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Little France The district of the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary About 4 miles SE of the centre of Edinburgh |
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Recollections |
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| 1. |
David Bain |
- Dalkeith Coop |
| 2. |
Robert Thomson Kerr |
- Camp Site |
| 3. |
Val Brown |
- Camp Site - Tree |
| 4. |
Bryan
Gourlay |
- Tree |
| 5. |
David Bain |
- Caravan - The Kerr Family - Royal Infirmary (RIE) |
| 6. |
David Bain |
- Photos 1955/56 |
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Recollections 1 David Bain Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England |
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Thank you to David Bain who wrote: |
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Dalkeith Coop Mobile Shop "When we lived at Little France in the late 1950s, I remember seeing the Dalkeith Coop's horse-drawn mobile shop. I don't know how it ever got back up the hill at Craigour." |
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David Bain, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England: July 27, 2010 |
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Recollections 2. Robert Thomson Kerr Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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Robert Thomson Kerr wrote |
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Camp Site "I'm proud to have been born on 'Little France Farm' in July, 1958, where my Grandad (Bert Kerr) ran the caravan and camping ground for many years. It also used to be known as 'Petty France', possibly a corruption of Petite France, home for Mary Queen of Scots French servants, while she lived at nearby Craigmillar Castle in the 16th Century.
Robert Thomson Kerr, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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Recollections 3. Val Brown Edinburgh |
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Val Brown replied |
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Camp Site "It's changed days from the camp site, which as I remember was always busy in the summer. Now it's the site of the Royal Infirmary. I live in Gilmerton and we have sirens going all day, back and forth. |
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Tree Do you remember the hoo-ha about a tree that the developers wanted to chop down, apparently it had an historic link to the site. |
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Val Brown, Edinburgh: Message posted in EdinPhoto guestbook: June 30, 2011 |
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Recollections 4. Bryan Gourlay Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
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Bryan Gourlay added: |
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Tree "I well remember the tree Val Brown mentions. It was an old tree at the roadside close to the entrance to the caravan site and the row of cottages nearby. My dad used to call it Mary Queen of Scots’ tree. Legend had it that it was planted in her time, when she lived at Craigmillar Castle. He reckoned it was planted by the Queen herself." |
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Here is a piece from the Edinburgh Evening News (Nov 19, 2009):
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Here are extracts from the RCAHMS Canmore web site:
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Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland: June 30, 2011 |
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Recollections 5 David Bain Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England |
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David Bain wrote: |
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Caravan
"Robert Thomson Kerr's note
(Recollections 2 above) took me back!. We
lived in a caravan on the camp site there for a
while when we moved back to Edinburgh from the Isle of Man around |
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The Kerr Family "I remember Bert Kerr and his sons Robin and Dundas. He had daughters, too - Hazel and Heather? Although they had Little France Farm, they lived at Cairntows farm, Craigmillar." |
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Royal Infirmary "Looking at aerial photographs of the old site, I estimate that the position of our van is now marked by one of the RIE's car park lamp standards. The van was owned by the owner of the Kasrok Bar and Lounge in Spittal Street - a Mr Fraser?" |
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David Bain, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England: July 1, 2011 |
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Recollections 6 David Bain Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England |
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David Bain for following up his comments above with two photos. Please click on the thumbnail images below to enlarge them. David wrote |
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Photos - 1955/56 "Here are two photos taken at Little France caravan site, probably in about 1955/56. My sister, Susan, and I are in both. The second boy is our neighbour, Peter O'Hara. His father was a gaffer - in the theatrical sense - at the Empire Theatre." |
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David Bain, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England: July 1, 2011 |
