Woodside playground

“During the war years,” writes Donald Abbott of Invergowrie, “Woodside Terrace in Dundee was a happy place for local youngsters, some of whom were being brought up by their mums as their dads were serving in HM Forces.

“The adjacent railway line to the Maryfield goods station which had branches into Keiller’s ‘jam’ factory and separately into East’s (the by then disused) furniture factory, an adjunct of its Lochee operation, was a magnet for us laddies.

“We played football on the large expanse of spare ground between the railway lines and built ‘dens’ using empty oil drums which were sourced locally. Cowboys and Indians as well as soldiers figured. Trees on the banking between the railway and the Woodside housing were used for climbing and doubled as imaginary RAF aircraft.

“The railway line was only visited by a shunting train about twice weekly and so for most of the time, particularly during school holidays, the area was our playground although technically we were trespassing on railway property. For those of us attending Clepington Primary School in Sandeman Street, it provided an unofficial short cut by way of Cardross Street to Clepington Road and onwards to school for both boys and girls, thus saving a longer trek by way of Graham Street.

“Our playground has disappeared with the ground now sprouting housing and industrial units and so being unrecognisable to the local youngsters of the 1940s and 50s. The railway bridge over Graham Street is long gone too with its previous cutting underneath it well infilled.

“My Woodside pal Archie, now of Australia, often speaks of our adventures on our boyhood ‘playground.’”

“I took this photograph at Pitcairngreen,” says Arthur Bruce of Almondbank. “I believe this is honey fungus. There are many varieties of this fungi which usually grow on trees and on roots/stumps of trees.”