Heriot Mount - Recollections of James Morton-Robertson

Recollections

James Morton-Robertson

Sevenoaks, Kent, England

Thank you to James Morton-Robertson, who used to lived at Heriot Mount until 1949, for sending me his recollections below. Thanks also to James' brother, now living in Australia, for encouraging him to write the notes.

RECOLLECTIONS: July 1, 2007, with UPDATES: October 7, 2009

James wrote:

My Maternal Grandfather

Samuel Paterson and his wife

© ©

"Samuel Paterson was my maternal grandfather. He was born in Girvan, then became a policeman in Glasgow, then a boilerman in Breich near West Calder , West Lothian."

My Paternal Grandfather in the Army

James Morton-Robertson and his wife

© ©

"My paternal grandfather, James Morton-Robertson and was born in Newington in 1882. He ran away from home at 14 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was sent to S Africa in 1901 and was at the relief of Ladysmith. He served in Zululand, quelling uprisings.

He was sent, again, to South Africa during WW1. He campaigned in German South West Africa (Namibia).

During WW2, he was an ARP Warden."

My Grandparents at Heriot Mount

"James Morton-Robertson married Jane Trotter who was born in 121 St Leonards Street in 1882. They moved to 4 Heriot Mount, ground floor, after their marriage in 1905.

They had 2 children, James Morton-Robertson, my father; and Jane (Jean) Ritchie Robertson."

My Parents

© ©

"My father, James Morton-Robertson, was born at 16 South Richmond Street in 1911 and went to James Clark School.

In 1936, he married Maybelle Paterson who was born near West Calder in 1916. They moved to 4 Heriot Mount, top flat.

They had 2 children, James Morton-Robertson (me) and Brian Samuel Frank Robertson.

Both my father and mother worked at the North British Rubber Mills in Fountainbridge.

My father had volunteered for the RAF but was killed on his first mission which was an operation using Hampden Torpedo Bombers to sink the Tirpitz. They had to fly to Murmansk but his plane was shot down. The plane is now being rebuilt by the RAF Museum."

UPDATE

James added:

"Here are photographs of :

- my dad's and his car, taken about 1933

- his AJS motorbike, taken about 1936.

These were both garaged in a big wooden shed in Forbes St between St Leonards St and St Leonards Hill"

My Aunt

"My Aunt Jean, worked for LNER railways during WW2, actually on the Forth Railway Bridge, which was always denied officially ... somebody hated women!"

My Education

"I started my education at Preston Street school but the Ministry of War Pensions paid for my brother and me to attend the Royal High School which I did from 1943-1952.

I became an indentured apprentice at RNAY, Donibristle (Dalgety Bay). I went to Sunderland Tech to take an external Durham University degree but married a local girl from Newcastle, Jennifer Young, and after many moves, ended up in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Our family moved from Heriot Mount in 1949 to Piersfield Grove, to a bigger flat with a bathroom! We were opposite a small market garden and a knitwear factory."

James' family may have left Heriot Mount almost 40 years ago, but he still has lots of memories of the area.

See his comments below. - Peter Stubbs.

Shops

"I remember:

- The Italian family who owned the sweet shop on the corner of Heriot Mount and Dumbiedykes

- The Italian Mocogni brothers who worked in the fish and chip shop in Carnegie Street and their cousin Victor Rafaelli

- The barber shop on the corner of Heriot Mount and Cross Causeway?

- Granny Slater's sweet shop round the corner from Heriot Mount in the road that ran in the direction of James Clark School. The owner was an old lady with grey hair and a sharp manner.

- A cycle/battery charging shop next to Granny Slaters where I used to take my Granny's glass lead/acid battery for charging. Granny Robertson only had gas, no electricity.

- Another newsagent/sweet shop further towards the school on the same side.

- The baker's shop on the south side of Carnegie Street, opposite the barber shop. I remember bread rationing just after the war and the near riot over the introduction.

