Southfield Housr

A Memory of Slamannan.

I first came to Southfield House shortly after I was born in Falkirk in 1935 with my mother & father - Dorothy & Robert Barr. We lived there until I was 15 years. My brother Robin and sister Katie came along after me. To this day this is where I always loved to be.T he house was very big and Robin & I had lots of fun chasing each other and playing hide & seek with my father when he came home on leave from the army. I remember when there was a bunch of soldiers coming to stay at Southfield farm next door to us & Robin & I sat on the brick wall alongside the road and handed out cigarettes to them. I remember when the German planes were trying to get to the Clyde shipyard to bomb it and the British planes were chasing them and the German planes then tried to get back to Germany and were dropping their bombs anywhere. Two of them landed in a field close to the house with a big bang, but no-one was hurt.
I spent most of my school holidays at the farm and even when we left to move to Larbert after the war I would get on my bicycle and go to the farm and help out with milking the cows and any other work that had to be done. After school I went to the Edinburgh & East of Scotland College of Agriculture, but I always went back on holidays to help out. It was the least I could do as everyone had to put up with me growing up as a child! I moved to Canada and when I had my three children I took them back to Southfield House & farm to show them where I grew up. These were the most happiest and carefree days of my life.

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