Fallen But Not Forgotten - the Number 16 Bus '655' Accident

A small update on Robert Law's remembrance of the fallen Number 16 bus.

The 16 bus that toppled over on the 18th June 1975 was a Leyand PD3 with Alexander body and registered ASC 655B. Here’s a photo of the bus that came a cropper at Oxgangs on Wednesday 18th June 1975; it appeared on the front cover of Buses Magazine; the bus was subsequently scrapped.

The Edinburgh Evening News for the day said nine were hurt in the accident - a lorry hit the bus as it turned right from Oxgangs Road North and into Oxgangs Avenue. Interestingly it wasn't actually the accident which resulted in '655' being scrapped. The crane sent out to get the bus managed to distort its offside doing so and that was enough to put '655' off the road for good.

The inimitable Douglas Blades (6/6 Oxgangs Avenue) comments: 'Our father, Charles Blades, was shaving at the side window in the large bedroom and that window looked out towards the junction. I wasn't in at the time but the story was related later. He exclaimed to our mother, ‘Helen, that bus is toppling over – or words to that effect!'

Comiston Walled Market Garden

I've attached some great photographs from a Ray Nimmo with the added bonus of a mystery/puzzle - trust it will generate much heat and even some light!

The photographs are from circa 1955/1956 and features Sandy, Amy Louisa and Carol Gay Nimmo harvesting their market garden. Ray is not quite sure if it was in Oxgangs, Comiston, etc. - my initial thought is either Comiston or Dreghorn? 

Here's some extracts from Ray's e mail: '...help me to locate the site of the walled garden that I spent the first five years of my living beside in a small bungalow.  It was owned by my parents at the time who tried unsuccessfully to run it as a 'market garden' and was sold on for development about 1959 (but did not make my parents wealthy!).  

Try as I might, I cannot pin its exact location down. 

My wife and I have recently come full circle back to Edinburgh after a life of moving all over the UK and now live in retirement in Greenbank.

I am trying to get a better grip on my family history and locating this old garden is part of that search. 

I attach the only photos that I have of the garden and as you can see it was quite substantial so it must have been associated with a large house back in the day (which may be the one at the back of the photo but I cannot recall it from my childhood).  

It was near Oxgangs Farm (I recall helping the farmer sow crops sitting on the back of his tractor's seed drill (strictly verboten now!) and watching the cows being milked). 

Also the Oxgangs shopping precinct was relatively nearby and in the process of being built. Any information or help that you might have would be much appreciated.'

  

My good friend, the inimitable Douglas Blades, may well have solved the mystery of the site of the old walled garden which was posted last week. If anyone wishes a high quality attachment of the two poor quality map images which I've posted below, please let me know and I'll e mail them to you.

Douglas Blades: 'I'm sure this was just along from the (Oxgangs) Broadway on land which I always thought belonged to Harwell’s (of Colinton Dairy etc. fame) and I also think it was abandoned before 1965.

I remember the bungalow lying abandoned and derelict after the folk moved away and exploring it.

Yes, there was a walled garden and small blocks of flats were built on it but I think the wall remains. 

Mr McCall, a Boroughmuir English teacher lived in one of the flats either just before or after he retired.

I also remember that potatoes still came up here and there is a field beside it.

We passed near it on our way to play at The Gully which was nearer Buckstone than Oxgangs and quite near to what used to be the Pentland Hills Hotel (I think!)

I'll have a look at old maps next week plus Google earth and see what I can find to jog my memory.'

Later

Douglas Blades: 'Look at the old map (1932) first. Top right, Comiston. Below that, walled garden with a well marked towards bottom left hand corner.

Bottom left hand corner, larger square marked just out with the walled garden is the cottage. Over to the left, Oxgangs, what is now the (Oxgangs) Avenue - looks like it is just a path. 

Now over to Google earth satellite picture. From the old map, the only thing still with us today is the house below the word Comiston and its boundaries. You can see the two blocks of flats which were built within the walled garden and you can sort of follow the old road between it and the newer Pentand Primary School. The older house in its own grounds on what is now Camus Avenue also appears to still exist. The tree lines don’t seem to have changed much and Pentland Drive seems to follow the old field boundary. As we passed over it from the Oxgangs side the first field had been a potato field in its final days as cultivated land but the second field was fallow and just grass as far as I can remember.

Looking at Google street view it appears the old boundary wall has now gone. When the two blocks of flats were built it was still there but breached in places.

I reckon the cottage would have been at the end of what is now Pentland School Lane or at the end of the block of garages beside the lane.'

