Blooming heck! I’m a tourist attraction
IT began as an ordinary garden, lovingly looked after come rain or shine by a railwayman returning from working 14-hour shifts.
But 30 years later the riot of colour by the roadside in the village of Kirkfieldbank, near Lanark, has become a major attraction for coaches packed with tourists.
They stop regularly to inspect the vibrant window boxes and well-tended lawn which retired train driver Norman Edge delights in sharing with visitors.
‘We get bus loads,’ says 82-year-old Mr Edge. ‘We get one that comes in every year from Oldham. They go to the Tattoo and overnight at a hotel in Glasgow, then they come up through the valley and stop here.
‘They all get out and come and have a look at it. They’ve been doing it for years. We get a lot of foreign buses slowing down to allow their passengers to take photographs.’
He used to be a gardening workaholic – his wife Christine, now 77, recalls waking up in the middle of the night to find him working on the flowerbeds.
But after suffering a stroke in February 2015, Mr Edge had to scale back his gardening to a single acre, which he tends with the help of his two children and two grandchildren.
Yet he still enjoys welcoming all the tourists who stop to view the garden each summer. He said: ‘They just enjoy themselves. They’re maybe here for half an hour and they have a talk. Then away they go, quite happy. It seems to give a lot of people pleasure.’