"chittering bite". This was supposed
to stop our teeth chattering with cold after leaving the water.
We also had the occasional trips to Morrison's Haven harbour when
the coal boats were in. On one occasion I was lucky enough to persuade
a Dutch captain to let me on board to see over his boat. From the
harbour we could watch the sailing regattas held off the beach at
Prestongrange. I can still remember the yacht Irene owned by a local
miner, Mr Reid, and another called the Primrose, Across the road
from the harbour was the "Grange Pit". Mr Brown, whose wife was
a close friend of my mother, worked in what I believe was known
as the pump house. When Mr Brown was working on the back-shift,
his son Tom and I would go to the pit with his piece. We would go
through the "woods" to the back of the pit where the pit bogies
were left at the top of a slope. We rode the bogies down the slope
until they slowed down on the level near the pump house. One final
memory is of the "war" between the Coast Line Bus Company and Scottish
Motor Traction. We had obviously heard our parents talking about
an attempted takeover of the Coast route by the S.M.T. so we decided
to lend our support to the Coast Line buses. A stone wall divided
Summerlee from the road and for days the wall was covered with boys
for hours on end cheering when a Coast Line bus came into view and
booing the S.M.T. when they appeared. The Coast Line buses and corporation
tramcars up to then had been the usual means of transport to Edinburgh,
As it happened, the Coast Line gave up the route while the tramcars
left the scene not many years after. |
1745 
