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Edinburgh Recollections Baird Drive |
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Recollections |
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1. |
Maurice McIlwrick |
Late-1920s Housing Baird Drive - Nostalgia Project Participants |
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2. |
Maurice McIlwrick |
Baird Drive - around 1930 |
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3. |
Maurice McIlwrick |
Baird Drive - around 1930 |
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4. |
Peter
Stubbs |
Aerial View Aerial View + Key |
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5. |
Elizabeth
Stivson |
Baird Grove |
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6. |
Maurice
Thomson |
Baird Drive Houses Saughtonhall Boys' Club - Football Team |
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7. |
Karen Newton |
No. 40 - Hallyburton Family - Fish & Chip Shop - Gillian Vair - Visit to Blair Drive |
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8. |
Alan G Macpherson |
The 1930s - Houses - Streets - Run-Away Horse - Schools - Street Games - Rugby Matches - Vehicles - Children (north side) - Children (south side) |
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9. |
Betty Moir |
- 48 Baird Drive |
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10. |
Maurice McIlwrick |
Baird Drive - around 1930 |
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11. |
Baird Streets - the name |
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11. Reply 1 |
Peter Stubbs |
Baird Streets - the name |
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12. |
Maurice McIlwrick |
7 Baird Drive |
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13. |
7 Baird Drive Neighbours |
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Recollections 1. Maurice McIlwrick North Gyle, Edinburgh |
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Late-1920s Housing Baird Drive lies between Jenners' Depository and the western side of Murrayfield Rugby Ground. At one time there was an entrance to the Rugby Ground from Baird Drive. The houses in Baird Drive were constructed in the late-1920s. Maurice McIlwrick, was born at 11 Baird Drive in 1929. His parents and older brother had moved into the house when it was newly built, in 1927. |
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Baird Drive Nostalgia Project Maurice tells me that, in 2002, Brian Farish started to work on a 'Baird Drive Nostalgia Project'. This project has been trying to see how many of the people who lived in Baird Drive at the time that Brian was growing up, around the 1930s, could be remembered. Others have helped, and a fairly full list of former residents of the 104 houses in 'The Drive' has been compiled, together with many of their occupations and interests. A number of old photos have also been collected. I hope to add some of this information and a few photos to this page soon. |
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Participants These are some of the people who have already provided information for the project: - Jim and Bertie Beveridge - Margaret Dalrymple - Brian Farish - Maurice and Eric McIlwrick - Doris McNaughton - Margaret Martin - Douglas McRae - Alan McPherson, Canada - Dorothy Munro (Davidson) - Alan Murray - Billy Reid - Ronnie Swan If you'd like to learn more about the 'Baird Drive Nostalgia Project' or if you have any memories or photos of 'The Drive' that you would like to share, please email me, then I'll pass on message to Maurice McIlwrick who is currently co-ordinating this project. Thank you. |
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Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: December 9, 2010 |
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Recollections 2. Maurice McIlwrick North Gyle, Edinburgh |
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Baird Drive - Around 1930 Thank you to Maurice McIlwrick for writing again enclosing this photo from the 'Baird Drive Nostalgia Project'. This photo was taken in Baird Drive, around 1930. Maurice's older brother, Eric, is holding the cricket bat. The boy on the right is Billy Richardson. Who is the boy on the left? Maurice added: "This was a serious game of cricket in Baird Drive, with wickets drawn on the lamp post." Maurice McIlwrick, North Gyle, Edinburgh: December 11, 2010 |
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Recollections 3. Maurice McIlwrick North Gyle, Edinburgh |
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Baird Drive - Around 1930 Thank you to Maurice McIlwrick for providing this plan of the Baird Drive, drawn by Jimmy Beveridge, to record some of the results from the 'Baird Drive Nostalgia Project'. Please click on the thumbnail image below to enlarge it and read it. Maurice McIlwrick, North Gyle, Edinburgh: December 7, 2010 |
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Recollections 4. Peter Stubbs Edinburgh |
