A Stroll round 1960s Saltcoats

[meekan]

Susan, I'm sure my late father-in-law spoke about a telephone exchange in Dockhead Street during the war years.

He was a GPO engineer and he worked out of an exchange/workshop just off of Gladstone Road. I can remember the building but very little else about it.

[down south]

Thanks, Meekan. I can well imagine there being a need for smaller, sub-exchanges around the place; perhaps particularly in wartime ,to avoid all the eggs being in one basket. The Dockhead Street one might well have been the original Saltcoats exchange. Wonder where exactly it was.

Back to the corner of the Glebe now, where Campbell Avenue meets Donaldson Avenue; and another recently-built small low-rise block of flats now stands on the site of one of the most memorable landmarks of my early childhood; McCully's Garage.

We were such valued customers there, after my father bought his first car in 1958, that I remember we even had a McCully's complimentary calendar hanging on the wall. And no, I HAVEN'T still got that !!...but here's a McCully's bill from 1962 , where the price comparisons may be of interest to the car enthusiasts among you:

The charges include the rental of one of his row of lock-up garages, which we used till we had our own garage built; and I well remember, even though the date showing the end of this proves I was no older than five, often accompanying my Dad as we either fetched the car, or put it away before taking the short walk home over the Iron Bridge.

The lockups I remember being at the Glebe end of the premises; and it can't be long ago that the garage site was finally cleared, because in my early online days I saw a picture of them on the Herald website..." time this eyesore was demolished "...looking, apart from their sad dereliction, exactly as I remembered them.

Up at the other end, through the big garage where the work was done, was Mr McCully's cosy little office, which we would also visit sometimes to pass the time and pay the bills. And McCully's for all the years after continued to be our our friendly family garage to resort to in all motoring crises: I'll never forget the time the radiator suddenly began to boil over on Princes Street, and the mad dash to get to McCully's before the car expired in a cloud of steam...or how often the old bangers my sister had come home with from London got a grateful patch-up with a bit of McCully TLC so she could get back again.

Susan

[liz gemmell]

my name is Liz Gemmell nee Campbell , I was brought up in 2 Caledonia rd "Bankside" as it was called ! there were no steps up and down the brae to the house from the bottom of the hill/brae! My family moved into the house/cottage in June/July 1961! Just before i turned 5 in August! I left that house to get married in 1978. there were steps from the back garden in Caledonia rd to the back garden in Ardrossan the bottam part of the house ! We reckon the house must have been seperated at some time since it was built many many years before it caertainly looked that way! we think there were steps or a passage at one time behind the front door in Caledonia Rd from Ardrossan Rd but we could not find out how or when the work was done or carried out there are wine cellars underneath Ardrossan Rd running under Ness gardens! The person who remebered the fire next to the railway line was right it was about 1963 or 1964 Mr John Lee lived in the end house At Galloway Place he fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand i think ! that is what the story was at the time and the house caught fire it was burnt to the ground unfortunately he died in the fire. He lived alone . He was seperated from his wife Ailsa Lee. The person who asked about the houses in Ardrossan rd , Did they have gardens ?yes they did. they were quite long rectangular gardens most of them the ones nearest the line were small . The houses going from 4 Caledonia Rd up to Lindsays shop (now Calley stores) had very very small square gardens! i hope this is helpful to those who want the information.

[liz gemmell]

Matt Stevenston was Ailsa (young Ailsa's second husband, her mother was also called Ailsa) Young Ailsa's first husband was called Andy i can't remember his first name right now if i do i'll try and get back to you . They had a son called Drew called after his dad obviously. Unfortunately Ailsa died of cancer she was a lovely person.

[down south]

Hello Liz, welcome to Threetowners. I would guess you must be the same " Gemmell " who was posting before elsewhere about Bankside House....unless you've got a twin ? :

http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... 011#p97011"

Fascinating to learn some of the secrets of what was hidden behind the scenes of that house and the others round there. I lived on the other side, and at the other end, of Ardrossan Road, and we certainly had good long gardens there.

