Memories of Juniper Green
Remembering Juniper Green's Goat Apple...
This story has been told by Peter Hawkins (mostly) and Val Hawkins.
Why a goat?
It all began with the Tennis Club's piece of land at the back of the tennis courts. It was a much bigger area than it is in 2007. It was where the new houses are opposite the Village Hall and where the old school kitchens stood. The cutting of the grass always fell to Peter and he thought it would be a good idea to have a goat to go on this land. It was all nicely fenced in so the goat couldn't escape, and it would eat the grass and that would save him having to cut it. Also, he might get into goat's milk and cheese later on. This must have been 1985.
Where did you get her?
Peter bought the goat from a place at Damhead where there's an organic farm now. The farmer said he could get him a young one. She was a British Toggenberg a pedigree line of goats. Her sire had names which included Romeo, Casanova and Hercules! The farmer brought her over in a van. She didn't cost a fortune, £70 or so. We thought it would be an interesting adventure.
How did you accommodate her?
© Nutsend Productions
Some of the houses on Woodhall Terrace including Peter and Val Hawkin's home in the 1980s. Apple lived at the back of Peter and Val's house.
At night Apple stayed in a hut like a shed that Peter built at the bottom of our garden in Woodhall Terrace. She had quite enough room and plenty of straw and was quite comfortable there, but she couldn't spend all day there, so before Peter went to work he took her over to the tennis courts and brought her back at night.
Did she eat the grass?
The first thing we discovered was that goats are basically browsers rather than grazers, which means that they'd much rather eat hedges and flowers than grass. On her way to and from the tennis courts Apple wanted to stop at every garden and go in and have a nibble at whatever she fancied.
What about the neighbours?
Most of the neighbours got to recognise her and were quite happy for her to go in and have a bit of a nibble. Of course, we didn't know everyone and couldn't let her go everywhere and it was good exercise for Peter to keep her off everybody's garden. Sometimes instead of bringing her straight back after work, Peter would let her go around the neighbourhood. She wasn't supposed to eat privet but she loved it. She'd pretty well eat anything. She didn't really like to eat thorny stuff but she would if there wasn't anything else. It was amazing what she could cope with. Eventually, Peter latched on to a walkman and he listened to music as Apple chomped away. Sometimes he would take her down the Dell where she could eat elder. She loved that. That would take longer. Or Peter would take her to the little triangle by the school or any little green patch where she wouldn't cause any trouble. The only time Peter had a problem was when he took her down Woodhall Avenue. There was a garden there that was a bit neglected and he thought nobody lived there. So, she had a lovely time eating all the weeds and flowers. But, suddenly Peter saw a face at the window. So he pulled Apple away and made apologetic gestures. It turned out the occupant was confined to a wheelchair and that's why Peter hadn't seen him. After this the occupant of that house got quite pally and we used to have a chat. In those days the bus used to turn round in the village, driving up Baberton Avenue then turning along Belmont Road and going up Juniper Avenue. The bus drivers must have thought they were in the sticks when they saw Apple browsing at the tennis courts!
Did Apple ever escape?
Despite the fence, she escaped regularly. She'd appear in the school playground and there'd be a frantic phone call from the Head Teacher "Mrs Hawkins, Apple's in the school playground" "Sorry I'll be right round." Other phone calls were along the lines of "Did you know Apple's in the garden of number 6 eating the roses?" Another time she got down to the Lanark Road, all the way down Baberton Avenue where she terrorized the bus queue, nosing curiously into their shopping bags. Then, when the bus came along she wanted to get on it with everyone else, but she didn't have a ticket. At this point Norrie MacLeod, then Chairman of the Village Association came by and had the presence of mind to tether her to the bus stop by her lead and phone us to collect her.
Did you get milk and cheese?
