Raf Herscha Hill

A Memory of Auchenblae.

I, along with two others at any one time, was posted to the RAF fixer station on Herscha Hill. We stayed with Miss Bella Scott at a house called Noranside, halfway up Kintore Street. I was there from 2 Feb 1954 to mid-November 1955. Played football in the Summer Football League where Bob Gauld (local blacksmith) refereed all the home matches. (We sometimes won.) The RAF lads were always made very welcome to join in anything that was going off in and around the village. The Den was a favourite, particularly the tennis courts. I remember that I won a small cup in the 1955 tournament. Sheila Welsh won the Ladies cup in the same year and believe it or not we won the mixed doubles as well. (Most of the other players were not quite up to our mediochre standard.) The badminton club, held on a Monday evening in the village hall was generally well attended. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in the village, particularly as we RAF lads had plenty of time and very little work to do. I often wonder how many of the friends of the time are still with us. Pete Cox and Johnny Leishman (RAF), the Welsh family, Sheila, Anne and Jimmy. Hilda Smith, Davina Weir, Harold Barclay, Dennis Watson, Bertie White, Leonid Farquar, Margaret Gove. 56/7 years is a long time to try to remember everyone's name and I apologise to those I have forgotten. The people I spent most time with were the ones who stayed at Bella's such as Jock Auld (who used to work at Glensaugh), Fred Lowe (Bibby's traveller), Charlie Grant (One of the bakers at Hays bread shop at the bottom of the street along with Jim Welsh Snr.), and Bert Clark, (who was the mechanic at Cha. Coull's garage) Perhaps there are some people still living who may remember some of the persons mentioned. (I hope so.)

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