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Aerial View Here is an aerial view, looking down on the western end of Baird Drive, looking down on the western end of 'The Drive' and out to the west towards Carrick Knowe Golf Course and beyond. This photo, taken in December 1951, comes from the collection held by The Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments in Scotland (RCAHMS). A copy of this photo is now held in the Baird Drive Nostalgia Project Collection. |
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Aerial View + Key Here is another copy of the same aerial view, but with a key added: |
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Recollections 5. Elizabeth Stivson Massachusetts, USA |
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Elizabeth Stivson wrote: |
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Baird Grove "My grandmother and all her siblings moved to Baird Grove, one of the streets connected to Baird Drive, in the late 1920s. They must have moved into the houses were brand new. My grandmother emigrated to New Jersey, USA after World War II. I grew up hearing stories about her childhood on Baird Grove, the little burn (stream) behind it, and the field behind that. It was amazing to discover, today, that it is all laid out just like she described! I think the field was used to house artillery during World War II. Elizabeth Stivson, Massachusetts, USA: May 22, 2011 (2 emails) |
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Recollections 6. Maurice Thomson Edinburgh |
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Baird Drive Houses Thank you to Gordon Aitchison for passing a message to me from one of his relations, Maurice Thomson who stayed at 38 Baird Drive and still lives in Edinburgh. Gordon tells me that Maurice has asked for his name to be corrected on the 'Who Lived Where?' map (I'm not able to amend the map myself, but I've added a correction below it.) Gordon tells me that Maurice has many fond memories of living at Baird Drive and that he can fill in some of the missing names on the map. I've emailed Gordon to ask if he can send anything more from Maurice so that I can include it on this page and pass it on to Maurice McIlwrick and Jimmy Beveridge who created the 'Who Lived Where?' map. |
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Saughtonhall Boys' Club Football Team Gordon Aitchison also sent me this photo of 9 players from Saughtonhall Boys' Club Football Team, attached to Saughtonhall Congregational Church. This team won the Lothian Amateur Forsyth Cup (under 16) in 1944-45. |
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Acknowledgements: (a) Gordon
Aitchison, Corstorphine, Edinburgh, |
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Recollections 7. Karen Newton Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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No. 40 Hallyburton Family "My adoptive mother, Annie Hallyburton, lived at number 40 Baird Drive. She was born in 1927, not on Baird Drive, but they must have moved in soon after that. I think the last name is Hallyburton, not Haliburton as on the map. My mother's nickname was Annie Hally. Her brothers were Jimmy and Willie. I never met Willie, he died in the war, but I remember Jimmy a little. He's been dead for around 25 years now. He had a daughter called Linda. My mother also passed away. My grandparents were Willie and Annie. I think they had 5 children, Jimmy, Willie, Annie, Sandy, and I think another one but I'm not sure. The map says Willie, Jimmy, Annie, but I don't know if those were the parents or the children." Fish & Chip Shop "My grandfather had a fish and chip shop. I think it was on Gorgie Road. Then I think it was just a fish shop. I know Jimmy worked there before becoming a security guard at the airport. My mother's nickname was Annie Hally." Gillian Vair "One of the neighbours looks like it says Yair on the map, but I think it was Vair, because there was a girl my age called Gillian Vair. She had another last name but I can't remember it at the moment, maybe it was Walker." Visits to Baird Drive "I visited 40 Baird Drive when I was 6, 9, and 12 and always wanted to go back but I could never afford it." Karen Newton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada:: April 8, 2012 |
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Recollections 8. Alan G Macpherson St John's Newfoundland, Canada |
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Alan G MacPherson, who lived at 50 Baird Drive until 1939, wrote: |
