Kindling memories

Regarding the recent Traces Through Time photographs of Auchterarder, Thomas MacFarlane of Wolfhill emails with more information: “Over on the mid-left hand side of the photo, a sign can be seen advertising Lunches, Teas and Ices. Those were the premises run by Willie and May Davidson and also served as the local registered bus office where parcels and the like could be dropped off and collected by members of the community. (It is just possible that the bus in your photo may have been a service bus parked on official business.)

“Known locally as “Pokies”, upstairs was the cafe and the sound deafening was so poor that from the shop itself you could hear every movement so clear, that at times we thought that someone was likely to drop through the wooden ceiling.

“Stewart and Grant the chemists isn’t quite visible in your photo but the shop on the extreme right, next to the Masonic Lodge ,was a tiny sweetie shop operated by Tam Dempster. It closed in the early 1960s.

“Just to the left of the Ayton Hall building at the junction of Chapel Wynd stood Malcolm Hogg the newsagents shop. Albeit under new ownership, it is still a newsagents today and has been recently been adopted as the local sub Post Office.

“I can just recall the new Fire Station being opened in 1960 and as far as I can recall it replaced a much older, and well past its sell by date building at the top of Shepherd’s Wynd close to where the Police Convalescent Home is at Castlebrae. Judging by the Reg Mark on the Commer fire engine in your photo it would appear that the Auchterarder brigade were given a brand new appliance to celebrate the opeing of their new home.

“As is the case now, it was traditional for the retained firemen in the town, now employed in other jobs, to drop tools immediately on hearing the sound of the siren. It certainly wasn’t uncommon for Bert Mackie’s fully laden coal lorry, the Burgh council’s refuse wagon, or farmer Norman Morrison’s milk van to be found abandoned outside the Fire Station.

“As kids in the classroom we would chuckle at the sight of Davie Ramsay, the other school janitor, pedalling furiously up the Chapel Wynd trying to reach the fire station before it was too late. I also remember too that there were occasions when the siren was sounded for a second time and this meant that further crew were needed and acted as an encouragement for the more outlying members of the Brigade to attend at once.”