Growing up in the Fifties - 1

Meadowhead place taken from the top of Scollie Brae 1969.

Margaret Foster. All rights reserved.

Addiewell Primary School 1969.

Margaret Foster. All rights reserved.

Jackie and Grace Davidson and Bobby early 70s. The viaduct can be seen and the Stoneyburn bing. The field behind is where the school is now.

Margaret Foster. All rights reserved.

Addiewell Primary around 1953/54.

Margaret Foster. All rights reserved.

Just a Memory

By Margaret Foster

In the spring of 1950 the Davidsons moved from Polbeth to a brand new five apartment Scottish special house at 19 Meadowhead Place, Addiebrownhill. The family consisted of Jackie, Grace and their ten children. I learned later that there were some concerns among the neighbours about such a large family coming from "outside." However we soon settled in and each of the ten children was married from that house.

For Gracie it was like a homecoming. She was born Grace Paton in 1908 at 6 Loganlea row. The row was still standing in 1950. And I remember there was a house in the middle where you could buy bread. Gracie trailed us younger children up hill and down dale showing us the places she had known as a child.

One walk took us to the two wells where she had to go with her uncles to fetch water. They are shown on the old map on this site. One was bricked up - I wonder if there is still there? To reach the other (which she called, somebody's spring?) they went through the field across from Kirkhill, down to scollie burn and up the other side to the well. This was a long way to carry water. It was the marsh in 1950- where the water ran down to the burn.  We used the same route in reverse to go to the swings across from the post office and played at the burn crossing as there was a small sandy patch there - that will be behind Burnside now (what did they do with the marsh when they built?).

I was pleased to see the picture of the church on this site. The Davidsons always sat in the second pew from the back. Sadly my last visit to the church was at my mother's funeral in 2001.  By then the church was in disrepair, a sad sight, but it was her wish to be buried from there and I am glad it was still in use at that time.

My first teacher at Addiewell public school was Miss Henderson who taught the infants and lived up near the station. The second teacher in the wee school was, I think, Mrs. Russel. Up at the big school was Miss Arnott primary 3&4, Miss Macintyre primary 5&6 and Mr Hardie, the head, primary 7. Each Friday the class with best attendance for the week got the shield and were allowed out fifteen minutes early. The dinner ladies were old Jenny Walters and a lovely lady called Peggy.

Growing up in Addiebrownhill in the 50s left me with the impression of a rough and ready place with a good heart. I remember these days with fondness. The vans that served the schemes, Davie the butcher, Jockie McCabe’s fruit van. The store baker (who gave our dog a sugary bun), the big store grocery vans, the fish man on a Friday, Gillespie and Santini (Gratz) ice-cream vans and best of all the chip van in the evenings.

There was the Gala bus from Muirkirk to Polbeth that went by the low road. The S.M.T that ran on the hour and at twenty past. Broxburn, Edinburgh, and Bathgate. Quiet roads we were unafraid to walk on.

The two wee corrugated shops which stood in the grassy horseshoe behind Meadowhead Crescent - Hugh Tierney's and Davie Bertram’s. Things were still on ration in 1950 so sweets were few and far between but you could buy gum that tasted like candle wax -perhaps it was!

When the rationing was over we went mad on real chewing gum and penny caramels.

There was the store (West Calder Co-op) where the queues seemed never ending. You had to put your store book in a box and wait till it was drawn out. The idea was the assistants would draw the one from the bottom but I don't think they always played fair when it was a child who was waiting. The post office next door to the pub was run by Mr. and Mrs. Lumsden and was often referred to as "Gerries". I believe Mrs Lumsden's maiden name was Gerrie.

Down at the end of Livingstone Street was a wee sort of lean-to hut. This was the kingdom of Kate Carrol.  Kate sold sweets, fags and other essentials but it was her newspaper round that endeared her to the local residents. In all weathers this dedicated little woman was out there delivering her papers.

Like Loganlea row there was a “ house shop" in the middle of Livingstone Street. I don't recall who owned or ran it but I do recall the “lady" selling two little girls four oxo cubes for a penny. Sweets were rationed and she assured us the oxo tasted just like toffee. I reckon she was a mean one.

Up in Dykes, apart from the store and post office, there was a shop in Ross' farm and I recall Poms when it was only a hut down a path from the main road.

The more I write the more memories come back, so before this becomes a novel I'll call a halt. I love the site and love to read the memories of other growing up in the 50s in: The Dykes, Tintown and Addiewell.

Regards from Margaret in Rockingham Western Australia.