Childhood Memories

A Memory of Ecclefechan.

I was brought up in Ecclefechan and attended Hoddom Primary School between 1968 and 1975.

Teachers I recall were Mrs Dodds, Mrs McPherson, Mrs Davidson, Miss Kirkpatrick (Mrs Wilson), Mrs McBride, Miss Gibson (Mrs Redpath) & Mr Rutherford. Mr Sefton visited each week for music lessons.  I remember Mrs Gilmour and Mrs Dow who were the dinnerladies. School dinners arrived daily in a van in big silver metal containers of all shapes and sizes. The playground had a climbing frame (monkeybars) and a covered area to shelter in and outside toilets. There was also a covered walkway between the playground and a smaller courtyard. There was also the playground over the main road which fell into disuse later but was the scene of many an epic football kickabout over the years with two games often going on at once, one on the grass and one on the tarmac with teams of varying sizes. Gym lessons were held in the Village Hall. Free school milk came in little bottles. When the milk froze in Winter it would be thawed out on the radiators. I also vaguely recall walking to School in the dark, which must have been the failed experiment in the late 60's/early 70's with the clocks.

The Post Office was run by Mr & Mrs Armstrong. There were holes in the pavement outside  where at one time there had been fuel pumps for the Post Office vans. The vans were parked in the garage on the Coach Stables. I remember PC Swan & later PC McRae. The chip shop (Cafe Andreas) opposite the Ecclefechan Hotel was run by Ralf who was German but there was another chip shop on the same side of the street as Casbolt's towards Thomas Carlyle's house. Also I recall a shop opposite Caven Place but I cannot recall anything more than that about it. Mrs Guthrie's penny trays are etched on my memory as well as Matchbox cars from Casbolt's (which later became Fraser's). Woods (formerly Horsburgh's) was down from Casbolt's on the opposite side of the road. I remember the hairdressers and butchers shop on Langlands Road and Mrs Ash's. I also recall The Globe Shop and the Royal Bank of Scotland office, which was serviced out of Annan branch on a Tuesday and Friday. Next to it was Vallance's office. The Mace Shop was across the road where I lived with my Dad & Mam and two brothers. The petrol station in the village was Cooks and the local milk was supplied by Youngs.

Crawfords twin petrol filling stations sat astride the A74 towards Lockerbie. There was also Carruthers's scrapyard past Burnside Gardens and before Burnbank Street. Mr McEwan was the local joiner and undertaker and had his workshop between the Mace Shop and Carruthers' haulage yard. I remember playing in an old scrapped Co-op Commer van parked on the Haggs next to the side of the road that runs past the houses and also in an old scrapped car in the field behind the houses in Castle Acre. There were no houses in the field on the right on the way into the Cressfield Hotel. I remember when the Barratts houses were built and the helicopter that arrived on the opening day.

The High Street was dug up in the early 70's to replace the culvert for the Ecclefechan Burn. There was a football pitch near where the new Primary School was built and a wooden sandpit and swings next to it off Langlands Road. There was big hedge with a gap in it between the football pitch and the play area. The Fair came  to the village on occasion and parked up somewhere off Langlands Road. The Doctor was Dr Anderson whose surgery was next to and behind Thomas Carlyle's house. I believe there was a Co-Op on Academy Street opposite the old Primary School. The Co-Op garages were halfway up Hall Road on the left. There were shooting buttes at the Brownmoor and the red flags would fly if there was every any shooting going on. Local woods were Hall Wood, Brown Moor and the Dukes Cover.

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