Douglas Blades

When Ray first got in touch with me I suggested kicking off with an old Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory, but he didn't think his dad had a phone. Well, he did - thanks to David Shannon for tracking this down, which corroborates Douglas Blades' excellent detective work - 'Sandy Nimmo - Market Gardener!'

ps As Douglas says: 'It's quite remarkable what can be found out! All good fun!'

Isn't it great what can be done when people work together and share information!

I received this e mail this morning.

Hi Peter,

I stumbled onto your blog and saw a post about a disappeared walled garden at Comiston. I wondered if you've seen this Edinburgh Council website?

http://edinburghcouncilmaps.info/atlas/cecatlas.html

It shows maps and aerial photos from the last 160 years of any part of the city. I find the 1940s RAF shots very useful for research.

Comiston Walled Garden, 1946

I was able to find the missing bungalow and walled garden with this. Perhaps Raymond Nimmo, who asked where it was would like to see it? (Duly done - thanks Ken - may make for a good framed photograph!) The site of the walled garden is now Pentland Drive.

Kind regards.

Ken Watt

The Sunday Post #2 In The Season Of The Year

Hearts pre-season training, Dreghorn, in the lea of the Pentland Hills

Today sees the opening matches of the Scottish leagues’ football season and for many Oxgangers the annual ritual may be one going back over half a century. Indeed, I noticed this morning that Colin Laidlaw was travelling up from Manchester for Hearts’ opening away match at Hamilton - he’ll be a happy boy with a 4-1 victory.

Two aspects of the pre-season build-up were going up to Ewarts at The Broadway to buy in my copy of the Wee Red Book and to go along to the former Polo Fields at Dreghorn to see Hearts undertaking their pre-season training.

Extract from Retep Nnamffoh’s Letts’ Schoolboy Diary

Tuesday, 20th July, 1971

‘I was out on the dawn patrol doing the milk round. It wasn’t the most enjoyable of mornings as I had an argument with our new boss; he's very different from Sid.

I'm hoping these girls come up later on.

Former Polo Fields, Dreghorn (Dave Hennicker)

In the afternoon a bunch of us walked up to the Army's Polo Fields at Dreghorn to watch Hearts doing their pre-season training. They were all there including Donald Ford; Jim Cruikshank; Alan Anderson; as well as Oxgangs' Eric Carruthers. It was just a wee ten minute walk up the road for him from Oxgangs Farm Drive!

We all walked back home together; I then had to head straight down to Bairds Newsagents at Morningside Drive to collect my newspapers to sell up at the City Hospital. I'm a busy boy. It was no wonder I fell asleep on the couch afterwards; now I'm enjoying my crisps 'n juice.’

Postscript: Comment from Colin Laidlaw: 'I well remember doing this. I used to be pleased as punch when we used to get a lift home on the Hearts bus and they'd drop us off in the 'Drive'. John Harvey the manager/trainer at the time used to go to great lengths to stop the players swearing. When we didn't get a lift I fondly remember the walk back home as well; we used to gather wild strawberries growing at the roadside.'

So, did you support Hearts or Hibs?

Attending football matches at Tynecastle or Easter Road was a right of passage for many boys from Oxgangs.

My father, Ken Hoffmann, was a rugby man. I only ever remember going to a single match with him - it was Hibs v Dunfermline and I recall him getting into an argument with a Hibbie when Roy Barrie the combustible Dunfermline player got sent off - I actually sided with Ken on this occasion, because there was a sense of injustice about the decision. The other thing I admire today, from a distance, was that Ken subscribed to the philosophy that it was better to play the game than to spectate.

Boo-Boo Hanlon, back garden, 6 Oxgangs Avenue

At our stair (6 Oxgangs Avenue) I think John Duffy (6/8) attended games with his dad; he was a Celtic supporter. Boo-Boo Hanlon must have been too - see above! Colin Hanlon was a Hearts man and a regular at Tynecastle in later years. Alan Hanlon was perhaps too young back then, whilst for all his enthusiasm for football, I can't recall if Michael went along or not. Michael, Colin or Alan - if you're reading the blog, please let us know!

Douglas Blades (6/6) and Gavin Swanson (6/1) were completely uninterested in footie - indeed they may never have ever kicked a ball in their lives. Although Iain Hoffmann played a wee bit he only ever went to a match on rare occasions, but he was a Hearts man - I seem to recall us going to see Hearts v Brechin City of all matches on Saturday, 27th January, 1968.

For a season or two I attended Hibs matches in the company of the Allans from 4/7 Oxgangs Avenue - this was with Andy and Gavin Allan and one or two of their pals who attended the Catholic secondary school.

