Edinburgh History - Granton - Recollections

Recollections by Hugh Hainley

Midlothian, Scotland

Thank you to Duncan Shedden who was born in Lochinvar Camp, Wardie, in 1946 and now lives in Shetland.

Duncan wrote:

Thanks

Many thanks, for bringing back so many boyhood memories of Old Granton. I started School at St David's West Granton Rd about 1942.

Granton Square

The square was a hive of activity. Granton Harbour was the HQ of the Northern Minesweepers.

Just outside the Harbour was a row of Wood built shops. One shop was a cafe where you could get a hot pie and gravy with mashed tatties.

Further along if you could evade the Military Sentries were Yards full of cordite and all sorts of ammo and military stores.

Fizzy Drinks and Chocolate

I remember when the road opened after the war. There was a hut called Grannie Smiths where you could buy Fizzy Drinks.

There was also a Tar Factory and a Chocolate Works although chocolate was still on ration

Granton Quarry

Just up the road a bit was Granton Quarry. It had a very high cliff with a small ridge running along the top. About half way round was a set of Gates which were the back gates to Caroline House.

For a dare I would often climb this cliff and then over the gates into the house.

Military Vehicles

In the park there was hundreds of military vehicles. I think this was for the D Day Landings.

We used to have great fun dodging the soldiers who were on guard. I was caught a few times and was caned. I held the School Record for the most caned boy in one day. This was the only thing I ever achieved at school.

"Highland Laddie"

One last wee story. It would be the summer of 1943, Morning Playtime. I was looking through the railings of St David's school playground at the bottom West Granton Road. This squad of soldiers came marching down West Granton Road turned left into the Square halted and stood at ease.

I escaped from the playground and ran behind the soldiers. One of them gave me a bar of bitter black chocolate.

They were then stood down for a ten minute smoking break and this soldier began to sing 'Highland Laddie' I was hooked from that moment on, all I ever wanted to be was a soldier"

P.S. - Yes I did become a soldier, for 25 years - and yes I got a belting for leaving the school playground."

Hugh Hainey, Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland: March 2005

Recollections by Bob Sinclair

Queensland, Australia

Thank you to Bob Sinclair for the recollections below, in response to comments by Hugh Hainley (above):

Food and Drink

I also remember Granny Smith's hut. It was a bit dark inside and a bit of an Aladdin's cave for anybody after a few sweets or a drink.

Douglas Beath, Tasmania adds:

I remember Granny Smith's cabin on the shore road near Caroline Park. The sign lettering was done with lemonade bottle caps nailed up.

I have an idea that there was a sign for (Dunbar's?) lemonade factory not far from the middle pier.

Another couple of places frequented by the workers down that way was the local watering hole "The Anchor Inn", and Demarcos where you could get a lovely ice cream.

Demarco himself was a very good snooker player and had a number of tables at the back of the shop.

Martin's Shipyard

Also going the other way towards Leith, there was a small shipyard James Martin & Son, who I believe were commandeered to build small naval craft during the second world war.

I knew Jimmy Martin's son Graham who lived just up the road from me as did the Joiner foreman, a Mr Fleming - we all lived in Pilton Avenue.

Granton School

I had to go to Granton School one day - I think it was for an injection.

The distance from the main entrance on Boswall Parkway to the school entrance must have been one of the longest in any school. I was tired by the time I got to the school.

Adjoining the school was Granton Library where you could silently look for exciting books on Schoolboy adventures. Usually they were all out and there was a waiting list

Granton school is still in use, with library round the back. The school is now looking smart with newly painted signs and a wooden boat, wooden train and tables and chairs in the area in front of the school. - Peter Stubbs

19 Bus

I remember going up the flights of steps from Granton Square to get the 19 bus which left from the top of the steps. I am sure that in the early days the 19 Bus drivers saw you coming and took off when you had about fifty yards to go. It can't have been sheer co-incidence each time.

Granton Beach

Going on to Granton beach was a work of art in the summertime. If you were in your "baries" you had to watch where you put them or there was tar to scrape off your feet.

Middle Pier

Some of the boys used to go to the Middle pier when the boats came in and the sailors occasionally unloaded fish.

If they were not in a generous mood we used to take our piece of cane and nail-attach a part of winkle and try to catch a fish.

I think we ever only caught one and threw it back out of pity for its size.

Granton Square

It was fascinating sitting down at the square with a bag of sweets we bought between us watching the various trams coming and going.

Granton Square

There was also a single decker No.17 bus (it had a smell all it's own) which ran form the square to near the West End and stopped outside McVities.

