Carradale

[Govangirl]

Fabulous picture! I love it! What year was it?

[Cockabendie]

I reckon it was March 1963, and there were still traces of snow when the visitors came at Easter.

[MPR]

I remember it well, my mother panicking about no bread. She had to bake some for us, playing in the snow was great.
was that not the year we also had a tremendous showing of the northern lights?

[witchnettle]

i love this pic but am having trouble working out where in broomfield, i know it was ages ago and things change but can anyone help me x

[SARID]

The picture was taken at the "Crossroads" looking towards Airds, and the golfcourse hill, The "listening post" written about recently, can be clearly seen to the left of the fifth tee.I have great memories of the sledging on the golfcourse hill in1947,
another year when there was a heavy snowfall.The children sledged during the day,and some parents borrowed the sledges to sledge by moonlight.

[witchnettle]

thanks sarid i can see it now x
sounds great, next fall of snow i'll meet you all out there in the moonlight x

[Cockabendie]

In my young day the children sledged on the golfcourse well into the evening. Our parents knew we'd make our way home about 10pm cold, wet and tired. It was great fun hurtling down the first fairway
till you reached the fence of stabs and barbed wire round the 9th green to keep the Baker's cows off it during the winter. There were a lot of narrow escapes and one or two nasty accidents when people didn't duck under the wire in time.
No days off school then because of snow. You just trudged through it even though it was over your wellies, but we made sure we didn't arrive at school before 10 o'clock reckoning we'd a good excuse for being late. My father told me that he had once had to walk to school along the top of the dyke because the snow on the road was so deep.
Does anybody else remember pushing the school bus up Torrisdale Brae in the snow? And then Willie leaving us to walk to the top of hill because he didn't dare stop to let us back on the bus? Risk assessment? Health and safety? Never heard of in these days!

[SARID]

I well remember the stabs and barbed wire roond the 9th green tae keep the Bakers coos at bay. I had a very near miss on wan occasion when I shot under the barbed wire,but wis uninjured because I wis lyin flat oot an naw sittin upright. You wir lucky, Cockabendie,able to stay oot so late. We hid tae go home much earlier, as ma Faither needed the sledge fur high jinks in the moonlight

[LANDROVER ROGER]

.......................................

[witchnettle]

i went sledging at the golf course last year and had noticed a bit of fence that was worse for wear, so of course at my shot i went careering into it, and the much loved greenkeeper saw me and blamed me for the ALL the damage. I did offer to fix but he said he would do it himself, he still gets on to me about it, (i feel he may have been teasing me a bit)
But typical, the kids seem to have the ability to do stealthy sledging and not getting caught banging into fences, but us adults are like bulls in a china shop. So this moonlight sledging sounds better and better to me, just don't tell Robert. x

[SARID]

~The Carradale School photo circa 1920 reminds me that back in those days scholars could stay at Carradale School until they were 14, which I presume was the school leaving age. Obviously they were the ones who had decided the fishing etc was for them.
There was no scholars bus (as we called it ) then, and so the pupils who went on to the Grammar had to go into lodgings. The steamer was the mode of transport to get them to and from Carradale at the weekend.
I remember my Aunt telling me that one stormy day the steamer couldn't get into Carradale pier, and they were put ashore on Arran, and had no alternative but to return to Campbeltown on the next steamer no doubt feeling a wee bit "under the weather" at the end of it all!

[Right Pongal]

Dick Galbraith's car,I think, heading out of Broomfield after the men of the village had cleared the snow. As I remember it, they spent several days digging their way to Torrisdale or thereabouts where they met the snowplough heading north from the town. I'm sure somebody'll correct me if I'm wrong.

A great historical record. Not even a Landrover could have got through that before the fishermen and farmers dug the road clear. Amazing to think that they cleared that by hand all those years ago. Keep the historical stuff coming folks...

[SARID]

I have no memory of ever being stuck on the Campbeltown road, in the Scholars bus, with Willie Ramsay at the wheel. Must have been after my time. I recall Willie signing autograph books "William Ramsay MA BD " which he said stood for" Merely A Bus Driver"
The post about the fencing round the 9th green reminded me That we called the fence posts "paling Stabs "

[Bitter End]

Aye Sarid an Ah ken thim as 'stobs' an we're aw speirin aboot the same thing !

[chuckiebay]

Ah mind fine pushin' the bus up Torrisdale brae an' gettin' in at the top o' the hill. Ah mind too the bus naw makin' it an' been told by the driver to head on foot fur home. Mind you that might have been Donnie Darroch, maybe willie Ramsay wis made o' sterner stuff.

We had wild snow in ah think '55 when the big wans wir sittin their prelims in January and had to be taken to Campbeltown by fishing boat- Mgt Fisher, Elizabrth Paterson, Isabel McFadyen are some o' the wans concerned. At the same time ther wis a wild outbreak o' the flu' an I missed oot on the sledgin because o' it.