Those Wonderful Men in their Flying Machines

I'm currently reading Natalie Fergie’s 25 Library Terrace which I would recommend to members of our Facebook group, particularly as much of it is set within the neighbouring communities which encompass the geographical sphere of Oxgangs – A Pastime from Time Past. The book’s structure covers census years 1911, 1931, 1951, 2011 and 2022 providing a fascinating insight into the social history of the past century, especially the impact upon women.

One aspect that occurred to me was how effortlessly knowledgeable the author is on 1911 Edinburgh – the death of The Great Lafayette, and throwaway references - the young protagonists, Ann and Finlay told by their guardian to get a local cab (from Morningside Station) - Finlay skiving off school to go to Redford Barracks to see the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air Race. Really most impressive.

As to the form of cab, would they have aimed to get the horse and Hackney cab or one of the new motorised types.

1911 was a pivotal year as the former were beginning to decline in number, whereas motor cabs were on the increase.

A strong image for me from the 1960s into the 1970s was of Forrest Cabs with their distinctive wee office set above the Morningside railway line, opposite the station.

As to the air race, today few people would be aware of it, but one stage of the race included landing at the new Redford Barracks, established only 3 years beforehand. The race was a 1,010-mile (1,630 km) circuit around Britain with 11 compulsory stops, including Edinburgh. The aviators arrived in Edinburgh on July 25, 1911, after flying from Newcastle before the aviators proceeded to Stirling as the next compulsory stop.

The Strathard Heritage write ‘A number of entrants would abandon the race before the start, for a variety of reasons. One hopeful, named Gilmour was obliged to withdraw because his licence had been suspended by the Royal Aero Club for dangerous flying over the Henley Regatta just two weeks previously. The remaining seventeen aviators started at Brooklands on Saturday 22nd July in the midst of a heatwave. Brooklands was then the centre of aviation. It was here that Harold Barnwell would shortly come to work and meet his death some seven years later. A crowd of several thousand, which included the Maharaja of Gwalior and Prince Henry of Prussia, featured amongst the dignitaries gathered to witness the start. The hot turbulent air made flying hazardous. When Lieutenant Porte of the Royal Navy attempted take off, his wing tilted to vertical and he plunged back to earth wrecking his machine. A relieved cheer rose when Porte walked away unhurt. He was the first of many competitors who in the next days would be forced to withdraw from the competition. By the time the race had reached Redford Barracks at Edinburgh, only three competitors realistically remained in the running. Jules Vedrines and Andre Beaumont were both French: James Valentine was British.’

In those the early days of flight, Andy Arthur writes ‘In early April 2011, the Edinburgh Evening News reported that the Alexander brothers had been secretly testing it on the ground at an undisclosed “sports enclosure” on the outskirts of Edinburgh, towing it there behind their car in the early mornings. Following extensive ground runs they had managed a 20-yard flight in the dusk of Monday April 4th. When interviewed by the reporter of the Daily Record, the brothers informed them that their intention was to overhaul and improve the engine before trying for the sky again. The description of the site, along with a grainy photo of it, identifies it as Myreside, the playing fields of the brothers’ old school, George Watson’s. They were limited to runs of only 150 in the capital by the confines of the grounds, surrounded by high walls.’

Andy goes on to write: ‘The Daily Record reported in April 1910 that an unknown machine, based at Swanston farm to the south of the city, had been flying high over the southern outskirts of the city on more than one night, with people seeing “a flying machine, brilliantly illuminated, which was at a considerable height from the ground“. On the 5th April, the “moving lights of the aeroplane were seen by several people over the Hunter’s Tryst“. Given the progress (or lack of) of the known aviators in the city at this time, and that there are no other corresponding news or magazine reports, it is likely that this was Scotland’s first UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) caused by local hearsay, rumour and excitement.’ 🤣

The Sunday Post #5 One Mid-Summer Morning

Pentland Hills and T Plantation circa 1914 (Photographer Unknown

Edinburgh Libraries, Museums and Galleries Collection)

This wonderful old photograph from a century ago shows three schoolgirls walking down Swanston Road through the farmland and fields. 

Swanston Farm, Robert Hope

There is no sign of Swanston Farm or Swanston Golf Club. 

The Old Schoolhouse in Swanston Village was in existence, so perhaps the girls are heading off to school in the morning. 

The Pentland Hills and the T Woods can be seen clearly in the distance. 

The scree slopes of the hills were no different fifty years later come the 1960s when the Blades; the Hoggs; and the Hoffmanns stood at their living room windows looking out for the number 16 bus coming down Oxgangs Road North.

There are hay stacks in one of the distant fields and one of the girls is only wearing a blouse, so we might surmise it is late summer. 

They are all dressed smartly in their straw hats; skirts; and dresses and each of them is carrying a metal case perhaps containing their school-books and lunches. 

On a fine summer morn or in early autumn the walk would be refreshing and enjoyable. However, on a bitter winter's morning, in the semi-darkness or in the cold of a March morning with a biting wind it would have been a very different story. But, at least they walked together which would have eased their passage and no doubt they will have enjoyed each other's company. Still, it's a long exposed country lane and one which we at The Stair often travelled along on our adventures to the Pentland Hills half a century later and half a century ago.

I wonder where the girls are coming from as back then, there wouldn't have been many houses in Fairmilehead. 

Perhaps they were sisters and lived at the old Hunters Tryst Farm. 

It's certainly a very lovely photograph capturing a moment in time. 

