Glenluce

A Memory of Glenluce.

Hi my name is Alan Leitch, all of my family did come from Glenluce from 1740 to 1960s. I spent every school holiday from the age of five until I was 15 years old in Glenluce with my friends Peter Frothingham and Murry McCracken, roaming the Shore Road and Stairhaven or in Glenluce Railway Signal box with Peter's dad who was a signalman, or helping the blacksmith who had his forge at the back of my grandmother's cottage. I had to attend Ladyburn Church with my mum and grandmother every Sunday and a small mission in the evening, my mother was not allowed to even knit and I was not allowed outside as it was the Sabbath.

My wife and I return to Glenluce every year and I find the village has not changed much over the years in apperance, apart from cars on both sides of the road and of course all the shops have long gone like the ironmongers, butchers, general store owned and run by the Henrys and Maggie Black's haberdashery shop. One of the things I do remember is the amount of food on my grandmother's table every mealtime. I was brought up in Liverpool during the Second World War where everying was rationed and yet here I was living like a king, there didn't seem to be any rationing.

I detested leaving Glenluce and returning to Liverpool to the bombing raids, but as my wife pointed out to me, I was very lucky having Glenluce to return to every year. I am now getting on in years and understand now why my mum, dad and uncles returned to Glenluce every year, apart from the stunning scenery it is the friendliness of the village folk and that has never changed.
I will be returning again this year and next.

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