Granton  -  Wardie  -  Trinity

History

1544:  The Earl of Hertford and his army of ten thousand men arrived  with instructions from Henry VIII to burn Edinburgh and capture its castle.  They landed on the beach bordering Wardie Moor.  They seized Newhaven and Leith but not Edinburgh

1588:  Mary Queen of Scots married the Dauphin of France.  A cannonball was fired from the cannon, Mons Meg, at Edinburgh Castle and landed in Wardie Moor, where Wardie School is now situated.  A reward of ten shilling scots was paid to the men who found the cannonball and carried it back to Edinburgh Castle.

1657:  Cromwell's men were in the district, building the Citadel of Leith.  It was reported that they "purchased for £60 the ruinous manor-place of Wardie with power to pull it down and remove all stones and timber,, and to win all manner of stone from the quarrying betwixt the House of Wardie and the sea so long as they should be abuilding of the Citadel."

Around 1800:  The land was still mainly used for farming.  There were a few large mansions built as country homes for the wealthy of Edinburgh and Leith.  Trinity Road followed the edge of the existing fields as it wound its way down to the coast.

By 1831, the only other roads in the district were Ferry Road, Lower Granton Road (still a cart track, often washed away by storm and tide) and a road running to the north from Ferry Road to the coast, passing through what is now Wardie School playing fields.

1835:  Work commenced on building Granton Harbour was built and opened on Queen Victoria's Coronation Day, 28 June 1838.  It took until the 1860s to complete the harbour.

Granton Road, leading to Granton Harbour was described in the 1845 New Statistical Account for Scotland as "one of the finest roads in Scotland, both as regard to its breadth and construction".

The railway line from Edinburgh reached Trinity Station in 1844 and went on to terminate at Granton Harbour in 1850

Around 1900:  Most of the roads and houses in the district of Trinity, which lies to the east of Granton Road, were built in the late 19th and early 20th century. 

Zetland Place, Lomond Road, Stirling Road and Lennox Row were all named after ships registered in Leith in the 1870s and 1880s.

Early 20th century:  Housing was built to the west of Granton Road, roads being named after:

-  Boswell of Blackadder, a 19th century landowner.

-  Andrew Grierson, town clerk of Edinburgh.

-  Provost Fraser of Dunfermline.

1931:  Wardie School was opened on 15 September 1931 with 96 boys and 132 girls of all ages from five to twelve.  Many had transferred from Trinity or Bonnington Academy, so saving themselves the daily journey by steam train from Granton Road Station to Trinity Station.

The details above are based on notes that I wrote for a booklet to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Wardie Primary School.  The booklet was published by Wardie Parents' Association in 1981, and a copy was presented to each of the pupils attending the school in September 1981.

Unfortunately I did not keep a record of the original source material used to compile these notes.

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