Methilhill Memories

A Memory of Methilhill.

I have great memories of Methilhill. We lived in Perth but my Gran Cormack lived at 147 Simon Crescent on the main road. We used to stay with her during the summer holidays. Those were the days when you knew you were in Fife becuase the buses were red, not like the Stagecoach colours nowadays. Daisy Park was a great haunt and we spent many days and evenings playing there. That chute had to be one of the highest ever built, or it seemed it in those days. I also remember a chip van used to come round some nights, it looked like an old converted bus but the amazing thing was that the chip fryers were heated by a coal fire, you could see it if you looked in the back door, and the chimney at the back used to belch black smoke. Fantastic chips though.
My gran was called Tib or Jessie Cormack and was a very keen gardener, she was well known in the area for making wedding sprays and funeral wreaths and charged very little for them.
Jack Caldwells was a daily visit. My favourite was ice poles (frozen juice sticks) I think they used to cost an old penny. Great fun tearing the top off with your teeth and eating it on the way to the daisy park along the dirt road at the side of Caldwells. I was always fascinated by the old air raid shelter at the bottom of someones garden on that road
Times really have changed in Methilhill, when I used to look out of my grans front window you could see Buckhaven High School and the winding gear for at least six or seven pit heads. Now they have all gone apart from the school.
Another memory I have from the seventies was the huge oil rig jacket being built at Methil. It was massive and seemed to fill the whole skyline.
Even now I am in my fifties, I still enjoy visiting Methilhill.

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