1951 Betty Weaver and brother at Victoria Street
Another great photo from Betty Weaver. Betty described this photo in some detail,
“Me, aged 4, with my brother Brian aged 1, in the back garden of 104 Victoria St in 1951. Note the Anderson shelter – used by then for keeping coal in. We used to climb up on the top in the summer, when the metal became hot from the sun. We lived with Grandpa Robert Scott who was a miner and so we had his free ton of coal delivered at a time…on to the pavement at the front. Grandpa would then barrow it around the back and into the coal shed. The pavement would then be swept and brushed with soapy water so the street was kept clean.”
Reminiscing about Anderson Shelters, many of which were left scattered over the town in post war years, I forgot our family had a wee Anderson shelter in Stonefield Crescent. Even into the 1970’s we used it as a “bike shed”. Like Betty, I used to climb up and slide down it, dangerous as each year it got more rusty, until one day in 1988, a safe 43 years after the war, it got demolished!