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The Boswall Estate |
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"The Boswall scheme was originally built
for returning services officers after WW1, and, even when we lived there, there were some seriously posh people in the district. The lady who lived below us, was from an old colonial family from South Africa and India,
and was tremendously nice in an old-fashioned sort of way.
There were also a few ex-military men with rust-coloured overcoats and big moustaches surviving in the early days, walking their boxer dogs occasionally.
In those days to get a house in Boswall you had to pass an interview for 'respectability', and if you earned over a certain amount, like my Dad, you had to pay the 'economic rent'."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland: February 2004
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Milk Deliveries |
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"In my early teenage years I was
one of a crowd of milk-delivery boys, working out of Leith Provident Store
in Boswall Parkway, in the row just to the east of Granton Parish Church.
This would be round about 1966-7.
My 'round' was up Boswall Drive,
but occasionally I would get lucky, if one of the other boys failed to
show on the day, and be given a second round.
I
remember doing the Royston
delivery, as well as, every so often, Boswall Terrace (which was a really
long round although the amount of milk delivered was roughly equal) or
rarely Boswall Avenue.
We used two-handled
reddish-brown low, oblong wheelbarrows, and had to load them ourselves.
The day started by getting up at four a.m., and starting at five. Usually
I would get back home around seven-thirty a.m., have a huge and very
welcome breakfast, and get ready for the day at school.
If
I got second rounds several times in a week, the money was really quite
good for a teenager (though I still can't seem to hang onto it, even now).
We worked in all weathers."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland: February 2004
1969 Hurricane
"When working as a milk-delivery
boy I experienced the great 'hurricane' which I think was possibly in
about January or February 1969 (maybe others would know the correct date).
It really was a curious
experience, listening to my bedroom windows nearly being blown-in
overnight, and then having to pick my way across rubble to deliver to the
doorstep the following morning in parts of Boswall Drive.
It seems that extreme weather
isn't actually anything new."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland:
September 8, 2007
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Thank you
to Kenneth G Williamson who replied to Phil's first comment.
Kenneth wrote: |
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"I was reading one of the
stories about delivering milk from Leith Provident store at Boswall
Parkway.
I used to deliver milk, once a
day during the week and twice on a Saturday. The Saturday afternoon run
was something like the great Oklahoma land race with barrows and people
heading off on all directions aided and abetted by whoever you could get
to help you.
How nobody was ever knocked down
in the melee was amazing.
The Bert mentioned in the
article was the assistant manager who tried to control us to no avail.
The reason he got a ribbing off almost everyone was because he had a
speech impediment and 'Political Correctness' had not yet been invented."
Kenneth G Williamson, Silverknowes,
Edinburgh: April 25, 2006 |
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Leith Provident Store |
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"In those days the store was
staffed by a manager (short and stocky), whose name I've forgotten, but
his assistant was called 'Bert'. Bert was a decent chap, tall and
gangly and bespectacled, but got a lot of ragging from the boys.
At the eastern end of the shop
was the butcher's section, which was run by the expert Jimmy Dalgleish,
who unfortunately died, at a too young age, of cancer at the beginning of
the 1980s.
The thing that really sticks in
my mind is smell of the fresh bread and rolls (the 'pan' loaves wrapped in
LP thickly-waxed paper) combined with the powerful smell of fresh milk and
cream.
In these days of supermarket
bread and milk, the up-to-the-minute freshness of the produce is no longer
the same. Part of the delivery task was to supply rolls as well to
customers."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland -
formerly Edinburgh - February 2004
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Other Shops and
Characters |
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"Other shops in the area were
'Birrells' opposite Granton Parish Church, a draper's which sold
wool and cotton supplies in the old manner.
There was also a newsagent's
next-door.
Also around that area at the
time was a character called (not very originally) 'Jimmy', who was a
shell-shocked war veteran, who had a distinctive twitching manner. He was
harmless, and would show up for a chat out of the blue, but made little
sense when he did."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland -
formerly Edinburgh - February 2004
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Thank you to Donald
Grant, now living in Penicuik, who added: |
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Shops
"The shops Phil mentions
opposite Granton Parish Church occupy the site on the corner of Wardieburn
Drive and Boswall Parkway. I remember:
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In Wardieburn Drive, the northern most shop was occupied by a barber
called Smeaton. I can't recall how many shops were between that and
Birrells which was the most southerly but I've a feeling one was a
greengrocer.
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The drapers, Miss Richardson was on the corner site going into Boswall
Parkway. Next to that was a chemist. Next came a Dry-salter owned by
Mr Petrie and next door to that came Blacks the newsagent.
- The
remaining shops were all Leith Provident Cooperative and originally
consisted of a butcher, baker and grocer all in separate shops. They were
all eventually combined into what in those days (late-'50s early-'60s) was
called a supermarket. That was rather small by modern standards."
Delivery Jobs
"I had several jobs over the
years:
- delivering papers for
Duncan's Newsagent and Post Office in Boswall Drive.
- a milk round for
Alexander's Dairy in Granton Road.
- delivering groceries all round
the area on an old shop bike, complete with basket mounted on the front
for Wilson the Grocer, again in Granton Road
- again on a bike, delivering
bread for Mackies the Bakers at Goldenacre.
I hasten to add that I didn't
have these jobs all at the same time!"
Donald Grant, Penicuik, Midlothian,
Scotland |
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Football at
Inverleith Park |
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"My memories of Boswall are of almost
undiluted happiness.
My Dad used to run the local football team for the boys, and I remember 12 of us squeezing into an Austin A30(!) and going down to Inverleith Park, having at one stage to duck down when a Panda car was spotted.
A certain Gordon Strachan from Muirhouse made a guest appearance with us, aged 13, once."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland -
formerly Edinburgh - February 2004
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King Olav |
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©
" I
remember waving to King Olav of Norway from my gran's house in 1962, as
he made stately progress west on the railway, sometime in the late
fifties. He waved back too."
Phil Wilson, Aberdeen, Scotland -
formerly Edinburgh - February 2004
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