Bridge over troubled water?

Memories of the formative years of bridges have been preoccupying Craigie readers lately, and today we’re sharing a yarn sent to us by Angus resident Patrick Anderson.

He spent many hours during lockdown trawling the extensive photo archive at his Letham home, which sparked recollections of a memorable childhood trip to the capital some six and half decades ago.

While other Craigie readers have largely furnished us recently with stories about the Tay Road Bridge, it was the discovery of a picture Pat had taken of the Fife to Edinburgh road crossing as it was in the throes of completion that, in turn, brought to mind an eventful journey south some years earlier on the ferry service its creation served to end.

Mr Anderson, of McFarlane Croft, writes: “I went off from Arbroath to Edinburgh by train to stay for a week with my uncle and aunt there during May 1963 having finished my schooling years.

“I think that the photograph of the new Forth Road Bridge with its last few sections still to be completed was taken on the way back from my stay in Edinburgh, as I used my newish Kodak Box Brownie camera.

“My black and white photograph has on the rear, ‘Forth Road Bridge under construction with a ferry below, taken from railway bridge, May 1963’.

He continues: “I see on the internet that work on the steel suspension bridge began in September 1958 and the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh officially opened the bridge on September 4 1964, and the ferry service was discontinued on that day as well.

“When I was around the age of seven

years old, I went to Edinburgh with my parents and used the Forth ferry service.

“The ferry firm wanted as many cars on board as possible. Unfortunately, when my father had stopped the car on the ferry there was a sudden crash at the back of the car and my father and myself went out to see what had happened, and to view the accident damage to my father’s car.

“The front of the other car was damaged, too. The ferrymen had just managed to get

another motor car on board for the journey and one of the deck crew was directing the cars to park, and possibly telling the driver of the car behind us that there was room to park that vehicle there, and yes, suddenly the car collided with the rear of my father’s car causing damage.

“The driver in the vehicle behind our car was a chauffeur and I remember he and a very tall man in a heavy coat and trilby hat spoke to my father and each took details of the damage.

“It turned out that the tall gentleman was the Earl of Halifax. I note from the internet that the Earl of Halifax died in 1959.

“It was my first road traffic accident to take note of, but I don’t know under what law vehicle accidents on a ferry were covered by!”

Craigie reader Patrick Anderson, from Letham, Angus, sent in this picture he took in 1963 showing the Forth Road Bridge under construction and a ferry on the firth. Read his recollections of the Forth ferries further back in the 1950s on the left.

This beautiful red squirrel was on the hunt for acorns and pine cones in north-east Fife’s Tentsmuir forest when Craigie reader Eric Niven managed to take its picture.