West End

It was a bit of a boon to many who worked in the Wire Works.

The Embassy

Then there was the local Flea Pit as we lovingly called it - the Bassy or the Embassy Picture House.

I once got to go Upstairs, because my mother who worked in Mackies as a waitress, was given a couple of complimentary tickets by a customer.

Later on when I had a little bit more guile I joined the band of a few kids who could only afford to in downstairs. At the end of the cartoons and supporting feature us kids made at rush at the upstairs doors and if lucky stayed there until the big picture was finished.

Some of us made it each time. Those who were lucky got out before the National Anthem was played - it was a real downer especially after a serial on a Saturday morning.

I know there was a sweet shop either side and I think one was McColls but I can't remember the name of the other.

The real fun was when the Air Raid Siren went off. Was it located on top of the Police box just across from the Bassy?

Granton Methodist Church

As it happens I was married in Granton Methodist church which I believe no longer exists - such is life!

Please see below. - Peter Stubbs

Bob Sinclair, Queensland, Australia - 27 April 2005

NOTE: After reading the comment above concerning Granton Methodist Church, Rev. Deborah Cornish e-mailed to tell me that the church does still in fact exist. She wrote:

Granton Methodist Church

In September 2004 I was appointed by the Methodist Church to be the minister in charge at Granton Methodist Church.

However, in August 2004 it formally become a combined church, when it formed a partnership with Granton United Reform Church (previously the Congregational Church).

It is still alive and well, and looking forward to the future.

Rev. Deborah Cornish: Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. 8 June 2005

Recollections by Monica Shaw

Boswall, Edinburgh

Thank you to Monica Shaw for the message left in the EdinPhoto Guest Book, including the following:

Old Homes

I was first brought home as a baby to 32 Boswall Quadrent , then at 5 years moved to 19 Boswall Terrace till I was 24.

The poshness !! talked of from very early on to get into Boswall was still very much around.

No-one talked of houses being council, or the struggle to survive and to 'keep up with the Jones ' inside those homes.

The struggle and the 'feeling of being home' has never left me.

New Home

I am, in 2 weeks time I will be returning to Boswall, moving into my new home with my daughter at 4 Boswall Grove.

'home' 'Boswall' !!

I will be looking on to 10 Boswall grove were my mother was brought, Josephine Mulhern and sisters Maureen Mulhern and little June also brother Andrew Mulhern.

Monica Shaw, Boswall, Edinburgh

Recollections by Ann Watson

Edinburgh

Thank you to Ann Watson for the following message. Ann lived at Carnegie Street, then moved to Granton Medway in 1938, then to 37 Granton Crescent.

Granton Crescent

"I lived at 37 Granton Crescent. The house had a marvellous view of the harbour but the view has been lost now."

This is the result of new housing being built around Granton which is on the edge of the Edinburgh Waterfront development.

Granton School

"My brothers and I went to Granton school. The schools were closed at some time during the war, and Miss Birrel would come to the house to give out homework and collect it

Around Granton Harbour

"I remember the hut, and Flemings ink works and the red water.

I remember the businesses in Lower Granton Road:

- Lewis's electricians was where my father worked during the war.

- Mrs Lindsay's sweet shop was where people used to hand in sweet coupons if they never used them.

We used to go there for our rations and we had to wait till the shop was empty before we collected ours as she gave us extra from the handed-in coupons.

Trains and buses

Does anyone remember:

- a train that caught fire it had chocolate in it, most of which melted before the fire was put out?

- the bus drivers on the 19 buses would start the engines, then after you had run for the bus would switch the engine off when you stepped on the platform.

- a conductress called Sadie?
If you were in her good books she never charged the proper fare.

Ann Watson, Edinburgh: 22 November 2005

Recollections by John Ross

Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England

Thank you to John Ross (also known as Ian Ross), now living in Peterborough, England for the following.

Ian lived at 55 Pilton Crescent and attended Granton Primary School from the early 1940s, then David Kilpatrick School at Leith.

John wrote:

Concerts

"I recall concerts in Granton School playground and in Pilton Park by some type of theatre group.

I remember a grumpy old park keeper who looked after Pilton park and used to try to keep us in order ."

Toffee for 1d

"There was a lady living in ground floor of tenement house, I think by the name of Moriarty, who used to make toffee in cake paper cups and we used to buy them from open window, one penny each. These were such a treat as we did not have many sweets. This was near School and we went to her at playtime."

Hay & Co

High Street and Granton

"My father managed a grocer shop named Hay & Co in High St, Edinburgh, opposite John Knox House.

