Springwell Place, Dalry

Christina Stewart (Nairn) outside 12 Springfield Place, around 1930

Springwell Place

Thank you to Alan Stewart who wrote sending me four photographs of his family. Here is one of them, together with some recollections from Alan:

12 Springfield Place

"There has not yet been much mention of Springwell Place on the EdinPhoto web site, so I'm sending this photo of my Gran, Christina Stewart standing outside her home at No. 12, around 1930.

Our Family

My Stewart family were resident at 12 Springwell Place from around 1900 to around 1960. We were quite poor, so there are not many photos around.

No. 12 was a one-bed flat which, even in the 1950s, held three generations of our family for a while:

- my grandparents

- their daughter Jessie and her husband Frank, a Canadian sailor who was on leave from the WW2 Russian convoys when they met.

- their two children.

The family eventually got a flat in Ardmillan Terrace, then moved out to Clermiston.

My earliest recollections are of sitting on my dad's knee in the 1950s, hearing him call an old fellow sitting opposite him 'dad', and saying to him: 'He cant be dad. You are dad'.

He was, in fact, my grandfathers brother, who had married the wife of his late brother Hendry (my grandfather) after Hendry had been killed in the Somme in 1916. He was a bookie's runner amongst other things. He spent most of the time sitting in his chair, smoking a pipe; at least he did when he had visitors."

Alan Stewart, Dumfries, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland: October 28, 2010