It was exciting stuff - good crowds; often it was sunny; the green and white programmes reflecting the strip; and some good players on the pitch - Bobby Duncan; Pat Stanton; Peter Cormack; Peter Marinello - there was a real buzz about such outings

Today I'm not a supporter, but when Hearts met Hibs in the Scottish Cup Final a few years back, my heart was very much with the Hearts - my instinct tells me that if I should follow any team then it is Hearts. When I move back to Edinburgh I’ll invest in a season ticket.

Perversely, for a while I also used to attend Raith Rovers matches at Kirkcaldy with a slightly older Rovers supporter called Kenny from Oxgangs Crescent - it was good fun getting the train from Haymarket to their ground which still boasted an old siren from the Second World War.

So was it Hearts or Hibs or indeed Raith Rovers? Well, ironically, at that time I also 'followed' Rangers because I was so close to my Glasgow born grandfather, but never attended one of their matches back then – my father stipulated that we weren't allowed to go along to any games involving The Old Firm because of potential trouble.

Today, my local team is Ross County – relegated last season, but as I type this they’ve just won their opening game 1-0 against Alloa Atletic FC with a goal two minutes from time - 'Come away the County!'

Oxgangs-A Pastime From Time Past #14 The Calder Family, 8/5 Oxgangs Avenue

Front left to right Pamela, Bernie, baby George, Rosemary and Laurence. Dad Laurence and Mum Mary At back

I mentioned in a very early blog the Calder family who lived at 8/5 - there were four children (actually five!) all of whom were older than me - Bernard, Laurence, Pamela and Rosemary plus baby George. I didn't have a great deal to do with them, but I recall liking Laurence - perhaps he was involved with Douglas Blades in such exploits as racing around the four blocks (four Stairs) pushing an old pram with one of us crouched in it hidden under a blanket? When I met Douglas Blades at the end of October, 2012 he mentioned that he used to go up to play with the Calders and was envious that they had a top of the range Hornby Dublo train set with a displayed certificate on the wall whilst Douglas had to make do with a Tri-ang.

In the news column a while back I made mention of how Bernard had worked all his life at our beloved Dominion Cinema before dying a several years ago.

'The Dominion's chief projectionist Bernard Calder has passed away. The cinema said: "Over the last 44 years he had threaded the projector, prepped the lighting and lit the screens of the Dominion Cinema for tens of thousands of performances. His professionalism, dedication and love for the medium of film made him a pleasure to work with. We will miss him'.

Oxgangs - A Pastime From Time Past #10 Brian N. Cherie Clement, Oxgangs Bank, 1957-1977

Brian N. Cherie Clement, 103 Oxgangs Bank, 1957-1977

 Comment from Peter Hoffmann: 'Brilliant - love it - and very much of the period - reminds me of a photograph of the inimitable Douglas Blades (6/6 Oxgangs Avenue)'.

Oxgangs; Comiston; Dreghorn Walled Market Garden-Mystery Solved? Definitely!

When Ray first got in touch with me I suggested kicking off with an old Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory, but he didn't think his dad had a phone. Well, he did-thanks to David Shannon for tracking this down, which corroborates Douglas Blades' excellent detective work-'Sandy Nimmo-Market Gardener!'

ps As Douglas says: 'It's quite remarkable what can be found out! All good fun!'

Oxgangs; Comiston; Dreghorn Walled Market Garden-Mystery Solved? Douglas Blades

My good friend, the inimitable Douglas Blades, may well have solved the mystery of the site of the old walled garden which was posted last week. If anyone wishes a high quality attachment of the two poor quality map images which I've posted below, please let me know and I'll e mail them to you.

'I'm sure this was just along from the (Oxgangs) Broadway on land which I always thought belonged to Harwells (of Colinton Dairy etc. fame) and I also think it was abandoned before 1965. I remember the bungalow lying abandoned and derelict after the folk moved away and exploring it. Yes, there was a walled garden and small blocks of flats were built on it but I think the wall remains.  Mr McCall, a Boroughmuir English teacher lived in one of the flats either just before or after he retired. I also remember that potatoes still came up here and there is a field beside it. We passed near it on our way to play at The Gully which was nearer Buckstone than Oxgangs and quite near what used to be the Pentland Hills Hotel (I think!)

I'll have a look at old maps next week plus Google earth and see what I can find to jog my memory.'

Later

'Look at the old map (1932) first. Top right, Comiston. Below that, walled garden with a well marked towards bottom left hand corner.

Bottom left hand corner, larger square marked just outwith the walled garden is the cottage. Over to the left, Oxgangs, what is now the (Oxgangs )Avenue looks like it is just a path. 