His friend managed the branch in Granton. I recall going there on Saturdays to collect our weekly rations. My father was in the army then."

John (Ian) Ross, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England: June 21-30, 2006

John adds:

"It is wonderful to bring back all these memories. It makes you feel real emotional."

10.

Recollections by Alex Dow

Fife, Scotland

Thank you to Alex Dow, for the following recollections of Granton, and for his recollections of Granton in the 1930s and 1950s.

Alex wrote:

Granton Station

"Around 1940, we may have travelled to Granton by special boat train, as the Harbour Station had been closed to normal traffic for several years.

The station had served the Granton-Burntisland Train Ferry, which operated from quite early in the railway era until some time after the Forth Bridge opened in 1890.

As the ferry carried freight wagons only, the passengers had to walk from the station to board the ferry at the railway slip-way."

Northern Lighthouse Board

"My second early memory of Granton is of being aboard one of the Northern Lighthouse Board's tenders, possibly the Pharos; and seeing the mixed nature of its work.

The cabins for the lighthouse crews could be on board for up to three weeks as the vessel worked its way around the Scottish coast and the Isle of Man, plus the holds for the provisions, spares etc. - very graceful vessels."

U-Boat

"That was followed by visiting a German U-boat, U776, about June 1945."

"This submarine was captured late in the war; and was re-commissioned in the Royal Navy, sailing up and around Britain, calling at various ports, to let the general public see what a Type 7 U-boat was like - very cramped even for a nine-year-old. Some photos of it have appeared in books in recent years."

RAF High-Speed Launches

"Like another contributor, I recollect MTBs and RAF high-speed launches being worked on at the small shipyard in the corner by the East Breakwater."

Coal for the Trawlers

"In that period, Granton was still a major fishing port and most of the boats were steam driven, using coal. Towards the outer end of the Middle Pier was the Coal Hoist, with loaded and unloaded tracks serving it.

Several trucks would be pushed to the landward side of the hoist on the loaded track. The shunting locomotive would move back to the main sidings to carry on with other works.

The shunters would first unhook all the trucks, connect a cable from an electric windlass to the furthest away truck, then slowly wind the cable in intermittently, to place the leading loaded truck in the coal hoist, rather like moving it on to a weighbridge, which it also was.

That truck would be lifted up the hoist and tipped over sideways at the top, discharging the coal into the hoist's hopper, from which an adjustable conveyor belt carried the coal out over a fishing boat tied up on the west side of the pier."

'Black Stoor'

"The coal was dropped down flexible metal tubes to the boat's bunkers, rather like the plastic tubes seen on some demolition sites today. Black stoor everywhere!

The hoist returned the emptied wagon to ground level, the shunter re-engaged the windlass to draw the remaining loaded trucks forward, pushing the emptied truck out on the seaward side.

Here the track dipped abruptly, to accelerate the emptied truck downwards then up over a set of trailing points to the buffered stub set a short distance above normal ground level.

The wagon rebounded of the buffers, down the stub; but at the points, it would move on to the other, unloaded track, to be caught by a slow-moving chain conveyor with large teeth protruding at intervals.

These teeth would engage with one or other of the wagon's axles, slowing it down but continuing to propel it to buffer up to the trucks unloaded earlier, which would be pushed forwards/inland by one truck's length as the newly-arrived truck came to a halt at the end of the chain.

Once all the trucks had been unloaded etc, the shunter would re-couple them, the loco would return and remove those unloaded trucks to the sidings further inland."

Granton Ice Factory

"About mid-way along the Middle Pier was the Granton Ice Factory. This produced ice which was also delivered by conveyer belt to the fishing boats,

I'm not sure whether this was before or after coaling, probably before as the coal hoist was nearer the harbour mouth."

Esparto Grass

"The West Pier saw many boats in from North Africa with Esparto Grass for high-quality paper-making, taken by train out to the mills strung out along the Water of Leith from Slateford to Balerno.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the rail yard along the foreshore between the Middle and West Piers was a mass of condemned wagons."

Alex Dow: September 10, 2006

11.

Recollections by Dave Woolard

Edinburgh

Thank you to Dave Woolard who recalls Granton in the late-1940s and early-1950s.

Dave wrote:

Granton Ferries

"I remember before we flitted from Arthur Street in Edinburgh to Granton.

We used to get on a No 8 tram with my Mum and Dad and brother's, going to Granton Square, then walk along the pier and get on the Willie Muir. I also remember the other ferry, Thane o Fife."

The Square Centre Youth Club

"I remember going to the Square Centre Youth Club on Thursday nights. It was a wooden hut just up from Granton Square. We had some great times.