- A Pork Butcher called Grubers (I think)

- Rankins the Greengrocer in Nicholson Street. I went to school with the owner's grandson."

Deliveries

"Our milk was delivered by the Edinburgh & Dumfriesshire Dairy using a horse and cart, or else I bough it at the SCWS at the Pleasance.

Our coal was delivered by Hugh Leckie & Sons. Hugh was a very small man and he would hoist a 1cwt bag of coal on his shoulders and climb 5 flights of stairs to our top flat and tip it into the coal bunker which was under a hinged board which also acted as a working surface next to the deep Belfast sink."

Fires

"My mother also used Zebo to black lead her grate. This product is still in use today.

My grandmother's chimney went on fire once and she put salt on the coals. Her fire never went out once apart from this one occasion. She had a black, soot-encrusted cast iron kettle on a trivet all the time. She also had a mahogany chest of drawers full of mementos brought back by my grandfather from South Africa.

I remember the day the chimney sweep got it wrong at Heriot Mount. One sweep went on the roof and his colleague went into the flat. The top man would shout "EEEE" down the chimney and the colleague would call back if they had selected the right chimney. He would have heavy sacks to pack round the fireplace and to carry away the soot. The top man dropped a heavy wooden ball with a circular brush above it on a long rope. The day they got it wrong, another flat was filled with choking, greasy soot. Not good."

Pub

"I remember a pub where my grandfather went. It was on the opposite side of the road from the Granny Slater's. I used to fetch him and remember still the wall of smoke and smell of beer that flowed out when the door was opened and it was always full.

I could detect the smell of each of the 23 breweries around the Old Town from Heriot Mount."

Church

"I remember Charteris Memorial Church with Dr Low, the minister, and Mr Elder, one of the church elders.

I also went to the Sunday School. We used to get up early on Sunday mornings to buy hot rolls from the Jewish Baker in Nicholson Street?."

Hospital and Doctor

"I remember:

- The Deaconess Hospital on the Pleasance/Carnegie Street corner. I went there several times to repair cuts, broken arms etc.

- Further on, down the Pleasance, going in the direction of Holyrood was the Doctor's Surgery manned by Dr Norman McQueen. It was very scruffy, bare linoleum and in need of a repaint. I don't remember Dr Gordon being there.

Dr McQueen misdiagnosed my collapsed lung and I had to go to his house in Newington which had a consulting room. My impression was of a very beautiful house."

Play

"The King's Park was my playground.

We would make home-made explosives and blow holes in the hillside! I could also run from the Park Steps right up the scree slope and run up the cat's neck. Wow.

We also used to watch the Territorials firing rifles and Bren guns in the dip between Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags.

I've just seen the photo of the archway which linked Heriot Mount with the shared backgreen with the Dumbiedykes. I must have run through that arch hundreds of times.

The other side of the Park Steps was a rock face leading up to high iron railings with a gully between the end tenement (turreted and very attractive) and the railing wall where we would puff our first cigarettes, Woodbines at 1d each from one of the shops.

I used to roller skate on Rankeillor street as it has a smooth tarred surface."

Friends

"My Heriot Mount friends were:

- David Arbuthnot

- Andrew Morrison

- George Christie.

The local girls' names are a bit hazy now but there was:

- one was Marion Purves now in Victoria, Australia.

- one of the Fairbairn girls

- one named Melrose.

I see that on of you contributors was a wee bit miffed at my earlier description of the Dumbiedykes boys being aggressive. You did not walk down the Dumbiedykes on your own, you ran like the wind."

UPDATE

James added:

"Here is a photograph of :

- me

- my brother, Brian

- my cousin Ian (Aunt Jeannie's son)

- Ian's friend Victor Rafaelli (or is it John Mocogni?)

Shops

"The Rafaellis had the corner shop at Heriot Mount and Dumbiedykes, a sweet and ice cream shop. They made and sold the first ice lollies, but their freezer was barely man enough for the job as the lollies virtually fell apart after 5 minutes.

