Edinburgh History - Recollections of Slateford

Recollections Slateford
1.	George Smith British Columbia, Canada	Icicles The Plantations
2.	Bill Porteous Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	The Aqueduct Haunted House
3.	Isabella Vever (née Isobel Grieve) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia	Isabella Vever
4.	Roderick MacDonald Hobart, Tasmania, Australia	John and Ella MacDonald
5.	Janice Menzies Slateford, Edinburgh	Holidays My Family

Recollections

George Smith

British Columbia, Canada

Thank you to George Smith, British Columbia, Canada, formerly Edinburgh, for the following recollections from the 1940s:

Icicles

"There was an overflow on the Union Canal aqueduct, where it crosses the Water of Leith. This helped maintain the canal at a level to prevent flooding after heavy rain. Icicles extending down from the canal were an annual event."

A succession of cold days with sunny afternoons, causing a slight thaw could produce long icicles."

George Smith

I have seen one photograph where the icicle extended all the way down to the Water of Leith. - Peter Stubbs

"The Plantations"

"Through the Slateford aqueduct at ground level led (with wet schoolboy feet) to what we called "The Plantations" where we swung from a rope strung from one of the trees in this forgotten woodland.

Access to this sylvan retreat was either through the cattle sidings at the back of the cattle market or via Hutchison Loan.

Interesting that there was Inglis Green Laundry backing on to the Water of Leith near where the old maps show bleaching fields. Tradition dies hard doesn't it?"

George Smith, British Columbia, Canada

2005

There is now, in 2005, a path and cycle route following the Water of Leith in this area, passing beneath the railway bridge and aqueduct. At the aqueduct, there is a Water of Leith Centre with info on the wild life that can be found.

There is a long flight of steps leading up from the Water of Leith path to the tow path on the Union Canal above. It has a wooden channel beside the steps, for wheeling cycles from one route to the other.

- Peter Stubbs

Recollections

Bill Porteous

Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Thank you to Bill Porteous, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia for the following message:

"The Aqueduct"

"I remember as a child, living in Hutchinson Medway, that my brother, friends and I would climb up into the aqueduct and explore the network of passages in it.

I well remember the gigantic icicles that hung down from it into the burn below.

"Haunted House"

There was also an old house of three stories or so that we all believed was either haunted or was occupied by a witch.

We used to frighten the living daylights out of younger kids (and often ourselves) by running up and down the stairs.

Bill Porteous

Bill Porteous lived in Hutchison Medway, Edinburgh and went to St. Cuthbert's School in Slateford in the 1940s/50s, then to Holy Cross in Leith from 1952 to 1954 before emigrating to Australia under the 'Big Brother Scheme' in 1957.

Recollections

Isabella Vever (née Isobel Grieve)

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Isabella Vever left the following message in the EdinPhoto guest book:

Isabella Vever

"Does anyone from Moat Drive remember me? I lived at 14 Moat Drive, Slateford, and went to Tynecastle School. I have been in Australia for 38 years."

Isabella Vever (née Isobel Grieve), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia:
Message posted in Guestbook, March 19, 2010

Recollections

Roderick MacDonald

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Here is a message that Roderick MacDonald left in the EdinPhoto web site:

John and Ella MacDonald

"Does anyone remember my parents, John and Ella (née Wiseman) MacDonald? They emigrated to Tasmania in 1949.

My father:

- served in the Royal Navy in World War II

- married my mother in Slateford Church in 1947

- trained as a forester before leaving Scotland.

I was born in 1948 in Edinburgh, Elsie Inglis Hospital - whatever happened to it? Both my parents died in 2006."

Roderick MacDonald, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia:
Message posted in EdinPhoto Guestbook: August 17, 2010

Reply to Roderick MacDonald

I don't know Roderick MacDonald's email address, so cannot pass any messages on to him. So if you'd like to send him a message, please go to the guest book and place a reply below his message of August 17, 2010.

Peter Stubbs: August 17, 2010

Recollections

Janice Menzies

Slateford, Edinburgh

Janice Menzies wrote

Holidays

"My mum used to go to Seton Sands** on holiday. I've heard stories from my grandmother about lots of people from Gorgie and Slateford going on holiday there in the 1930s.

** Seton Sands is a caravan holiday camp on the Firth of Forth beside Port Seton, about ten miles to the east of Edinburgh.

My Family

"My grandfather worked in the co-op. He went to work with his hat and starched collars. My grandmother never went into Princes Street without her best hat on either.

Mother sang the ballads with the bands at the dancing during the war and worked in the factory that sewed the uniforms

Janice Menzies, Slateford, Edinburgh: February 17, 2012