Dear Ed,

One of my grandsons asked me the other week what it was like 'in the old days' when I was a boy.

As I was telling him some of the things we did, I realised just how restricted children are nowadays,
So I sat down and started to put together memories of childhood in the 50's & 60's.

Here are two.

In Westburn, on one side of the street, there was a small burn, which became a magical playground as I grew older. Beyond the burn were open fields and a few copses of trees, until you came to the River Clyde, about 2 miles away. On the right of the fields, a 'Bing' rose - this was a hill made from the spoils of the Newton Pit. After the coal had been extracted, the waste was deposited, until it made a hill, or 'Bing'. To young boys, the Bing was the equivalent of the Himalayas - exciting, dangerous and magnetically attractive.

It was here I learned to toboggan - Honest! - Someone would get hold of a length of the pit conveyor belt- a tough rubber belt about 2 feet wide and half an inch thick. We cut it into 5 or 6 foot lengths, then dragged it to the top of the Bing. Then three or four of us would sit on it, the front 'driver' pulling the leading edge up onto his knees, the rest sitting behind, gripping the one in front for grim death, and, with a short push from someone, we were off!! Down a 45 degree slope, 200 yards and 15 seconds of terrifying, dangerous, exhilarating, incredibly bumpy ride! Absolutely magic! And free!!

Sometimes, some of the 'big boys' - i.e. about 15 year olds, would dig a hole at the top of the bing, put a railway sleeper in it so it could stand upright and with some fencing wire - steel, about quarter inch in diameter- (probably 'rescued' from the farm), would make a 'parachute jump'. The wire stretched from the sleeper at the top of the Bing down to a fence post in the field below - a distance of about 2-300 yards. The wire was never more than 5-6 feet off the ground at any point due to the slope, but, if you fell off, you were travelling really, really fast downhill, and would land on the 45 degree surface of the Bing with nothing to stop you but the boulders and ash!! The 'big boys' had made a few 'hangers'. These were bent pieces of iron like a V shape with straight handles at the ends. You put the hanger over the wire into the v and held on either side of the hanger, started running until the ground fell away from your feet and you were away!! No safety wires, harnesses or nets! It was 10 seconds of flying through the air, feeling like superman, then the grass in the field catching your feet, and dropping off, to roll over and over again, laughing like a maniac!!

How can a computer compete with that??

John F Jackson

Your location Glasgow

There was also a Bing (The Brandy Bing) on the Westburn Cemetary side of the village (over the railway lines at Northbank Avenue...the Widden Hooses).
There was an Ack-Ack gun up there during the war and opposite Westburn Co-op was a massive underground air-raid shelter. The older boys and girls did their 'winchin' down there in the pitch dark.

When the war ended, the soldiers left the Bing and I found some big 7-pound tins of pineapple jam that one of them must have 'planked'. Our gang were sick for weeks!

Two Jackson girls were in our gang. Isabel and Margaret! Any relation?

Your location Leeds

ronnie i remember that bing but it was westburn bing the brandy bing was in the halfway up a bit from the sun inn but the other side of the road there was a football pitch called the brandy.near that bing at westburn they used to have speedway races 2 or 3 of the local lads took part i think the name jones springs to mind.we also did our sledging in the field next to the cemetary.do you remember find me out pronounced finn mute also piggery road but i did'nt no
why it was called that.you must have stayed in westburn in the early 50 there use to be a little rhyme written in newton station it went like this tarzen miff ebb penman charlie geordie and slack ----willie do you know any of these names a good old westburn best regards gerry.

Your location england

Who remembers the steel cable that came from the top of the large bing at the cemetery
(www.boyle.ukpals.com/Cambuslang/Video%20Clips/c3.jpg

all the way down to the bottom where it was connected to a huge metal winch at the bottom. You could ratchet up the winch so that it tightened the cable and provided a swing gap at the bottom of the bing which allowed you to bounce up and down, sometimes dangerously high. Great days !

Your location Kilmarnock

Gerry and Ed,
You're right, it was the Westburn Bing. Anyway, Fimute was the miner's name for Caldervale a double row of miner's houses at the side of the River Calder about a mile from Newton. I knew a guy called Gerry Reynolds who lived there and Mary Boyle; we were all in the same class at St Charles school in Newton.
As for the Piggery Road, I mentioned elsewhere that farmer Spiers kept pigs around that area when Newton House was demolished during the war...hence 'The Piggery Road'.
Sorry but I don't know any of the names used on the grafitti at Newton Station, probably some Hallside or Newton boys.
Nice remembering those far off days with you.
Regards,
Ronnie.
PS. Did anyone ever go Tattie Howkin' or gathering rhubarb at Newton Farm. Auld Willie Lang was the Gaffer?

