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Haddington Old |
Haddington New |
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LAST TRAIN. Saturday 3rd December 1949. This J39 was waiting to draw the 10.58 for Longniddry (change for Edinburgh) on the very last day that passenger schedules ran on our 103-year-old branch line. Railway historian Andrew Hajducki reckons that the snaps which I took were probably the only photographs taken on that momentous day. Note the old carriage which was used as temporary offices after the 1948 rains made the passenger terminal unsafe. |
INDUSTRIAL SITE. An impression is some of the factory units which now occupy the station yard. During part of the interim the branch line had been used for training drivers in diesel operation, but it was finally closed in 1968. The original platform edge in the foreground had been demolished and later rebuilt in approximately the same position. (April 92) |
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OLD HARDGATE. One of the nicest houses in NW Hardgate was no.48 (left) which was owned by Mrs Murray, the last of the family responsible for Brown & Murray, Ironmongers, in the burgh for many years. She was out looking up and down the street, wondering where that young photographer had disappeared to? Along with Jenny Kings Close (right) the house would disappear within 3 years. (August 1956) |
WIDER HARDGATE. The late Frank Tindall's influence is still visible in the outside stair and the use of stonework, but for once the pantiles are missing - except on the shelter! Luckily I took this slide before the onset of parallel parking. (May 1980) |
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IN 48 HARDGATE. On another occasion, Mrs Murray had allowed me into her house, where I attempted to record her first-floor drawing room. How I wish I had had a wide-angle lens in those days, so that I might have captured the whole of that gas chandelier, with its unique up-and-down movement. I have recently discovered that this mechanism is preserved in an Edinburgh museum store. (September 1955) |
GARDEN SIDE. And to complete this little quartet, I took the back of no.48 Hardgate, which was a cut above the but-and-bens on either side of it. The drawing room, with its chandelier, was behind the Venetian window. (July 1955) |
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WOODLAND GOD. Close-up of the unique keystone above the house door of no.86 Market Street, the home of Adam Bisset. It is probably a version of a Green Man, but when I suggested a woodland god, the late Harvey Gardiner said Rubbish! Its the morning after the night before. This stone disappeared during demolitions in the late 1950s, and anyone knowing its present whereabouts is asked to contact us. (August 1953) |
ADAM BISSET'S. house on first floor and wee general store on the ground floor (entered from Hardgate). This was a classic little town house which disappeared in the interests of road widening. The stone urn on top of the NE corner was a victim of bomb blast on 3rd March 1941. Note a glimpse of Gowl Close in the background; also the mark left by a Halt sign used during a one-way-street experiment around 1950. (July 1955) |