Walks along shoreline

On the same subject, I have heard from Dundee reader Keith Walker who says: “The aerial photograph is not from the first show in 1949, but from the second in 1956 (I was at both).

“A lot of the cars are from 1952 to 1956 – mainly the light coloured and two tone pastel tones from Vauxhall, Ford and Austin. There is also the good old Riley RM in the queue!

“I walked the shore often in the 1940s, from Wills Braes to Invergowrie Bay and at that time the river came right up to the fence at the roadside. One day I found a First World War motor torpedo boat lying abandoned in the water. I tried everything to get on board, but I only got very wet in the process.

“I spent a lot of time on the rocks at the bridge where Preston Watson flew his model aircraft into the wind. We climbed the low cliffs as we made our way along to the small quarry and to low grass lands to the west. It was a lovely beach with trees, rocks, streams and bushes where the tinkers used to camp with their two-wheeled handcart and a tarpaulin.

“Wills Braes was a natural botanic garden and an east coast beauty spot for hundreds of years. It reached out to what is now the entrance to the airport – it was dynamited to build the railway in 1846.

“You can gain accesss to some of the rugged cliffs and beaches of the old coastline of the forebank of Balgay by crossing the railway footbridge to Harris Academy and Crawford Lodge.” open door was wonderful as were the flowers on display in the windows. Our famous chef Willie Little bought it some years ago and turned it into a restaurant he cleverly called Exseeds.

“Another Perth shop I remember was Miss Gorrie’s in the High Street where you got wool for your school knitting. Happy memories.”