Your location Leeds

Dear Ronnie and Ed,
What you've started!
Now the grandchildren want to hear more stories from 'the old days Pop'!

Working on Argo's farm
During the school summer holidays, a lot of the children in the village worked on the local farm for a few weeks. We must have been aged about 10 or 12 at the time - child labour!! It was great! We would crawl along the rows of cabbages, turnips or cauliflower drills and weed by hand. The farmer, Mr Argo, supplied knee protectors and lots of water and lemonade. At the end of the week we got 10 shillings each. That's 50pence nowadays, but then it was a fortune. As well as the lemonade, we would also help ourselves to the cattle feed which was in big feeding troughs dotted about the farm.. The feed was pellets made from molasses and corn or wheat husks and tasted brilliant. As it was choc-a-block with roughage, nowadays it would probably be sold as health food !!

We would all assemble in the farmhouse yard in the morning and were divided up into teams for the different fields. One at a time, the team of maybe 10 or 12 would climb up onto the tractor trailer to be driven to the allotted field. Hanging on for grim death, the tractor seemed to be travelling at 60 miles an hour, running over ruts and potholes 2 feet deep! It was probably pushed to do 10 miles an hour and having no suspension on the trailer added to the necessity to cling on tight. It was like a ride on the Blackpool rollercoaster!!

If we were still working on the farm towards the end of the school holidays - early august - then we could take home some of the produce - cabbages or turnips or cauliflowers. These were much appreciated by our mothers, because it meant a family meal for free!

The countryside was a place of wonderment in every season. When I hear crows calling, I always associate the sound with the winter months, the fields covered in either frost or snow, the trees bare with the crow's and rooks nests visible in the top branches and the raucous calling of the birds echoing across the still landscape, .


Best wishes

John Jackson

Your location glasgow

Dear Ronnie,
Sorry I missed this earlier posting. No, my sisters were all after 1950, but there were unrelated Jacksons at the top of Northbank Avenue - near the swing park. I'm pretty sure one of them was Isabel.

John Jackson

Your location glasgow

Heavens what memories the mention of the Brandy Big brought back! How could I forget it. We lived in Cairnswell Ave. and looked down on it! As kids though what great fun we had plying up there. You could never hide the fact that’s where you’d been from your mammy. By the time we got home the black soot was a tell tale sign that we’d been to the Bing , hearing “Ah told you not to play there”!
Am I right in remembering there was a brick works behind it? Because I do remember a lot of old bricks lying about the place and my sister and I would spend hour building wee hooses, room after room. Furniture and all! It would then be getting dark and we would have to head home thinking the next day we’d have a great time playing in oor wee hoose. But it was never the same the next day. So we’d start all over again. The mention of The Brandy Bing has fair brought back some wonderful recollections.
Laurie Gordon

Dear Laurie,

The brandy bing was only a whispered myth to me. As the 75 bus went to Newton and returned, and the 76 bus came down from halfway, through Hallside to Newton and returned, who would walk to Newton station to get a bus to a far away place like Halfway instead of buying a penny caramel to break in half on the kerb? Nowadays, everyone knows Halfway is only about a mile or so away, but then it seemed like Timbuktoo!

Now that I have started my memories for the Grandsons, they were all ears when I mentioned paraffin heaters during the winter. They could not believe we did not have radiators or central heating!

I wrote this for them.

'I slept with my younger brother and envied my older brother his single bed, but during the cold winters when the ice formed on the inside of the windows, I suppose having a wee brother to cuddle up to probably had it's compensations. We had a paraffin heater in the room in the winter, a tall black tin thing on 3 legs. You could see the flame through a small window at the front. The wonderful thing about it was the shimmering dappled light it reflected on the ceiling through the grating on the top of it. I remember lying in bed many a night in winter, under two or three greatcoats thrown over the blankets, just mesmerised by these dancing lights.'


John F Jackson

Your location glasgow

See this link to where the Brandy Bing used to be...

http://www.boyle.ukpals.com/Cambuslang/Halfway10.JPG

I believe it was called that name because of it's ash colour.

Your location Kilmarnock

Hello John,

Fancy you remembering the bus numbers, In fact, when I first went to school I started at St Charles’s at Newton , so I guess that’s the bus I got on to get there!

I also remember the kindergarten room in St Charles had a big open fire in it to keep us cosy. Can you imagine an open fire in a school these days!! I remember the janitor at that school with fond memories, he was kind to we kids Mr. Faloon?

