Memories of Juniper Green
Janette Stacey (nee Porteous) remembers her family in Juniper Green...
This article has been constructed following discussions with Liz Beevers from notes made at a meeting on 8th December 2006 with Janette and subsequently augmented by Jeanette herself when on holiday in sunny Spain.
Janette Stacey (nee Porteous) in the company of her former classmate Lesley MacIver (nee Stuart) at the coffee morning at St Margaret's Court on January 4th 2007, meeting again after a thirty year gap
When Bert Porteous closed the doors to his shop at 558 Lanark Road in August 1981, it was the end of an era for his family as various members had owned the shop since the early 1900's and had also lived in the house called Hazelbank to the side of and behind the shop.
Mrs Isabella Watt, Bert's granny, originally lived in Edinburgh where she was a lithographer in a printing firm together with her first husband Thomas Watt who was also a lithographer there. They had a son Robert who eventually emigrated to Canada and two daughters, Isabella and Elizabeth. It was her daughter Isabella Watt with her husband Frank Porteous who became the parents of Robert (Bert), John and Isabella (Ella). Thomas Watt died when he was quite young from consumption and subsequently Isabella Watt (senior) married for the second time. Her new husband was called John Hutton who was a manager in a printing firm in Edinburgh. So, this is how, although Bert's mum's maiden name was Watt, his granny is called "Granny Hutton". Granny Hutton and her husband had sixteen children one of whom was a son called George whose wife Margaret Hutton worked in the shop in Juniper Green and can be seen in the centre of the following photograph taken outside the premises in the 1920s, with Granny Hutton on the left hand side of the picture, and a friend of Granny Hutton's - Mrs Marion Ireland on the right. The incline outside the shop was known locally as Hutton's Brae.
Granny Hutton's sister, Mrs. Gillespie, owned the shop in the early 1900's and Granny Hutton was living at Hazelbank by 1918. The shop at that time was called Bon Marche. Mrs Gillespie went to America in 1922 and that was when Frank and Bella Porteous moved to Juniper Green from Edinburgh to take over the shop. In 1928, Frank and Bella Porteous and their family emigrated to Canada. It was at that time that Granny Hutton took over the shop.
The Tweedie side of the family
Tom Tweedie was born on the 2nd of February 1878and he married Janet Haston. He worked in Woodhall Paper Mill. Janet Haston has her father's occupation on her death certificate shown as farm labourer. Tom and Janet lived on Belmont Avenue.
Janet Tweedie (nee Haston) with her daughter Jean in the pram and son Jimmy Tweedie standing in Belmont Avenue
Jean Tweedie was friendly with Ella Porteous and Charlotte Dea and all three can be seen in the photograph below.
In this photograph on the far left is Jean Tweedie (Janette's mum), with the hat is Ella Porteous and possibly Charlotte Dea
My mother always said "If you throw a stone in Juniper Green you'll hit one of my relatives!" Jean's brothers (Willie and Jimmy) worked in West Mill-the Porage oats mill. Jean's uncle - Jock Tweedie lived to 102, having a cataract operation in his 90s. He loved football.
The Porteous side of the family
Bert Porteous was born in 1911 to Frank Porteous and Isabella Watt. Frank and Bella's emigration to Canada did not work out due to the worldwide Depression in the late 1920s. There was no work to be had and so they returned to Juniper Green. Frank had been a confectioner to trade in Edinburgh, working in Duncan's chocolate factory and he set up a workroom at the back of the shop at 558 where he made Edinburgh rock and also the kind of rock with the name of the town in the middle which was sold at holiday seaside resorts. I remember, as a child, being mesmerised by the throwing of the hot gooey mess onto large hooks to stretch it and also the huge scissors used to cut the rock into pieces. There was always a lovely sweet smell in this workroom and it was also very warm from the furnace. The heat from the furnace fired a Rayburn stove upstairs and this room too was very warm. In 1934 Bert took over the shop until his retirement in August 1981 at the age of 70.
Entertainment in the village included concerts for the old folks and the picture shows such a concert in the early 1950s.
On the immediate left of the lady with the hat on in the front row is Janet Tweedie (nee Haston) and on the lady with the hat's immediate right is Mrs Traill. At the far right in the third row with a hat on and a pair of glasses is my paternal grandmother Bella Porteous (mother of Bert) and her husband Frank Porteous can be described as being in line with Mrs Traill's right shoulder and 4 rows behind
Janette lived in Woodhall Drive with maternal grandmother Mrs Janet Tweedie nee Haston and moved into the shop house in 1952. A school photograph taken around that time is shown below.
BA photograph from Juniper School in the 1950s with
Back row, from left to right: Sandy McGill, John Whittles, Gavin Thomson, Douglas Galloway, Douglas Edgar, Stewart Walker, Malcolm Mann, unknown;
Next row: Anne Tinker (American), Diane Crombie, Joyce Cairns, Robert Phillips, William Armstrong, Jack Graham, Andrew Keddie, John Gillies, Michael Caithness, Michael Parks, Peter Burger, Morag Webster, Evie MacDonald, Sheila Dorward;
Front row: Denise Russell, Pamela Garwood, Marilyn Glaister, Dorothy Turnbull, unknown, Patricia McCulloch, Lesley Stewart, Janette Porteous
Janette was joint dux with Sandy McGill at Juniper Green School in 1959.
Bert Porteous wore a grey overall to work (which was a devil to iron) and kept a pencil behind his ear. The blue external door was kept open by a heavy weight. Jars of sweeties were kept behind the counter while others were displayed on aluminium trays with polythene over them to keep off little fingers. Bert's wife Jean helped in the shop. She wore a flowery overall.
Juniper Green players in the late 1970s: Ella Porteous far left, Mary Simpson back row with hat, Barry Mathews second from left at the back, Graham Kerr in flowery shirt at the back
Bert was very good natured and had a dry sense of humour. One day he was serving a customer when a lady came into the shop in a bit of a rush. She said to Bert, "I'm in a hurry, I want to catch a bus, do you have a mousetrap?" To which Bert replied, "Yes, but I don't know if I have one big enough to catch a bus!"
The shop closed after 47 years in Bert's possession in 1981 and his last customer was his niece Mrs Susan Gilchrist (nee Porteous).
In 1981 Bert converted his shop back to a house (Hazelbank) and when the Village Association gifted him a sum of money he spent it on some roses for the front which everyone could enjoy!
Bert Porteous used the donation from the Juniper Green Village Association to buy roses so that all passers-by could enjoy the sight