Memories of Juniper Green
George Turnbull recalls his memories of Juniper Green...
George Turnbull with his wife Peggy on the occasion of the coffee morning at St Margaret's Court on January 4th 2007
In an interview in November 2006 with his nephew, Bill Blair, George Turnbull talked about his memories of Juniper Green and his home at 22 Woodhall Drive.
George came to Woodhall Mains when he was 3 years old in 1924. George's father worked on the farm before becoming a labourer with McKenzie the builder. Then he worked in the Kinleith Mill. George's mother died when he was only three years old.
After school George became a message boy for Scott's the grocer at the foot of Baberton Avenue. At sixteen he went to work in the cement works in Torphin quarry. At eighteen he joined the Territorial Army when war broke out and went to north Africa in 1941 and served there, Tunisia and in Italy.
School
George went to Juniper Green School from 1926 to 1933 between the ages of 5 and 12. He then went onto Boroughmuir. George remembers Nell Fraser using a very thick strap. She was a good teacher but if you stepped out of place you were belted. One day Jocky Robertson from Hermiston stole the strap and buried it in the woods in Baberton.
George wore a jacket and short trousers to school over a grey shirt with no tie. He remembers that boys and girls had separate playgrounds and boys had woodwork while girls got sewing and cooking. Everyone got tests in writing, history, geography and arithmetic. For lunch, George took a sandwich and ate it in the playground.
The lodge house that used to stand at the entrance to Baberton Golf Club But it has been demolished by 2007
The Headmaster, Mr Atkinson, was in charge of the school football team helped by Mathie Hutchison the janitor who lived in the old school house. Mr Malloch senior gave a golf trophy to be played for by the Masonic lodges in Midlothian. George once skipped school to caddy at Baberton Golf Club. When the caddie master called him out it was to caddy for the Headmaster! Next day his hands were sore for two hours! He earned sixpence per round.
First jobs
From age 10 George had a job as a paper boy working for Jessie Graham at the Post Office. He had to go to Juniper Green railway station and collect and sort the papers before delivery. His job as a message boy for Gillon's the butchers only lasted for a week because there was a complaint about the pies being dry. George had sucked all the juice out of them with his peashooter!
George's first wage as a message boy was ten shillings a week with 3 pence taken off for the Royal Infirmary fund. Men's wages were £2. George would buy a penny woodbine cigarette from the Post Office with his wages. Sometimes a group of them would go into town to a billiards hall on the number 8 bus for 3 pence return. George and his dad would also go into the pictures at the Palladium at Fountainbridge on a Saturday night.
In their leisure time boys used to meet up at the bottom corner of the village (by the Post Office) and go fishing in the Water of Leith in the dooking pond or play football, cricket or putting in Bloomiehall park. In the Village Hall they would play billiards (snooker came later) and badminton or go on the rifle range. Porky Bryce's band played in the village Hall for dances. They had an accordion, drums and a fiddler. It was sixpence to go in!
In the Park
When they played football they would change at the back of Bennett's pub (now the Railway Inn) and walk up to Bloomiehall Park. Sometimes the Park keeper used to chase them saying "Give me your name and address or I will come to your house and get it!"
Some Saturday tea-times a fiddler would come busking to Woodhall Mains. He would get a cup of tea for his performance. After the war a singer would stand at the bottom of Baberton Avenue and sing "Danny Boy " and similar songs or the Salvation Army Band would come to play.
In 1940 there was such a heavy snowfall that the door was completely blocked with snow. The quarrymen came to help dig them out.
Shops
There was no option but to shop locally. On Saturdays he was sent to the store (the Co-op) to get four loaves from Jean Tweedie. These would last them for a week. He handed a line to the grocers; this would be made up and he would collect it.
They used Willie Forsyth the greengrocer, Doughty the chemist (who had an Austin 7 car), Gillon the butcher and Sutherland's the dairy in the main street. Other shops George remembers are the Scotts-Gordon the father, Bill the son, Jim Ferguson the painter, John Howitt the joiner, McLeod at the garage with Alex Radcliffe the mechanic. Alex mended punctures for the boys and sold petrol at one-and sevenpence-ha'penny a gallon (eight new pence). Alex became a fighter pilot in the war.
After the War a house at 22 Woodhall Drive was built for war veterans thanks to subscriptions raised by the Juniper Green Women's Rural Institute.
The plaque outside 22 Woodhall Drive reads: In grateful rememberance of the sacrifice of those who fought in World War II donated by Juniper Green Women's Rural Institute
George always remembers getting tea and a piece if he walked up to Torphin to see his older sister. After the War George moved into Woodhall Drive shown in the images below.
Dorothy Turnbull, George and Peggy's daughter, handing flowers to Lady Rosebery on the occasion of the opening of the house at Woodhall Drive in 1951
George and Peggy Turnbull with their daughter Dorothy showing Lady Rosebery the interior of 22 Woodhall Drive