Childhood In Sheardale

A Memory of Sheardale.

I was born in Sheardale in 1948, it was a warm and friendly place with around ten or twelve houses and a village hall. Everyone looked out for each other. As time went on new houses were built in Coalsnaughton and later at Dollar, and people moved out of the village to modern houses with electricity and indoor toilets. The village was then used by many as a means as a stepping stone to getting a council house. I lived in what was known as the Keepers House, just west of the village on the bend towards Coalsnaughton until my teens, when we moved to Aberdona Lodge where I stayed until I married in 1970. We were bussed to Dollar for school and made lasting friendships which many lasted; I am still in contact with a friend from those days. In the early days (40's) they used to get the water from the well down the back field and it was so pure it was a treat for us to bottle it in the summer as we wandered about climbing about on the old Quarry and digging for ground nuts. In the winter we were quite often snowed in but of course we loved time off school. Electricity was connected to the village in the late 50's ....58 or 59 which changed our lives greatly ,no more paraffin lamps . It was a harder way of life but you just got on with it and we were happy.