or ambulance which we turned into a travelling shop. Then my brother took a shop in town: I was quite happy to keep on with the van though I bought a newer one. The logo I used to have on the van was "Shop At Your Door". Moving with the times I had a van designed and specially made. It had lights inside and people could come in and walk round it, as it was so well planned and spacious. I had a really good business in the village. Everyone knew me.
Then I had the chance to sell fruit from a proper shop next to where the Mercedes Garage is in Craiglockhart. I bought this from a Joe Riley nearly 40 years ago. That was when I sold the van.
I used the market on Market Street behind Waverly Station for my goods. Of course it moved to Chesser but there's no real need for a market in Edinburgh now.
Shops in Juniper Green
Next to St Cuthberts was a paper shop called Bob Stuart's later run by his nephew Dougie Stuart who I know well. He kept pigeons. The electrician's was a sweetie shop at one time. Moving east there was Lizzie Martin's grocery shop and next to it was a little dairy which used to be thatched. Next to the dairy was a cobbler, he had a shop in Colinton as well. Picken I think his name was. That was where I got my football boots repaired when I played football for the school in the days when you nailed in your studs to the boot. The cobbler may be where the Chinese is now. Graham the baker was next to that. Then down from there was the manse for the old St Margaret's church. Henderson was the minister then. The manse had a lot of ground and I used to go and steal pears from their tree.
Gillon the butcher stood where the chippie is now and Annie McKinnon was the lady who worked in the shop. Then there was a house, a sweetie shop. and next to that was a policeman's house (Juniper Cottage). No relation but his name was Sergeant Fisher. It was almost like a police station but that was where he lived. And next to that was Graham Scott in the post office. I delivered papers for him in the 1930's between the ages of 12 - 14.
The snuff mill just west of Juniper Green past the railway bridge at the edge of the village
The Station Brae next to the post office took you down to the Woodhall paper mill. My grandfather worked in the paper mill all of his life. Then just after the first house just past the church ( 521 Lanark road) there used to be a road down to the snuff mill. Anderson lived in that house. There is still a way onto the river from that path. , The same family had Baberton farm, too. Anderson was the name, and Mr Anderson was the blacksmith at the top of Juniper Avenue.
Many of the other houses haven't changed much over the years. Lorimer House used to be called Torduff house. Henry Bruce, son of the old owner of the Kinleith paper mill stayed there. Henry Bruce also owned Braeburn house up past Blinkbonny. They had a nursery at Torduff house and grew all their own vegetables.
Then you had Tanners, which was known as the "bottom pub". The Kinleith was the "top pub". Coming back on the North side of Lanark Road, you had Muirend Avenue, which was just fields behind. Viewfield came later. Then there was the bowling green, with next to it the manse for St Andrew's church. Foulis Crescent only went in so far then it was fields until you got to Woodhall Terrace. That's why you have the street names changing half way down what appears to be the same street today. Baberton Crescent was built later.
Dr Tam Sellar
The Bield was the doctor's house. Tam Sellar was his name. He was an old worthy. You used to sit there and wait your turn and you could smell his pipe. He used to tell me that I had a good colour of skin probably because I worked outside. He would say "there's nothing wrong with you sonny. You have far too fine a colour".
Moving on to Forsyth's the greengrocer's, it was a wooden hut which was forward from the building where the chemist is now. You had the old bank which we used to use. The petrol station was across the road from the new Bank. Then you had Hutton's which became Bert Porteous where they used to make their own sweeties. Ella Porteous Bert's sister passed away earlier this year. Then you had Cattanach's grocer shop which is where Scott's is now. They also delivered by horse and cart. Then of course further up you had Bryce's yard which was a coal yard. It also had old-fashioned petrol pumps. The old mother stayed in the house next to it. Then the Kinleith and there was a smithy round the corner on Juniper Avenue. Further up Lanark Road you had Ferguson the painter and next door to that was a dairy.
Paraffin lamps
Mrs Roberts outside the grocer shop on Lanark Road opposite the top of Juniper Avenue
Talking about electricity in Juniper Green, when I stayed on the farm it was paraffin lamps. When we got married and stayed in the cottage at the farm we had paraffin lamps too. We stayed there for 7 years. First though we stayed in a room above Bob Stuart's shop for 6 months. I can remember when it was gas lamps in the streets but I'm not sure when it was converted.
The park was a dairy at one time too. The old buildings you see as you go into Bloomiehall were outhouses for the farm.
I'm 81 years old now. I miss the old days because people had time to stop and talk to you. Not like now where everyone is in too much of a rush.