I also wonder who the photographer was. Was it set up or just serendipity? Perhaps their mum and dad wanted to capture that special moment in time to treasure and hold dear in their hearts, before the girls grew up, left home and moved on to follow life's journey. 

They are all smartly dressed and don't look poor. Their outfits - straw hats, skirts and dresses remind me very much of the two girls in The Railway Children. They all look quite lady-like - composed and serene, but not prim. If there had been a companion photograph taken at the end of the school day, it might have been quite different. We would of course see their faces and perhaps being the end of the school day and free from their lessons, we might have seen them un-lady-like taking to their heels, racing downhill from Swanston Village to head homewards for their tea and back to the welcome bosom of the family home.

Because we can't see the girls’ faces it adds to the elusiveness of the subject material. It forces the viewer to use their imagination.

You can't but help wonder what happened to each girl. The First World War was a matter of months away. Did they go on to become wives and mothers or follow a career in nursing or teaching? Did they remain in Edinburgh or move on to other towns or even make a life for themselves abroad?

In a way, the photograph reminds me of the cover of the novel Three German Farmers On The Way To A Dance by Richard Powers which was based on an old photograph. 

It seems to me that in the hands of a fine novelist such as Joan Lingard a rather good story might be weaved.

Postscript: In late 2017 I came across an update that revealed the premise on which I based the vignette was false - if you look closely the girls are actually carrying milk carriers!  Still, much of my musings on what happened to the girls remains true so I thought I would leave the vignette as it stands!

The Sunday Post #5 One Mid-Summer Morn

Pentland Hills and T Plantation circa 1914 (Photographer Unknown

Edinburgh Libraries, Museums and Galleries Collection)

This wonderful old photograph from a century ago shows three schoolgirls walking down Swanston Road through the farmland and fields. 

There is no sign of Swanston Farm or Swanston Golf Club. 

The Old Schoolhouse in Swanston Village was in existence, so perhaps the girls are heading off to school in the morning. 

The Pentland Hills and the T Woods can be seen clearly in the distance. 

The scree slopes of the hills were no different fifty years later come the 1960s when the Blades; the Hoggs; and the Hoffmanns stood at their living room windows looking out for the number 16 bus coming down Oxgangs Road North.

There are hay stacks in one of the distant fields and one of the girls is only wearing a blouse, so we might surmise it is late summer. 

They are all dressed smartly in their straw hats; skirts; and dresses and each of them is carrying a metal case perhaps containing their school-books and lunches. 

On a fine summer morn or in early autumn the walk would be refreshing and enjoyable. However, on a bitter winter's morning, in the semi-darkness or in the cold of a March morning with a biting wind it would have been a very different story. But, at least they walked together which would have eased their passage and no doubt they will have enjoyed each other's company. Still, it's a long exposed country lane and one which we at The Stair often travelled along on our adventures to the Pentland Hills half a century later and half a century ago.

I wonder where the girls are coming from as back then, there wouldn't have been many houses in Fairmilehead. 

Perhaps they were sisters and lived at the old Hunters Tryst Farm. 

It's certainly a very lovely photograph capturing a moment in time. 

I also wonder who the photographer was. Was it set up or just serendipity? Perhaps their mum and dad wanted to capture that special moment in time to treasure and hold dear in their hearts, before the girls grew up, left home and moved on to follow life's journey. 

They are all smartly dressed and don't look poor. Their outfits - straw hats, skirts and dresses remind me very much of the two girls in The Railway Children. They all look quite lady-like - composed and serene, but not prim. If there had been a companion photograph taken at the end of the school day, it might have been quite different. We would of course see their faces and perhaps being the end of the school day and free from their lessons, we might have seen them un-lady-like taking to their heels, racing downhill from Swanston Village to head homewards for their tea and back to the welcome bosom of the family home.

Because we can't see the girls’ faces it adds to the elusiveness of the subject material. It forces the viewer to use their imagination.

You can't but help wonder what happened to each girl. The First World War was a matter of months away. Did they go on to become wives and mothers or follow a career in nursing or teaching? Did they remain in Edinburgh or move on to other towns or even make a life for themselves abroad?

In a way, the photograph reminds me of the cover of the novel Three German Farmers On The Way To A Dance by Richard Powers which was based on an old photograph. 

It seems to me that in the hands of a fine novelist such as Joan Lingard a rather good story might be weaved.

Postscript: In late 2017 I came across an update that revealed the premise on which I based the vignette was false - if you look closely the girls are actually carrying milk carriers!  Still, much of my musings on what happened to the girls remains true so I thought I would leave the vignette as it stands!

The Landscape; the Farms and RLS

The flats built at Oxgangs on the south side of Edinburgh were on farm land, presumably on the former Oxgangs Farm, situated in the lea of the Pentland Hills. Looking back the air must have been fresh and clear as there were no local industries there. There was however still some local working farms on the go including Hunters Tryst Farm which was a dairy farm. Further up toward the Pentlands was Swanston Farm which grew potatoes and turnips and was also a pig farm and always noticeably smelly whenever we ventured past it-but more of that later.

RLS from a photograph by Lloyd Osbourne

Eighty years or so before, Robert Louis Stevenson walked along the same dirt road going to and from Swanston Village where the family had a holiday house, Swanston House. Perhaps it is a trick of memory, but I seem to remember seeing his initials carved on a door of the old Oxgangs Farm-house on Oxgangs Road North which then became a police station. Comiston Farm also grew potatoes and turnips; a beautiful house was an integral part. At one time there were wild rumours circulating of a ghost haunting the farm, known as the White Lady-this caused great consternation amongst the pupils at Hunters Tryst which was adjacent to the farm.