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1930s Houses "Baird Drive in the 1930s was a relatively new Edinburgh Corporation development comprising over a hundred rental units in a dozen blocks on each side of the street, each housing four families, two up and two down. It was built between the high embankment to the south, carrying the main Edinburgh - Glasgow rail line, the popular suburban line from Corstorphine to Haymarket and the Waverley, and the Baird division of privately-owned bungalows to the north." Streets "The Drive ran, as it does today, from the junction of Balgreen Road and Saughtonhall Drive (with St Cuthbert's Co-op store in the angle) to the bridge over the Water of Leith, generally rendered inaccessible to traffic by virtue of a centre post locked in place. Baird Avenue and Baird Grove interrupted it on its north side , where the houses backed onto Baird Gardens and Baird Terrace. The Baird division streets were narrow, as today, but the Drive was much broader than we see it today: the wide pavements were there but there were no designated parking spaces with curbed spaces between them. Young families from a variety of backgrounds were moving in, in the mid-1920s, although it was not until July 1928 that the Drive, along with Baird Gardens and Baird Terrace was taken over as a public street." Run-Away Horse "Horse-drawn carts delivered coal and milk. Survivors of the 1930s m ay recall the excitement when Tom Black, the Gorgie Road / Chesser butcher who sold meat from his high, two-wheeled dray was seen flying down the Drive and struggling to control a spirited horse before it reached the posted bridge over the Water of Leith." Schools "In fact, Baird Drive was owned by the children from the young families who lived there - children who walked to elementary schools at Roseburn or on Ballgreen Road, north of the rail bridge. Others used public transport in the form of Corporation buses to reach the Royal High School, Watson's, Daniel Stewart's, Heriot's (boys) and Gillespie's (girls)." Street Games "The Drive in those days was wide enough to allow an occasional game of football. But its width generally invited a variety of games of tag in which the objective was to cross the street from pavement to pavement untouched, sometimes involving knowledge of brand names of cigarettes or motor cars! The pavements were used for games of hop-scotch by the girls , while the boys used them for whipping tops, often competitively. The most spectacular event occurred on Guy Fawkes' Night when the neighbourhood constructed a bonfire where Baird Avenue joined the Drive. the combustibles collected by older children and young adults." Rugby Matches "Once or twice a year, the Drive ceased to serve as a playground when there was an international rugby match at Murrayfield. On these occasions, the centre post denying access to the bridge over the Water of Leith was removed and the Drive filled up with four files of cars that filtered across the bridge, single -file to park on the playing fields outside the stadium. One is tempted to suppose that the Drive was planned deliberately to accommodate this function. Does anybody know?" Vehicles "The Drive used to accommodate four lines of traffic tor the international rugby matches, but there was not a single car-owning family in the street. The only motorised vehicles which could be seen parked by day were Haliburton’s fish van and Patterson’s motorbike-and-sidecar from which an insurance agency was conducted." Children (north side) "On the south side of the Drive lived: - Donald Tugwell and his sister Jean at No. 2, which faced across Balgreen Road to Stewart’s shop (newspapers, tobacco products, sweets), a shoemaker’s workshop and the path up to Balgreen Halt. Their father was a police detective. - Billy Richardson, who later moved across the street. - Tommy Hannah. - Ronnie Swan. - The Naysmith brothers. - John and Annie Haliburton, a very spirited girl whose parents ran a fishmonger’s business on Gorgie Road. - Margaret Patterson. - David Stupart and his younger sister Margaret, their father an engine-driver. - Mary Scott whose father was a postman. - Alan Macpherson and his younger sister Olive at No.50, their father a shop manager who used the popular suburban line from Balgreen Halt into the Waverley every working day. - George Cumming. - Gwennie Manning of an English family, one of the few that moved away from the area during the 1930s. - George 'Dodo' Nicholson and his younger sister Irene whose father was a policeman on the beat. Irene Nicholson was a dark-haired, brown-eyed wee girl to whom the writer proposed marriage – at the age of four – as overheard and duly reported by an amused neighbour. - The Beveridge brothers." Children (south side) "On the north side of the Drive lived: - Hector and Ian Jackson (the footballer) and their older and dashing sisters 'Twink' and Anne. - Brenda Ballard, whose family relocated to southern England after WWII. - Marjorie Stewart. - Freddie Davidson who later trained as a Geography teacher. - Campbell Sham. - Brian Farish. - Michael and John Landon of another English family that relocated to the Blackhall district. - Robin and Ian Grey. - Morag, Douglas and Kenneth MacRae. - Peter Boyce, an older and rather aloof lad. - Finlay Stalker/Stocker. These were joined occasionally by: - Mary Wyllie, another spirited lass from Baird Gardens. - Maxie Allan, and Billy Martin from the Terrace, the latter an American who later returned there to serve in the U.S. Navy. Whaur are they noo ? Alan G Macpherson, St John', Newfoundland, Canada: April 15, 2012 (2 emails) |