We realised if we wanted to have milk and cheese she'd have to have kids. So we found that the nearest billy goat was out on the A702 near Nine Mile Burn. She had to be taken at the right time for conception on a three week cycle. This was wintertime and the earliest we could take her was January 2. Well, you know what January 2 is like in Scotland. Absolutely nothing happens. Anyway, we had managed to hire a van beforehand and my good neighbour, Pat MacErlean offered to give me a hand with the whole operation. Peter drove the van and Pat sat in the back with the goat. It was a hard winter with a load of snow and ice on the road. Down the track to the farm was a nightmare as it was covered with ice and the further you got down the steeper it was and there was a sheer drop at one side. So, it was very dodgy. Peter said to Pat you can walk down if you'd rather and he said "Yes I really would!" Peter drove it down and at the bottom there was nobody there, so we walked back to the farm at the top and the guy said the goats are up here so we needn't have gone down that track after all. There was no place to turn at the bottom so Peter had to reverse it back, an even worse nightmare. Eventually, we got to the right place so the farmer said "Bring her in." There were two billy goats there an old boy grey at the gills and a younger one. The old one would have cost £8 and the young one £12, so we let Apple decide. She seemed to favour the old boy. Both the goats were highly excited. The old boy got on with the job. He had another go 20 minutes later and the farmer said if it doesn't work come back another time. After what Peter had been through he certainly didn't want to come back. Sure enough Apple got pregnant and around June we began to get excited about the birth.
What happened at the birth?
This took place on the tennis courts grass late one evening. Val was alerted by her friend Halina who had seen the first kid born. They both attended the second kid and as it was a cold evening wrapped it in a towel. However, Apple was having none of that. She instinctively seemed to know what to do, pulling off the towel and licking the kids, who soon found their feet and started to suckle. She produced two very nice kids- both were female luckily. We had to think up names in keeping with the pedigree. As Apple was a fruit tree beginning with "A" we chose Apricot and Avocado. They were identical twins. We couldn't tell them apart. It was now a mighty effort as Peter had to take the whole family, Apple as well as the kids, to the tennis courts. The kids loved the rockery outside their shed. They seemed to recognise their native territory and spent as much time as possible leaping up and down on it destroying all the plants. Apple was feeding the kids and giving us milk as well. Peter never really got the hang of it. She kept kicking the milk churn over.
What effect did the kids have on the village?
The schoolchildren loved Apple and made lots of cards for her with half an apple stuck on the front and saying things like "Apple you are the best goat in the whole wide wirrold" and "I love goats lik (sic) apple" Happy Birthday, Apple!" They would go and pet her and give her titbits. Once a whole group visited with their teacher and had their hat bobbles, gloves and scarf ends nibbled! The old people used to like going over too. One fan used to turn up regularly at 11am with a couple of digestive biscuits, Apple expectantly waiting at the fence at the right time each morning.
Would you say Apple had a personality?
She was quite amenable and had a lovely nature. Val remembers one winter when the pavements were very slippery and taking Apple to the tennis courts, or rather Apple taking Val. Apple kept looking round at Val as if to say why don't you hurry along a bit and when Val did fall over, Apple patiently waited for her to get up. She was a very good mother to the kids.
Tailpiece?
In the summer we went on holiday leaving Apple in the good care of our neighbour, Marjorie. Through no fault of Marjorie's and unbeknown to us Apple fell very sick, possibly from a gift of garden cuttings which must have contained rhododendron or something similar. Marjorie was like an angel to Apple. She called the vet (who put Apple on a drip which he hung from the climbing frame in the garden) and enlisted the help of our other very good neighbour, Mary Mendum who had grown up on a farm and had raised goats for shows. Mary looked after the kids weaning them onto the bottle. This was an act of sheer devotion as it involved night feeds at the start.
Meantime, Marjorie tended Apple as if she was a member of her own family even setting the alarm to get up in the night and ensuring Apple would survive by going down to her shed and turning her face from the wall and telling her not to die. After all this loving care Apple survived and the inevitable happened. Marjorie couldn't be parted from Apple. By this time Peter realized that Apple was not the best grass cutter in the world, so was able to transfer her to Marjorie's care.
The kids ended up first in a day center attended by people with disabilities of various kinds. They were a great success and provided an endless source of entertainment as well as needing to be looked after. But, being pedigree goats they spontaneously came into milk and as there was no one there to milk them at weekends they were later transferred to an animal centre in Balerno.
Meanwhile, Peter had decided that the best grass eater would be a sheep, so he got one with "lamb at foot" but that's another story!
Left to right Councillor Hugh Fraser, Councillor Beth Brereton, Councillor Paolo Vestri and on the far right Val Hawkins at a public meeting campaigning to save the Juniper Green tennis courts in 1989
Postscript: Later that same decade Val Hawkins played a leading part in saving the tennis courts for the residents of Juniper Green through a successful public campaign involving meetings, lobbying and arguing a cogent case for the retention of healthy sporting facilities within the village.