Now over to Google earth satellite picture. From the old map, the only thing still with us today is the house below the word Comiston and its boundaries. You can see the two blocks of flats which were built within the walled garden and you can sort of follow the old road between it and the newer Pentand Primary School . The older house in its own grounds on what is now Camus Avenue also appears to still exist. The tree lines don’t seem to have changed much and Pentland Drive seems to follow the old field boundary. As we passed over it from the Oxgangs side the first field had been a potato field in its final days as cultivated land but the second field was fallow and just grass as far as I can remember.

Looking at Google street view it appears the old boundary wall has now gone. When the two blocks of flats were built it was still there but breached in places.

I reckon the cottage would have been at the end of what is now Pentland School Lane or at the end of the block of garages beside the lane.'

Douglas Blades

VignetteTaken From Edinburgh Photos Website Courtesy Peter Stubbs-Motivated By Series On Edinburgh Prefabs

Peter Hoffmann

Highlands, Scotland


Thank you to Douglas Blades for allowing me to reproduce the photo below, and also to Peter Hoffmann who wrote:


1960s

Grandfather's Car

"During the 1960s, the Hoffmanns had a general Sunday pattern for many years which revolved around being collected at 'The Stair' by our grandfather any time after 11am to be taken down to Portobello for the day.

We didn't have a telephone and of course mobiles weren't even dreamed of back then. Anne, Iain and I used to stand at our parents' front bedroom window to look out for our grandfather's car (Ford Zephyr Mk6) coming down the hill at Greenbank.

It's uncanny to think we could see that far from the far end of Oxgangs Avenue, but this was when the prefabs were still there and before the new blocks of flats were built which replaced them. We couldn't be entirely certain that it was his car, but there were relatively few cars on the road back then on a Sunday.

A cry would go up: 'That's Gaga!' - and we'd all rush to get ready. Sometimes of course it wasn't and we'd go back to our waiting stations."

Oxgangs Avenue

Photo taken from the balcony of 6/6 Oxgangs Avenue

Prefabs in the foreground, Oxgangs development in the background.



© Douglas Blades (one of 41 members of Peter Hoffmann's 'Stair 6, Oxgangs' blog site.
Thank you, also, to Peter Hoffmann for sending a copy of this photo to me.

NEEEP!-Bonus Post From Douglas Blades On Bus Crash At Oxgangs!

Peter,

Looked at BLOG tonight. Front page was Aug 2012 and mentioning the bus which toppled over. It was Leyand PD3 with Alexander body and reg ASC 655B. Here’s a photo of it on another service on the front cover of Buses magazine.

I'm fairly certain (and George Upstairs has confirmed so) that this is off the ECT Leyland PD3/6 Alexanders double deck 655 (ASC 655B) bus that came a cropper at Oxgangs on Wednesday June 18 1975 when it fell over one day and was subsequently scrapped. I have memories of finding the hulk in Shrubhill Works and managing to acquire this. Mind you someone with a fleet body list for Edinburgh should be able to verify it. The serial number is E/1/3463/5. Alexanders were for many years in the 1960s to the 1980s the coach-builder of choice for Edinburgh-based up the road in Falkirk they are of course, still in business.

As for the accident I have the Edinburgh Evening News for the day-and nine were hurt in the accident-a lorry hit the bus as it turned right from Oxgangs Road North and Oxgangs Avenue.

From George Upstairs: So you're right Mike. Also, see the beast itself.

Comment From Circle1939: It wasn't actually the accident which resulted in 655 being scrapped. The crane sent out to get the bus managed to distort its offside doing so and that was enough to put 655 off the road for good.

I have two angles on the bus story. Our father, Charles Blades, was shaving at the side window in the large bedroom and that window looked out towards the junction – I wasn't in at the time but the story was related later – when he  exclaimed to our mother, Helen, that bus is toppling over – or words to that effect!

I think I was away to work at the Transport Dept by the time it happened but Mike Ashworth is correct, they did make a mess of getting it back up again so it had to be written off. I too visited the remains in Shrubhill after the event. The engineers had coincidentally just been considering having an exercise in raising a toppled decker when this happened. Normally they would bolt a large iron upright bar to the two upper hubs and perhaps drive a couple of large metal pins against the wheels on the ground to stop the thing slipping. Well, whatever they did they couldn't raise it hence the crane and infliction of terminal damage!

And as you can see from above – someone managed to retain the body plate a souvenir!

