Some Young Memories of Juniper Green
by Alastair Hardie

When I was about 2 years old in 1932 my parents rented a cottage for about 6 months (so my father told me) at 10 or 12 Baberton Avenue. All I can remember of that time was going back and forward under the living room table on my little tricycle! Little did I know then that I would return to live in the village 45 years later in 1977.

Cottages on the east side of Baberton Avenue

One Christmas Eve in either 1940 or 1941, my mother and I walked up the length of the dark and quiet Wester Hailes Road from where we lived at Sighthill, our house being the last one in the Calder Road, bordering on fields and countryside. The Wester Hailes Road in those days was a winding country road which stretched over the Murrayburn and the Union Canal and twisted and turned past Potter's Farm (worked by a relation of my Uncle Jimmy Potter from Ardrishaig) until it eventually reached Juniper Green. Our destination that night was the Christmas Eve carol service in St Margaret's Church. The church was in darkness except for a small spotlight in the pulpit (there was a wartime blackout on at the time!). Sitting in it we could hear carollers coming along the Lanark Road singing. They entered the church and walked down the centre aisle still singing and carrying one lit candle to lead the gathered congregation in a carol service. This memory engraved itself on the memory of a ten or eleven year old to last a lifetime!

St Margaret's Church remembered for its wartime Christmas Eve service

In 1945 for one of my Scout badges (the Explorer Badge) I had to explore thoroughly an area of at least 3 miles round my home (at Sighthill) and make a full report on the history of the area, giving particulars and history of any antiquities or places of special interest. My explorations touched very briefly on Juniper Green as follows... "Near Woodhall, in the parish of Colinton, is the little modern village of Juniper Green, chiefly celebrated as being the temporary residence of Thomas Carlyle. His state of health required perfect quiet, if not absolute solitude, but at Juniper Green his humble cottage on the north side of the main street was much frequented by the literary society of the day - de Quincey, Christopher North and Dr Chalmers. David Masson, the biographer of Milton, lived and entertained many a guest at Gowanlee."