Weren’t you the lucky one having a wee paraffin heater in the bedroom! I remember how cold it would get up the stairs and the icicles on the inside of the window…. freezing!! Also in the dead of winter, my dad having to hang a tin with lightened coal in it, over the S bend of the water pipes, to melt the ice.

My memory of a penny caramel is just the same as yours. Bashing it on the kerb and savouring every mouthful. The last time I went to Bundanoon to see the Highland Games I bought some, sadly they seemed so much smaller than I remember and didn’t taste near as good.

Ed thanks for the photo showing how things look now I remember the Bing was gone last time I visited Halfway.

hi laurie.there is a photo of the janny bob faloon in the local photo's section he was the football manager as well as the janny you may know some of the team maybe you were in the same class.i remember my dad defrosting the pipes as well you had to do a little bit at a time for fear of getting a burst pipe the day we moved to new house in westburn it was near christmas time the cold water tank in the loft sprung a leak the day we moved no fire so everybody was wrapped up in old coats and blankets a crisis at the time but we soon got over it.no central heating in those days.i still think the good old days gerry

Your location england

Thanks Jerry, that’s Mr Faloon, I can’t recall any of the names of lads in the photo, as I left St Charles’s when St Cadocs’ was built.
Reading about the memories of domestic situations back then just shows how much harder life was, however most people were in the same position so we didn’t realise things were tough. The rooms upstairs were cold but the fire was always a blaze as the coal fire heated the water.
I’ve been racking my brain to remember the name of the coalman Scott I think. He was never away from the bunker round the back at Cairnswell Ave!

Hi Laurie,
Thanks for your replies - memories are such ficle things! As I said earlier, I started writing for my grandchildren and funny enough, I had a piece on St Charles' and on the Jani.
I know they are quite long and probably very boring to many, but they seemso vivid now after 50 years!
:-
"I don't remember my first day at St Charles’, but I do remember being in Primary one. This was Miss Hart's class. Miss Hart was a wonderful person. She seemed know everything and had the patience of a Saint. Behind her, above the fire place, there was a picture on the wall of a small child leaning into a stream, with a Guardian Angel standing watch. I can remember it vividly to this day. Underneath it was the fireplace. The fire was lit about the middle of September or start of October and gave more light than heat. Miss Hart would occasionally return to the fire to throw on another lump of coal from the coal scuttle in the fireplace. This was great, as the flames leapt higher, and the new coal cracked and split, making the sound (to my ears at least,) of gunfire.

Instead of jotters or notebooks, we had slates to write our lessons on. They were flat slates enclosed with wooden surrounds. We could write or draw on them, then use a small cloth as an eraser and start again."
:-
"The janitor of my primary school (Bobby Fallon or Faloon?) was a kindly soul, and many a bitterly cold playtime was spent with 10 or more shivering children crushed into his boiler room in front of the seemingly huge fires. When I think of it now, I'm sure there was about 6-8 inches of insulation around the furnaces and boilers - probably asbestos fibre! The 'Jani' was the first to see any injustice in the play yard and the first to make sure it wasn't repeated.
When I climbed the metal fence at the back of the school field in search of a ball or something else, he was the one who lifted me down after impaling myself on the sharp point of one of the railings. It went in just below my kneecap and if I had moved, it would have taken off my knee! However, following the shouts from my friends, he lifted me vertically until clear of the spike and carried me to his wee office. There he cleaned the wound and covered it with gauze and a plaster, at the same time letting me know how dangerous and stupid it was to climb spiked railings, then sent me back out to play! I still have a white, triangular scar about an inch long on my left leg just below the kneecap to prove how stupid I was!"

Best wishes to all

John Jackson

Your location glasgow

hi ed the photo you were asking where it was.ithink it was taken from mansion st.it was the bottom end of colebrooke st.there was a gang of us that used to play on the washhouse roofs in colebrooke st backyards we also played kick the can and knock up ginger great fun but harmless those were the good old days the tide of progress has washed it all away some of the changes good some not so good thats progress ihear they are changing it yet again the cross clock side of main st not changed very much the old savoy still there i remember rock around the clock was there the the savoy got well damaged that night in 58 to get back to what i was going to say before nostalga took over i remember that wire rope on the bing near the welfare park it was abit scary doing hand over hand then letting go great fun a ed regards gerry.

Your location england

Hi Ed,

just finished another tale from the riverbanks for my Grandsons - hope this is not too boring!!