Douglas

Figures On The Edge No 1-Gail Blades

As I move toward wrapping up the blog some individuals have featured more prominently than others. That's not necessarily because I've spent more time with them and certainly not because I've preferred some of the children to others. Amongst those who have only occasionally flitted in and out of the story are Gail and Esther Blades; Michael Hanlon; and James Duffy. I also want to make mention of a few others at neighbouring Stairs-The Sibbalds; The Douglases and a few others. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I was never close or friends with the Duffy girls, but neither was I unfriendly toward them either; indeed I liked everyone in The Stair, but as is the nature of day to day life in a tight knit community of eight families-sixteen adults and twenty five children there were ups and downs.

I liked Gail. I always found her to be very friendly. She was pretty. I think she showed an interest in the arts-was she musical and played a little piano? Did she also go along to the Patricia Brown Dance and Ballet School? She had a certain sensibility-she would praise the likes of Mrs Anne Hoffmann if she was going out on a Friday evening-Oh I doooo like your dress Mrs Hoffmann. Some others may have found this charm offensive off-putting, but I rather admired her style! I think she was the last of The Blades children who went to Boroughmuir Secondary School so she was clearly a bright girl.

At one stage I must have been quite close to her, because for a while we did papers together. After Douglas Blades left Bairds' Newsagents I inherited the City Hospital paper run. This was different from any any other run in the shop because one sold the newspapers rather than just delivering them. I can also recall selling cigarettes, tobacco and sweets, but that may have been more associated with the afternoon run when I delivered and sold the Edinburgh Evening News.

My primary memory of Gail at this time was that I had to cycle on Douglas Blades' bike up to the City Hospital with a very large pile of newspapers on the back of the bike-the bundle of papers must have been well over two feet high-well that was hard enough cycling up Morningside Drive and then the short but steep St Clair's Terrace, but bugger me I also had to give Gail a backie too. I was hardly Lance dancing on the pedals-I could manage Morningside Drive and at the end the slow climb up Greenbank Drive, but could never overcome St Clair Terrace-Ahem, excuse me Gail, but you wouldnae mind getting off the bike the noo wid you-ye've maybe no noticed but it's groond tae a halt and we're in danger o' toppling over! 

At the City Hospital we then loaded the papers on to hospital trolleys and did the wards separately. It was clearly a different era then-much more lax, but I found some of the experiences really quite unsettling-there were some bonny sights-I'll spare the detail. I did reflect however whether it was appropriate to be wandering about.

Once we were finished we met up again and it was great cycling back to The Stair-first because we were free and work was over for the time being and second because it was mainly downhill and on the flat-even with Gail on the back I had no trouble driving down on the pedals and sailing up Oxgangs Place. I'm not sure if Gail would have wanted me to carry her all the way up the stairs to 6/6...only joking Gail! Looking back I perhaps should have got into cycling!

The afternoon run was different and more enjoyable. The hospital was busier-it wasn't dark-the sun shone through the windows-visitors might be in-there was a friendlier more hopeful atmosphere and there were no untoward sightings! For the whole of the summer holidays of 1971 I did this job and perhaps beyond; I note from the 1971 Journal that Ali Douglas often came along to keep me company which made it more fun. From that journal I note the arrangement with Pamela Baird was to sell all the newspapers-sometimes I record this as being easy, sometimes it took ages.Pamela was always pleased for a sell out and I was always anxious to please. I must have been dedicated to her cause-I note that one Sunday I'd cycled out from Portobello at 6.30 am in the morning to sell the papers before cycling back down to my grandparents.

As with each and every one of us at The Stair we flitted in and out of one another's lives, depending on the time of day or the season of the year. On a cursory look through diaries there are only occasional references to Gail-Wednesday, 6 October, 1971 she was absent from school as was I; and on the following day ...Iain, Anne, Fiona, Gail, Ruth, Esther and me all out talking... The Stair was what kept us all together and facilitated these natural and easy going friendships-and as each of us left The Stair most of us went our own way, only occasionally or by accident meeting up in the decades since. I probably haven't seen Gail since 1978.

I was reflecting on the upcoming end of the blog and how it might be used in a positive way. I'm in Edinburgh every few months in an average year-there's a host of well reviewed coffee and cake shops I want to visit-I thought-why not develop a cake trail-put out a general invite to former residents at The Stair and others who have featured saying, At Mimi's; (or Love Crumbs; Tea at 94; Cafe Blush; Patisserie Jacob; Falko's, etc.) on Saturday morning at 10.30 am and see who turns up! I know that after Fiona Blades; the two former Anne Hoffmanns and I met up, Paul Forbes said let him know the next time we're meeting up because he wants to come along too. Iain Hoffmann would be up for it, no doubt.

Who knows, it would be lovely to see Gail and others again!