The Mocognis had the Fish & Chip shop in Carnegie Street near to the junction with Dumbiedykes.

During the war, both families would have spoken to the Italian Prisoners of War who walked in the Park after working on outlying farms. They were housed at Duddingston Camp."

Youth Clubs

"My youth was spent going to the Youth Club at a church in Craigmillar where the Purves family had moved to from 6 Heriot Mount.

Here is a view, looking over Holyrood Park, out of the back window of No 6, Heriot Mount. - Peter Stubbs.

Later, when I started work, I went to a church youth club past Fountainbridge, towards Saughton I think."

The Plaza

"My palls and I went to the Plaza dance hall most Saturday nights. A real pain, as I usually took a girl home in the opposite direction to Jocks Lodge and had to walk home as the trams and buses had stopped at midnight."

Seaside

Gullane Bay

Here is a photograph of James and his younger brother, Brian, taken at Gullane Bay:

James wrote:

"In the 1940s and '50s, our family and the Purves family went to Gullane every Sunday, rain or shine, threading our way through the barbed wire and dodging the mines.

I learned to swim in Gullane Bay. We would take a tent, a flask filled with mince & mashed potato, cooking pans, kettle, water container, swimming things. I don't know how we carried it all.

We youngsters would look for discarded lemonade bottles, get tuppence back on each which would buy us an ice-cream for the bus journey home to St Andrew Square, then on to the no 5 tram to Nicholson St, then the longish walk home."

UPDATE

James added:

"Here is a photograph of :

- my grandparents

- their daughter Jeannie

- my father, James

- me, aged around two.

The photograph was taken on a family holiday at Gullane Bay in East Lothian."

"My mother took us and the Purves family, now all deceased, to Gullane every Sunday from May to September. There were:

- Cathy Purves nee Denham (6 Heriot Mount)

- her daughter Marion

- her son Jackie

- my brother Brian

It would have to be gale-force before it stopped us. We would take the tram to Princes St, bus from St Andrews Square to Gullane, walk along the links until we reached our favourite place, a ledge above the beach.

There, we would light a fire and brew up. I learned to swim there, brrrr. We had “shivery bites” when we came out of the water. We even took mince and mash in flaks as we got bolder.

At first, the beaches were restricted with barbed wire but we just slid under. I would jump between the tank traps, large cubical concrete blocks which lined the edge of the shore for miles. I believe that there were signs saying live mines but we just ignored that as the local dogs seemed to survive.

As more visitors started to go after WW2, we would search for empty lemonade bottles and with the 2p deposit return, so that we kids could buy an ice cream each for the home journey."

North Berwick

"On one occasion, we went to North Berwick on a particularly nasty day. I was kicking the waves at the shoreline, as one does, when a giant wave crashed down on me and dragged me out to sea. By chance, the next wave hurled me back on the beach. I went home clad in a raincoat and Marion’s knickers."

Port Seton

"We didn't have many formal holidays, but we had a week in Port Seton, possibly about 1947, at the beach camp site. We stayed in what must have been an old single deck Edinburgh tramcar complete with cut glass windows."

Other Holidays

"Another holiday, perhaps a year later was in a real gipsy caravan (no horse attached) at Leadhills. My final holiday before I left Heriot Mount was to a farmhouse near Banff where I managed to fall off a haystack and do severe damage to my left arm which still has only 95 degrees radial movement from the elbow."

Return to Edinburgh

"I visit Edinburgh to see my old aunt Jean (97) in her care home near Loanhead and to stay with a very old friend from my Naval Apprenticeship days.

I find driving around the south side a bit depressing with all the changes and I certainly couldn't live in Edinburgh again in spite of the improvements and facilities, I guess that I'm a country boy at heart."

James Morton-Robertson, Sevenoaks, Kent, England:

RECOLLECTIONS: July 1, 2007

with UPDATES: October 7, 2009