Memories of Juniper Green 1940-1956
Sheila Hanson helping the audience to coffee at the end of the Bronze Age talk on March 15th 2007
I was born in 35 Belmont Avenue (now Juniper Avenue) in May 1940. My father was Willie Brown; he was a President of the Bowling Club in the fifties and won many trophies with them, including the Scottish Bowling Association's rink championship in 1947.
My grandparents (Stirling) stayed in Annfield (now known as Juniper Bank).
SBA Rink Champions 1947 J Gow, Eddie Clark, Willie Brown ( skip), Alex Gowans at the old Juniper Green Bowling ground
School
I went to Juniper Green School when I was 5 years old. The Headteacher was Miss Spalding and the infant teacher Miss Mulholland. About 1949, Miss Spalding retired and we got Miss Nell Fraser who lived in Currie. When you left Juniper Green you had to travel to Boroughmuir or Tynecastle depending on what sort of secondary course you wanted. I left Juniper Green school in June 1951.
Activities in the village were-
- Monday night we played badminton in St Margaret's Church Hall.
- Tuesday night was the Sunshine club also in St Margaret's, run by Miss Meg Todd. We learned handiwork, knitting and sewing.
- Thursday night was choir practice with Jimmy Baillie where we had an annual show of Gilbert and Sullivan. We performed In HMS Pinafore and the Mikado.
St Margaret's Mikado 1949
Back row: third from left Sheena McNeil,
middle row: second from left Janette Martin,
Front row: from right Rhoda Bertram, Muriel Fordyce, ?, Richard McNeil, Margaret Alison, Billy Blair.
At front with chopper James Brunton
Friday nights were Brownies in the school gym run by Miss Mary Bryce or Girl Guides in St Andrew's Church Hall run by Miss Irene Thomson
St Margaret's Church
The Sunday School picnic to Gullane was in June and Bryce's Garage supplied the lorry to take the forms, urn and eatables to Gullane. The children went by bus. When attending Sunday School at St Margaret's 1944-5 my teacher, Miss Nellie Carstairs, got married to a farmer in Auchtermuchty. Her duties were taken up by Miss Mary Bryce of Whitelaw farm. The minister was Dennis Duncan who stayed in the manse on Lanark Road opposite Bert Porteous' shop. Mr Eadie came next and he stayed in the new manse in Woodhall Terrace. When he went to Stirling we had Mr Forbes Watt. I was the last bride he married in November 1960.
St Margaret's HMS Pinafore.
Back row from left Winifred Scott, Yvonne Pettit, Billy Blair,
Middle Row from right Marion Bryce, Margaret Lee,
Front row third from right Margaret Alison, third from left Rhoda Bertram
Shops
The local bakers (Marshall's) where the undertaker's is now had the bakehouse out at the back and their confectionery was wonderful. Most local brides had their wedding cakes made there and they were displayed in the window a few days before the wedding.
Mr Stuart had the newsagent/confectioners' shop at the top of Belmont Avenue where the kids could get a penny Vantas from a big silver-coloured machine. It was a raspberry-flavoured fizzy drink. The store building consisted of bakers, butchers, grocers and the drapery. The shoe shop was through the back of the drapery.
There used to be a little shop next to the Kinleith Arms where Willie More changed your accumulator for your wireless. Many a trip I had to take Mrs Stirling's accumulator for changing. She'd have as much newspaper wrapped round it! And she'd put it in a shopping bag.
Further down the Lanark road (where Iceland is now) were Bryce's garage and Petrol pumps and of course the store lane where the store horses and carts were stabled. Where Scott's of Juniper Green is now used to be Miss Cattanach's fish shop and next door was Scott's the grocer's shop. It's not so many years since that Bert Porteous' shop was reinstated to a house (Hazelbank). Bert's shop was the only place where my father could get Gold Flake cigarettes. He sold nearly everything from groceries to paraffin and toys.
Miss Doughty had the chemist's in the village where the computer shop is now and when she retired the shop was taken over by Allan Fraser. After the Second World War the lamplighter was Mr Prentice who stayed in Woodhall Drive. During the daytime he cleaned the glass lamps inside and out and at dusk he would climb up to light the gas mantles.
Mr Ellis was the stationmaster at Juniper Green and he made the local deliveries in a big cart after the train had dropped off the goods at the station. Miss Bryce's dairy in Belmont Avenue (now Juniper Avenue) got her Lyons ice cream delivered that way.
The local undertaker and joiner was Mr Howitt in Baberton Avenue and my grandfather was the last horse-drawn funeral from here to Currie cemetery in June 1940.
Friday night in the summer was the highlight of the week when Colinton and Currie Pipe Band marched round the village and then into Bloomiehall Park to give a recital.