Glasgow Terrace

A Memory of Eyemouth.

I am Jim Windram and I'm a Gelsgie Terrace Sparray frae Haymoothe. One could only be a sparrow from the terrace if you were born there, as I was in 1946. Chapel Terrace as it was officially known, was once owned by Peter Gibb, a fish curer for Glasgow.
Glesgie Terrace was off Chapel Street, where Salt Greens nursing home is now, and I reached it by going up the side of Giacopazzis. Brick built, it was 3 stories high, with a set of enclosed stairs at each end.. Railed gangways ran along the front of all the houses, with a dividing rail in the middle, which everyone used to climb over. There were 6 houses on each floor, 3 to the left, and 3 to the right. At the top of the building was a large garret,( loft), where all the fishermen would mend their nets.
Behind the building were lines for washing, washed in water heated by open fires outside. A strict rota governed the washing lines, so it was tough luck if it rained on your wash day, your fire, and washing. A lady on the bottom floor, charged 2 pence a time for the use of her mangle. If the fishermen chose to tend their nets on the drying green, the women folk had to try to "hold their tongues"
Glesgie Terrace never had gas, and even in the 1950's, the building was regarded as too old to justify electricity. Paraffin lamps were the order of the day. The toilets were beside the common stairs. With one room and one bedroom, the houses were literally but and bens, Water and meals were heated over the room fire, and water was sought from the toilet. Large families lived in the terrace, it seemed as if half of Eyemouth lived there, and knew everyones else's business too.
I left the Terrace when I was one year old, moving to the state of the art prefabs, with electricity,inside loo, bathroom and a FRIDGE!! My Aunt Jean, who we had lived next door to, remained and a visit to her was an adventure. I would run up and down the stair well and along the gangways. The smell of the preservative, which the fishermen used on their nets in the loft, always hung heavy on the air, but I was never brave enough to travel up the last flight to the net loft. Old Peter Burgon lived in the house directly below my Aunt. He was easily upset, and would bang on his ceiling with his stick, if my brother and I made too much noise.
Eyemouth was hit by 2 bombs during the war. One blew up a fishing boat, and the other landed on the Gelsgie Terrace drying green, bounced across the harbour, and embedded itself on the bank, 100 yard to the right of the Mansion House. It never exploded. I'm sure that old Peter Burgon couldn't have blamed my elder brother for that bit of noise.
My Aunt would tell me the story of the Eyemouth Bomb, and how her Granny, who also lived there, amazingly, hadn't been aware of the bomb, looked up, saw the broken window, and immediately gave my Aunt and her cousin, a good " clip around the ear".
She would also tell me of how the gangways would be difficult to negotiate, when the women folk stretched out the lines for baiting, Women would sit on stools, opening mussles, whilst at the same time caring for up to 6 children , making soup, and checking their laundry. The gangways were scrubbed on hands an knees after wards.
Life in Glesgie Terrace may have seemed tough, but in the early 1900's they were luxury, compared to the homes of other fisher folk.

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