Memories of West Barns Primary 2

I was born at Winterfield Farm, Belhaven on the 9^th. March 1927. The farm is now the golf course. My father and grandfather were born in West Barns ( 1902 & 1879 ). An ancestor, great, great, great Aunt Margaret Aitchison ( Mrs France ) died in West Barns in 1821. My mother was born in Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland.

We moved to the Red Row ( now demolished ) opposite the old Co-op. The houses had no electricity, water or gas, just a coal fire. The toilet was at the top of the garden, a shed over a hole in the ground.

We had to carry water from a ‘well’ just below the present day ‘Paul’s Shop’. Springfield is derived from West Barns Springs. There is another in the wood at the west of the housing scheme which supplied the Paper Mill.

I remember old Westbarns being knocked down in 1932. This was on the village green where the Jubilee Tree stands. I remember it being planted in 1935 for the King George V and Queen Mary Silver Jubilee. Mrs Hay of Belton planted it.

I remember John (Jake) Baines, a crabbit old codger, who died in 1932. He had been a soldier in Afghanistan and been on the Lord Roberts March from Kandahar to Kabul. He was born in 1852. His daughter, Nellie Baines was a seamstress in the village. She had several cats ( noted for it).

I also remember Bob Loudon, who was born in 1852 and died in 1939. he was a coachman and groom to the Hope Family at East Barns.

I vaguely remember Jock Sharp; the family of that name lived in the Battleblent. My late uncle James Sharp was a relation.

When I went to West Barns School  in 1932 my first teacher was Miss Scott, then Miss Angus, and finally William ( Paddy ) Mill, whose father had been a lighthouse keeper on the Isle of Pladda in the Firth of Clyde. ( His son Mitchell told me this )

He was a stern disciplinarian and used the ‘tawse’ if needed, but I liked him. We used to like it at dinner time, when it was almost time for classes. He would play football with us ( tennis ball ) in the playground, keeping us maybe 10 minutes late for classes. If you beat his tackle he would kick you on the ankle and look innocent.

I went to Dunbar Grammar until I was 14 years old and left.

I remember the funeral processions with the black hearses and black horses with plumes on their heads. One coachman was Mr Milne. The mourners, always men, marched behind all the way to Dunbar. Most wore bowler hats.

I remember a huge airship passing over in the 1930s, and CW Scott’s Flying Circus (1937 ? ) using the area at Hedderwick Hill where the Animal Farm is now.

I can remember the Golf Course ( mentioned in 1794 and played over by a Prime Minister ) at Hedderwick, and during the summer holidays working for Walter Blom, budding roses. I was 11 years old then in 1938. It was a Dutch firm and had its British HQ at Watford, England. The manager was called Turk. He had a daughter called Thea. Turk was a Dutchman. It is possible that Blom could still be alive.

Hedderwick Links was a long time camp for the Militia. I had my photo taken in 1939 with the 7/9 Gordon Highlanders TA. The Links was also a racecourse for the Lothian Berwickshire Yeomanry.

When I was 12 years old in October 1939 the war had started. Billy O’Brien and I were playing in Boyd’s race Horse Stables hay barn when we heard very loud gunfire. Looking up we saw this German plane firing at random. We could see the crew. The plane was ‘strafing’ it was so low. There were bullets holes in the nearby Maltings and investigating inside I found a fractured 20mm cannon shell.

I also witnessed a Beaufighter Aircraft crashing and bursting into flames in the John Muir Country Park. You can see a propeller of the plane in the East Fortune Museum of Flight which I discovered about ten years ago. I have also witnessed 2 other plane crashes in other places.

In the Home Guard ( Dad’s Army ) I have worn the Gloucestershire badge, and locally the Royal Scots. Called up for National Service in 1945 I had a short spell in a coal mine, then in the Army in Germany. The 1^st Royal Tank Regiment, 7^th. Armoured Brigade ( Cromwell and Comet tanks). We ( 4 in the crew) were trained to be drivers, wireless operators, Gunnery or mechanics. I actually learned the Morse Code but it was rarely used.

I joined the T.A. in 1948/9, the Lothian & Border Yeomanry, for 2 years.  We trained in Cromwell Comet Tanks on Hedderwick Links, now planted with pine trees.  The Links was also a Rifle Fire Range (500 yards).  One year I was the best shot in the regiment (39 out of 40).  This was at the Hunters Bog, Edinburgh. (confirmed in the East Lothian Courier of that time).

We had also been inspected by King  George VI and the Duke of Edinburgh.   This was in Hyde Park, London and Edinburgh.

I have been in many jobs, my first at 14 years of age in 1941 at East Fortune aerodrome.  I was a tea boy and messenger.  I cycled there and back every day with my father who was a ganger.  We travelled with other workers in a bus to Winfield and Charterthall Airfields in Berwickshire.  We were laying cables for runways etc.  I remember seeing Sir Sholto Douglas at Charterhall, he was the head of the R.A.F.  I also remember seeing a crash landing there, a Beaufighter with undercarriage trouble.  The pilot made 3 attempts to land and on the 3rd attempt he skidded along the grass, dust everywhere.  When it eventually stopped (our hearts were beating) he stepped out of the cockpit and everyone cheered.

I worked at the cutting down of Binning Wood in 1943 (now replanted).  It was first planted in 1707 and mostly consisted of beech trees. I worked the steam engine which powered the giant circular saws,  Brownlie of Earlston were the contractors.  Jones of Larbert was the other firm there.  We moved to Gloucestershire for a year, my father worked on Bibury aerodrome and my brother and I worked on a farm at Colm St. Derys nearby.  This ensured our family had a house (6 sisters, 1 brother).  I drove a tractor (only on the land) because of my age.  I also had a short spell ploughing with horses.