Seems from what you say that I was remembering the fire at Arthurlie Place as having been a year or two earlier than it was; but then all I was really sure about is that it was before St Peter's school dining hall burned down, and that was in 1964.

You mention the corner shop as having been Lindsay's; would that have been people who had the shop before the Macphersons, or after ? I didn't really know it well at the time when you first moved in, because we used to go to the one beside the Iron Bridge which was nearer; but I remember it getting quite a big makeover around the mid-sixties , and that could have been part of the process of its changing hands if that was what happened.

Susan

[liz gemmell]

Donald Mcpherson bought the sjop from Mrs Lindsay must have been about 1966 1967 . Mrs Lindsay was a lovely lady and i mean a lady! she always seemed to wear brown or blue but mostly brown very patient with the children and very well mannered but i never knew any child to give her any cheek i think we all respected her because she treated us all so well it came naturally! the bottom half of Bankside was 11 Ardrossan Rd although the top half was 2 Caledonia rd they were 2 different houses as far as addresses went as well! crazy but true still the same today

[liz gemmell]

the shop near the iron bridge was closed for years it had grociers written into the sandstone above the window . I noticed recently that it has been taken over and opened again. I haven't a clue who owns it now , I just noticed it when i passed on the bus a few times going to my daughters in Ardrossan

[down south]

Thanks, Liz. I became much more conscious of the shop by the school once it became Macpherson's; both because the nearer one had closed by then, so we were more often in there; and also because the eldest daughter Helen was in my class at school, and quite often when we went in she or one of her younger sisters would be in there helping out. And usually to be met there as well was the shop's cat , a great favourite with the customers.

The shop by the Iron Bridge, which was called Moir and Rooney's, closed round about the same time we're talking about, maybe a little earlier; and sat forlornly shut afterwards with the blinds down all the time I knew it until I left the area in 1972, and probably beyond. My favourite memories of it are of my Mum taking me over the Iron Bridge when I was small to get a choc-ice or a lolly out of their little frozen cabinet...quite a novelty still in those days . But sadly I don't have any real memories of the personalities there, like you have of Mrs Lindsay.

Interesting to hear it has opened again after all these years; wonder what sort of business it's become. Here it is on Streetview:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.63941 ... 56!6m1!1e1

The entrance was the door on the left, in Stanley Place. Strangely enough I had no memory of the " Grocer " inscription above the door, though I walked past the shop most days on my way to and from school; perhaps it was covered by a shop nameboard back then. Proves it was planned as a corner shop from the first; it's even mentioned as being there in " Saltcoats Old and New " , written in 1909 .

http://www.threetowners.com/old-new/chapter-11/

Susan

[meekan]

Girls
I think it is a ladies hairdresser, or at least it was the last time I looked. It is owned by a guy called Roderick --------?

[down south]

Thanks, Meekan. Quite a logical use for such a little shop in a residential area.

Meanwhile, while we're talking of Donald MacPherson, here's another picture in which he features. And along with him in the Rotary Club curling team from April 1974 is Mr McCully of the garage. I don't know anything about the others in the picture, but maybe someone else will.

I have to confess I never knew back then that there was another garage that belonged to the McCullys ; I do now only due to re-finding this earlier helpful post of Meekan's ( and reading and taking it in properly for the first time ! ) :

http://www.threetowners.net/forum/viewt ... 794#p68794"

And sure enough it's there in the 1967 phone book under the name North Garage, Dalry Road. The post details something of what happened with that; does anyone know anything of the later life of the Donaldson Avenue garage, or when it closed ?

Susan

[Penny Tray]

Susan,

I recognise the gentlemen extreme left and second from the right from 'Lambert and Reid' the plumbing business in Glasgow Street, Ardrossan. They may even be father and son and from one of the families connected with the business.

[geomacintyre]

I can never remember Keith Milne's dad's name. Was it George? He was a solicitor in Princes Street, lived at the top of Witches Linn and drove a V8 Rover (golden?) and had lovely golden retrievers, if I remember correctly. Keith and his wife Gail are also curlers as were the Macpherson girls.