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Recollections 9. Betty Moir (née Drysdale) Markham, Ontario, Canada |
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Thank you to Betty Moir who wrote: |
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48 Baird Drive "I lived at 4 Glendevon Avenue. My sister, Margaret Drysdale, married David Stupart who lived at 48 Baird Drive. They had both just been demobbed and met at the New Locarno and discovered they lived close to each other. They married in 1949 and emigrated to Canada in 1953. David died in 1998 and Margaret in 2008. They had three children who are all living in Ontario." Betty Moir, Markham, Ontario, Canada: April 30, 2012 |
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Recollections 10. Maurice McIlwrick North Gyle, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Maurice McIlwrick who wrote: |
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'Who Lived Where in Baird Drive?' Diagram Updated "I have been able to persuade the architect member of our group, Jim Beveridge, to modify the drawing of Baird Drive to show certain changes where Brian Farish and I agree the corrections are justified." Maurice McIlwrick, North Gyle, Edinburgh: July 15, 2012 |
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'Who Lived Where in Baird Drive?' Version C Please click on the thumbnail image below to see Jim Beveridge's modified copy of the drawing i.e. Version C, which includes information discovered up to July 2012.
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Recollections 11. Karen Baird Vierra |
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Thank you to Karen Baird Vierra who wrote: |
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Baird Drive and Baird Grove The Name "I have not found anything about how Baird Drive and Baird Grove came to be named. As Saughtonhall is mentioned, one might assume there is a connection to the cadet branch of the Bairds of Saughtonhall. Do you have any background on this?" Karen Baird Vierra: October 13, 2013 |
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Recollections 11. Reply 1. Peter Stubbs Edinburgh |
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Hi Karen: I have a few books about Edinburgh street names. Here's what they say about the Baird streets: |
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Baird Street Names 1. The History and Derivation of Edinburgh Street Names Edinburgh Corporation City Engineers Dept.: May 1975
2. The Streets of Edinburgh Street Names Research: Dr K Winton et al.: 1984
3. The Place Names of Edinburgh Stuart Harris: 1996
Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: October 13, 2013 |
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Recollections 12. Louise Lothian (née Thorburn) |
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Thank you to Louise Lothian (née Thorburn) who wrote: |
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7 Baird Drive Peter Thorburn "My father, Peter Thorburn, was born in 1943 and moved to No.7 Baird Drive around 1945, after there had been a huge fire in Great Junction Street, Leith. Then, Balgreen was on the outskirts of town with Corstorphine village exactly that, with a piggery! My dad lived at No.7 Baird Drive with his older brother, George. My dad, Peter went to Balgreen Primary School, probably starting school in 1947/48. Any photos of the area then would really be very nice. I'd very much like to find some pictures from around 1950s and 1960s. My granny had many photos in her loft, but they were thrown out when the houses were renovated in the 1980's. Terrible really! You'd think the workmen would have known not to throw them out. However, I think I may be able to dig out some photos of my father and his friends at the Murrayfield Ice Rink. Dad's brother, George left for the army when he was almost 16: I'm sure George was born in 1937. I have a family tree made by his son, also Peter Thorburn." Louise Lothian (née Thorburn): 14 March 2016 |
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Recollections 13. Peter Thorburn |
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Peter Thorburn followed up his daughter's comments in Recollections 12 above. Peter wrote: |
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7 Baird Drive "Hi: I lived in 7 Baird Drive with my mother Etta Thorburn and brother George Thorburn. My mother moved from Constitution Street in Leith after her house there was destroyed by fire due to the bomb that hit Leith Town Hall in 1944, Both my brother and I attended Balgreen Primary School." Neighbours "I'm very interested in the Baird Drive project. - The Mcllwrick family were our friends for years. - Over the road at No 2 were the Tugwells whose son, John, went to school with me." Peter Thorburn (now aged 72): London: 14 March 2016 |