I had a terrible fright one day when working in a field with a pair of horses, when a mosquito aircraft looked as if it was crashing on top of me when it veered and crashed near me.  I ran across to the wreckage and the Sergeant Pilot Officer with Canada on his shoulder flashes was dying (with a terrible head wound).  I looked for the navigator and couldn't find him.  I later discovered he was underneath a part of the wings.  For a long time I had nightmares with an aeroplane following me everywhere I went threatening to crash on me.

In 1945 I was called up for National Service.  I ended up in Prestonlinks Colliery, Prestonpans as a miner, an Oncost worker. This pit's workings were below the Firth of Forth.  I had another terrible fright with a roof collapse on the main haulage way in No. 6 See Dook (as it was called).  Tons of the roof fell, we couldn't see for dust, our lamps were useless.  We heard the roof cracking and banging, like giant whips.  I ran, tripped up and crawled on my hands and knees in double quick time.  My mate was Tony McLelland and the Fireman (Foreman) was Will Murray.  I didn't last long - I got a skin disease and ended up in hospital, and finished my time in the Army, 1st Royal Tank Regiment, B.A.O.R. (British Army Occupying Rhineland).  When I was demobbed I worked in Craig's Fishyard, Dunbar (next to Blair's Engineers) where I skinned, filleted and smoked fish and made fish boxes.  I then went on to work on the building of the new houses at the harbour.

I also worked with British Malt Products, West Barns in the refinery and flour mill, where malt extract was made (Whitebread W.B., Blackbread B.B., high Roboline H.R.O.)  The refinery and flour mill was at the site of the War Memorial and Car Park.  The B.M.P. Maltings and Roaster House was on the site now occupied by R. Hughes, Transport.  In 1892 the Paper Mill was burned down on this site, the Engineer Shop is the only part left, latterly this was horse stables.

The Roaster House converted the Malt Extract (Syrup) into Powder.  The Maltings processed the raw barley into malted barley which was processed into malt extract at the refinery.  I was a maltsman for many years.  B.M.P. had a Royal Appointment, supplying horse malt to the Royal Household, which was considered a great honour.

B.M.P. went out of business in a take-over.  I then worked with Blue Circle Cement at Oxwellmains for 18 years, doing various jobs in the Quarry, Kiln House etc. and Lorry Driver, ending up as a Handyman, doing any job necessary.  I then took redundancy, and worked as Porter / Gardener/ Handyman for 8 years at Belhaven Hospital where I also did Mortuary work.

In 1961 I was elected Dunbar District Councillor until 1974, the first Scottish National Party Councillor elected in East Lothian.  My chief success was getting Royal Mail Post Vans used as Post Buses in Scotland (ref. District Council Minutes and Radio Scotland).

I also play the bagpipes, playing with Dunbar, Dunbar and East Linton, North Berwick (in a Scottish and World Championship) in certain graded competitions.  I also played with the 61st Regiment Royal Signals Pipe Band, Edinburgh T.A.  Our Pipe Major was Alec Taylor (ex. Gordon Highlander) and an ex Japanese P.O.W.

My favourite pastime is bird watching and nature, I also make walking sticks etc.

With reference to the German plane shooting up the Maltings in October 1939, it appears to have been a Junkers 88.  I thought that it was a Heinkel.  Ref. East Lothian Courier 30/1/1998, Mrs Betty Steele of East Linton (9 years old) observing the same plane, also guns blazing.  Seemingly the plane had been bombing shipping on the Firth of Forth and decided to wreak havoc on the countryside, shooting up West Barns Maltings and a threshing mill at East Linton.  Mrs Steele still resides in East Linton.

I regret old Westbarns' village green demolition and Old School Brae, the Dovecot in Bielside and the old Mill Lade from the Waulk Mill, Beltonford to Westbarns being filled in.  Westbarns Mills history goes back 900 years.

My family tree goes back to 1720 (available).  The present day West Barns School was built on land once owned by the France Family (Mrs Margaret France, nee Aitchison [great great great aunt] of Seafield House, dies 1821 aged 66 years).

My grandfather was a Porter at Dunbar L.N.E.R. Station, my great grandfather worked in West Barns Paper Mill (called Beltonford, they had a football team in a league that also had Heart of Midlothian in it).  The owner of the Paper Mill was Annandale who had Bielside House built by a famous architect, Rowan Anderson.

One football score was Beltonnford 0 - Heart of Midlothian 2nd XI 24 - a real thrashing!

I remember lying awake one night before 1941 (because I was at Dunbar Grammar School at the time) when there was a tremendous explosion and an awful flash on our bedroom mirror.  I thought that a bomb had fallen on the railway only to discover the next day it had fallen on South Belton Farm.  It was a huge crater, a house would have fitted into it.  Another bombing raid, with small bombs falling in a field, took place in what is now the Pine Street area, in the large hollow between the 2 housing schemes in that area.

The Biel Burn flood of 1948 is imprinted on my mind.  Imaging standing on the road at Bridgend, West Barns, and as far as one can see, looking north and west, one gigantic lake.  I saw one of Boyd's racehorses being swept down to the sea, it survived and won a race later.  Ironically it was named Wellngton Boot.

On reflection, during my National Service, Field Marshall Montgomery's son was at the same training camp as myself, Catterick.

When in Germany at 7th Armoured Brigade, H.Q. Warendorf, one of our officers was Captain Pierrepoint - his father was the hangman in Britain.

Peter Aitchison

Class of '32

Book - From Slate to Disk 1897 -1997, Dunbar Schools Centenary

            West Barns School mentioned (at Mill Lade)