The best thing during the summer, apart from collecting bird’s eggs, gathering frog spawn and stealing apples, was swimming in the River Clyde.
During the summer, it was not unusual to find 10 or 15 of us gathered on the banks of the Clyde opposite Daldowie Crematorium. The river was about 20-30 yards wide at his point, but quite shallow. In fact, there were small rock pools where we caught 'sticklebacks' or 'baggie minnows', put them in a jar to take home - I think they usually lived about a week before giving up the ghost, but it was still great to catch some and watch them swimming round and round in the jam jars.

Some times, someone found a loose railway sleeper, and this was launched with a boy hanging on tightly at one end, kicking fiercely, aiming for the opposite bank. Usually, the current sent it straight back to shore - probably the kindest thing the river could do!
There were two large diameter pipes which crossed the river at this point. These were either water or sewage pipes about 3-4 feet in diameter. Although there was steel sheeting with spikes to deter uninvited visitors, if you climbed out about 3 feet, hung on at an angle of 45 degrees, you could get around these defences, and then walk, arms outstretched like a tightrope walker, along the pipe, 20 feet above the river and reach the other side. What awaited were the lower gardens of Daldowie Crematorium. The fun there was to switch name plates of the dearly departed from one bush, tree or bench to another - a screwdriver was essential for this undercover invasion!
This part of the Clyde was above the sewage discharge and above the areas where various natural and man made burns flowed into it, carrying all sorts of waste from the steel works, power station, paper mill and so on, so it was pretty crystal clear. I don't remember anyone suffering any ill effects from swimming there, apart from the occasional unfortunate who drowned! When this happened, there was a general belief that the victim had done something stupid that the rest of us wouldn't have done, like swimming alone, or getting too far out into mid stream, etc. Children can be callous at times.

Along the banks, there were peewit’s nests to discover, the occasional stoat to be watched, water rats, ducks and swans to throw stones at and floating tin cans which had to be sunk with a barrage of rocks.


John F Jackson

Your location glasgow

Hi Ed,
Me Again!

Sorry, but When I finished posting the last message, I remembered having a discussion about the vanished village of Findmeout or Fimyoot. It brought back a vivid memory.

There was a girl in my class at the primary called Maureen Gilhooley, who had a little brother who died of blood poisoning from rusty barbed wire - or so we were told. I remember walking from Newton to Caldervale with the whole school - or maybe it was only the older pupils - I don't know. Anyway, we walked up the Brae past the Priest's house, down the brae to the river then turned left, the next memory I have is following the hearse between two rows of houses back to St Charles' Chapel in Newton.
It now all overgrown with weeds and trees and you would never know that the place even existed.
It seems quite sad to think that whole generations lived, loved, married, had heartaches, problems, got drunk, got sober, had fights, had happy times, etc and now it has all crumbled away, just like the crofts on the lonely moors of the highlands, where only the occasional stone stands to mark the passing of people.

John F Jackson

Your location glasgow

I have never heard confirmation from anyone before of an anti-aircraft gun at Westburn, however it proves that the following incident actually happened.

My mother had taken me along with my younger brother and sister (who were in a pram) to Westburn Cemetery to put fresh flowers on the grave of my paternal grandfather who had died a few weeks earlier.
It was a late sunny afternoon in early September 1940, and as a curious nearly five year old I had become aware of a 'plane circling high overhead.
Suddenly there was the rat-tat-tat of gunfire. This must have been the ack-ack gun Ronnie refers to.

It appears the enemy 'plane had been laying smoke markers (it had been a calm day) over the Hallside steel works and Clydesmill Power Station to direct German bombers later that night.

Sadly, I was never able to confirm the details of whether the reconnaissance 'plane had been hit or other details of what happened that afternoon as my mother died only a few months later in June 1941 when my family made an even sadder return to Westburn Cemetery.

Your location Hervey Bay Qld Aust

i was delighted to find this site it brought back so many happy memories for me as a child. i was born in the prefabs and i can remember my firt day at st charles i went of to school the first day with my to big brothers and with most all the other kids that lived in the prefabs.now miss hart was miss curly before she got married cause she taught my mum and i do remember the slates thank you for that, my wee brother did not believe us when we used to tell him about that can any one remember the wee hut near the burn willie roswells i think all the best the P on the ginger bottles
ann

Your location south yorkshire

i have fond memiores of the prefabs playing in the street i would love to hear from anybody who remebers me i know a few of the girls still live there helen sharky and ann makenna i could go on and on cheers to all helen.

