Memories of Juniper Green
Jane (nee Stewart) Remembers growing up in Juniper Green in the fifties...
Bloomiehall Park
© Nutsend Productions
Bloomiehall Park at evening time looking east
On our Summer holidays we spent a lot of time in Bloomiehall Park. There were only swings there then but we had great fun and I was the only one who would go high on the swings. We used to watch the Hegarty brothers and their collie dog playing soccer and who could forget the toilets? They were scary, in the middle of the dank growth of bushes where nasty things lurked or so it seemed to us and we wouldn't go by ourselves: always a couple of you went. There was the shed as well in those days, where we could sit and talk if it was cold or wet.
Playing near the railway
There was also the railway banking! We weren't supposed to play there at the back of St. Margaret's church but there was a Tarzan swing there. How somebody got it up the tree I don't know. It swung out over the security fence of the mill warehouse which was very scary, what if the rope broke just then? The other place was the Water of Leith, we caught sticklebacks and taddies there and played making dams in small places or just ploutered.
We used to dare each other to walk across the weir wall but not many did it.
I loved the paper runs
I used to do the paper run for my brother up at 6.00am and off to the Post Office with Mr Middleton having your bag ready for you. It was usually heavier than me! Some of the letter boxes were too small and you would have to put the Times through piece by piece. Folk didn't like this and complained but not a lot could be done unless they got a bigger letterbox! I did the same run in the afternoon- up the Drive along the Terrace into Baberton Crescent then to the crossroads along the Lanark road and into Viewfield and back to the Lanark road along to Foulis and then into Woodhall Avenue. I had to go down to the grain mill in between and it was a long walk back up the hill then. I loved the paper runs though and did all of them one time or another for seven years. I knew everybody and would do messages for folk as well sometimes.
Village activities
The village was a busy place too. I remember we had the village ‘shows' opened by Sir Willie Merrilees and his wife. It had garden produce, flowers and floral art displays, jams etc, painting and other things. I excelled in scones and won every time. Each classroom was set up for each subject.
We also had country dancing on Saturdays with Captain Bain, we had beetle drives sometimes and also cards were played. The Village Players used to have some play on at the big hall in St Andrews every year. St Margarets' had a Sale of Work annually and my mother used to busy for weeks sewing aprons and other things and then making cakes and tablet. Mum's tablet was famous and was usually the first to go.
Mr Irwin and Mr Bill Dea were the leading lights in the scouts and they also had a jumble sale annually that was fantastic. I still have the child's sewing machine I bought there for 6 pence (old money). You could pick up some real bargains. The dealers used to come out from town and elbow their way to the front of the clothing stall and rake through grabbing all the good things first.
The Railway Inn was next door to the Bank where I lived and when the Williamsons came I had Margaret to play with. We used to fill up the shelves in the lounge bar with the Britvic fruit juices for 3 pence each on a Saturday. The bar had an old stove in it and we were not allowed in there after it opened AT ALL. We had coke and crisps upstairs on a Saturday night as a treat and could watch tv.
There were the original stables in the garden: big boxes all lined with wood and brick floors. After the Williamsons the Keilty family came to the Railway Inn.
He'd done a runner!
One Saturday after Hugh and Ruby of the Railway Inn had been away on holiday there was a lot of shouting in the street at 11.00am when the pub should have been open. Hugh and Ruby were not due to start work until the Monday. It turned out that the relief manager had done a runner with the keys, cigarettes, booze and the takings for at least a week. When they were clearing the Montpelier garden to build the new bank next door to the Railway Inn they found the keys which had just been tossed over the wall!
School photograph 1966
Back row from left: John Archibald, John Fisher, unknown, Charles McNee, Gary Dorward, Paul Koszinski, Paul Hume, Alan Scott, George Barrie, Miss Fotheringham;
Middle row: Peter Harris, Gordon Conway, Alex Westwood, Norman Chisholm, John MacFarlane, unknown, Gordon Steel, unknown, ? Byers, Alan Tenannt, Grant Hutchison;
Front row: Jacqueline Brown, Alison Graham, Fiona Mitchell, Katherine(?), Rhona Robinson, Avril Perryman, Shirley Hooper, Lindsay(?), Carolyn Adam, Elaine Ryan.
In front : Unknown, Jane Stewart.