Quiet reflection

“It’s quite a few years now since I walked alongside the old piers at Newburgh, Fife,” emails a regular reader. “However, the day I had chosen recently to revisit the waterfront was overcast with intermittent spells of rain. In hindsight I should have chosen a better occasion weather wise.”

“Having approached the riverside area of the town via the High Street it all seemed rather deserted with few inhabitants around and contrasted sharply with the days when lorry loads of stone were tipped into the holds of ships tied up alongside Bell’s Pier.”

“The drawbridges have gone and a low wall erected around the pier together with a conspicuous “For Sale” sign. A 10-ton weight limit street sign was evidence of the past era of the stone trade.”

“It was an interlude for quiet reflection of the days when a steady flotilla of UK and foreign-owned coasters arrived to load. In addition to the export of stone chips there were the occasional inward shipments of linseed oil in bulk for the manufacture of linoleum etc at the factory of the Tayside Floorcloth Company.”

“On occasions ships would also tie up at the piers en route to Perth to await more favourable tides. Alternatively, they would come alongside to ‘top up’ if low water at Perth did not allow them to take on a full cargo.”

“Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse I found out later I had been three hours too early to see the 1985built, Antigua & Barbuda-flagged coaster Jerome H head upstream to Perth to load 1,500 tonnes of barytes.”

“Well, you can’t win them all!”