I'm not too sure, but I think the hut is still there. After we came out we would go round to the bakers on Lower Granton Road and buy hot rolls. Happy times"

Snow Sliding

"Another memory is of the winters in the snow; sliding down the hill between Granton Crescent and St David's school on the curved bits of the Anderson Shelters.

There were one or two mishaps crashing into the railings at the bottom."

Dave Woolard: Edinburgh, November 4+7, 2006.

Referring to the internet and web sites, Dave says:

"I think this I T is the best thing since sliced bread"

12.

Recollections by Bob Grant

Queensferry, Edinburgh

Thank you to Bob Grant for sending me his memories of Royston in the 1940s and 1950s.

Bob wrote:

Royston

"I was born at 19 Royston Mains Road, opposite Royston School, 'roond the corner' from the Embassy cinema, where my mother was a cleaner for many years when Mr Arnolds was the 'janny'.

I started Royston School in 1948, and lived in Royston all my teenage years, phew!! the nostalgia"

Shops

"I remember the newspaper shop was called Grants, no relation to me - pity! My wee brother john and I would have welcomed free gobstoppers for the pictures."

The Embassy

"Oor mother would give us one shilling & sixpence (1/6d) each to get into the Embassy. Sometimes we could get an adult to take us in for half price. If we were lucky, we could even end up in the balcony, whit a bonus! - and with extra money to spend.

It was down to the Jubilee for 4d worth o' chips with plenty salt & sauce. - ahh, memories."

Bob Grant, Queensferry, Edinburgh: January 13, 2007

The Embassy

Thank you to Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland for his more recent memories of the Embassy.

Steven wrote:

"My grandparents lived in an upper flat in a corner block with their front room facing towards the site of the old Embassy picture house – the hall window faced out on to Granton Congregational Church and Granton Primary School.

Steven added:

"Alas, by the time I appeared, the Embassy was awaiting the wrecking ball, but I do remember the succession of supermarkets that occupied the site – Laws, Wm Low’s, Shoprite and finally Kwik Save. A block of flats now, in turn, occupies its site!

Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland: January 16, 2007

13.

Recollections by Hughie Grey

Australia

Thank you to Hughie Gray, Australia, who used to live at 31 Granton Medway for sending his memories of Granton.

E & M Ferry

This 'E & M Ferry hut can still be found on the left hand side of the road when entering Granton Harbour from Granton Square.

Ed Thomson, Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland had previously told me that the hut was owned by Eddie and Maurice Ferry, haulage contractors.

Now, Hughie Gray, Australia, has written to tell me:

"Yes Edward Ferry was a good bloke. I was only a kid and helped out on the trucks:

- some days, it was carting the esparto grass

- other times, it was doing the delivery of Youngers' beer."

Hughie also recalls other buildings nearby:

Middle Pier

"Just behind E & M Ferry's offices is where the old torpedo boats used to tie up after the war. The stone building used to be Dinwoodie's, ships' chandler. I used to love the smell of the ropes.

Alongside, there was a long white hut. I see it has gone now. That's where old ??? had his office. I think he may have been employed by Harbour Board, I know he used to run the launch to take people out to their boats, and I made lots of pocket money rowing them out on gala days.

The paper shop was at the entrance to the Pier, and futher along was the ship breakers."

Shells

"I do worry about the landfill that went into the west of paper shop as I saw sulphur and shells going in. We kids got chased for safety ha ha. But we used to go back, of course, make our own wee bombs. I know now how stupid but we were kids."

Granton Square

"On Granton Square there used to be the Post Office, good for sweeties. We used to buy cinnamon sticks to smoke. Yikes!

I wonder if the old police box is still there. I've been in it a couple of time I even remember the Policeman's name. It was 'Big Archie' and he had a big 'back hand'.

We were always getting caught in the railway yards jumping on the wagons. I lived in Granton Medway top stair we had great fun as kids.

Oor Wullie couldnae dae better, eh."

Mum and Dad

"I just found out, the other day, that my Mum who died in 1953 climbed up on the roof of the church hall in Granton Road , just 50 yards from the Square when Germans dropped a flare on the roof and set fire to it during the war. She was in Civil Defence.

Dad was the First Aid guy for Granton, Bill Gray. He worked at the gasworks."

Move to Australia

"I live in Australia now, in the Tropics. I've not had a pair of long trouser on in over a year and I like it warm. But I still owe my roots Granton.

When I think of all the stuff I got up to I should have been locked up must have had ADHD before they came up with that fancy name."

Hughie Gray, Australia, March 5, 2007