Your location aussieland

John your comment about people drowning in the Clyde reminded me of an incident that took place in 1956 one of my oldest pals Jim Fleming (18 years old) drowned down near the Orion Bridge.He lived on Deans Avenue.
Jim and his brother Andrew (lived on Colbrooke St) were in the Cambuslang Harriers (another notable Gordon Eadie was also a member at that time) anyways.... Jim and Andrew were out running on a summer evening and near the end of their run decided to paddle at the edge of the Clyde and splash each other to refresh themselves, neither of them could swim Jim lost his footing and got caught in a current Andy had grabbed his brother's but sadly had to release Jim for fear of being drawn down into the undercurrent.
What a tragedy, Jim was an apprentice painter with Peter Spence the snooker champ.
Is there anyone that remembers that paticular drowning.

Tam Morris

Your location US

Wee Willie (Wully) Rothwell ran the wee shop - remember penny drinks? His grandson was John Barr. I lived in the first row of the prefabs (No 179)and have posted some photos of them on Ed Boyle's site.
How the place has changed!!

Your location Northern Ireland

i lived 165 in the prefabs the middle one,had 3 brothers 1 baby sister neighbours i can remember are Grays Weirs Tonners Wards Potters Woods when we had bad snow this winter took me back to when the dads would have a snow fight with the kids needless to say we out numbered them good times remember the fog?

Your location Barnsley Yorkshire

GREAT TO SEE THIS SITE,USED TO LIVE ON MINTO.S NEWTON FARM WITH MY PARENTS BOB AND MARY CAMPBELL,DAD USED TO WORK WITH THE DAIRY HERD ,WENT TO ST CHARLES SCHOOL AT THE TOP O THE BRAE, I HAD 3 BROTHERS DAVID AND ROBERT CAMPBELL AND I SISTER HELEN,BUT SADLY THERE NOT HERE WITH ME NOW.DO YOU REMEMBER MARY WILSON WEE SHOP,WE USED TO SPEND OOR PENNIES IN THERE LIQUIRICE, SHERBET DABS, PENNY CHEWS, AND BIG GOB STOPPERS, WE USED TO PLAY IN THE BIG BING,SO MANY SWEET MEMORIES AND SAD ONES.HAPPY NEW YEAR ANNE CAMPBELL ....CHOHAN

Your location london

ARGOS FARM WAS OWNED BY MINTO AND HIS WIFE,WE ALL LIVED ON THE WEE COTTAGES DOWN BY THE CLYDE,THERE WERE THREE OR FOUR COTTAGES AND THE FARMHANDS LIVED THERE,ALL THE FAMILY MEMBERS WORKED ON THE FARM,IN THE DAIRY, TATTIE HOWKIN IN THE FIELDS PICKING NEEPS,BACK BREAKING WORK...I CAN TELL YOU,OUR WEE HOUSE WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THE SYLAGE PIT AND WHEN IT WAS THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER IT STANK TO HIGH HEAVEN. USED TO DRIVE THE TRACTOR ROUND THE FIELD FEEDING THE CATTLE WA NEEPS AND SYLAGE.ALSO REMEMBER AULD WULLI HAMILTON

MY PARENTS STAYED THERE FOR A FEW YEARS, BUT I WENT INTO SERVICE AND WORKED FOR THE LAHORES FARM IN GREENLEES RD CAMBUSLANG I WORKED THERE AS A NANNIE AND A DOMESTIC FOR A FEW YEARS BEFORE GETTING MARRIED,THEN MOVED TO KILGREGGAN NR HELENSBURGH. SO ON AND SO ON . THANKS AGAIN FOR THE MEMORIES. X


I THINK WE CARVED OUR NAMES ON ALL THE TREES AROUND THAT WEE ROAD DOON TO WESTBURN,FANTASTICS DAYS THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS COMMENT BOARD.ANNE CAMPBELL X

Your location london

WHAT A GRAND COLLECTION OF MEMORIES,FELT I WAS TRANSPORTED BACK THERE. ANNEXX

Your location london

Anne
Great memories. Have you any photos from those days?

My wife often talks about her younger days in Cambuslang, she was brought up in Colebrooke st...there was a few in the family. The Jones family..my wife is Kathleen, her brothers..James, Louie, Tony, Thomas and sisters..Mary, Elsie, Margaret.
Just wondered if anyone knew them !!!
Rob.

Your location Stockport

I have great memories growing up in the prefabs but we moved away when my Grannie died to look after my Grandad who worked at the power station. My dad worked at clydebridge Steel Works. My best memory was making slides and getting a hot potato from my Mum after playing in the snow. I unfortunately went to St Brides and had to get the bus there No 75 and I went to my Grannies for my lunch in Meek Place. They were definitely simpler days when you could be out playing all day with no worries about strangers as everyone knew everyone in the neighbourhood.

Your location Perth, Western Australia