tunately, however, I can only remember snippets. My mind goes a complete

blank and is not reliable now ... and what I do remember at different times I

wouldn’t swear to it being what I originally knew.

‘I know there used to be three pubs in the village at one time. The corner

house opposite ‘The Tavern’ (now Brigadoon) is two cottages made into one.

The one on the corner was once a saddler’s, and the one opposite the Tavern

was a pub. The lintel over the present bathroom window was inscribed “Wine

and Spirit Merchant”, this being the front door of the cottage. When these

buildings were bought in 1959 and converted into the present house, the

builders found an old saddle in the loft of the corner house.

‘Another pub was the corner house at the junction of Main Street and

Sunnyside which later became a bakery.

‘At one time the lounge of my house (Mackray Cottage) was another open

•

Smithy, and my garage was a stable; the rest of the house was another but and

•

ben.

‘There were four single ends at the top of Main Street between the pub

and the Men’s Club. These were literally one-roomed houses with a tiny

scullery, an outside toilet and probably a coal house. There was a long thin

strip of ground to the west. In 1967 the second of the four single ends was

extended westwards and made into a small cottage. In 1981 the last single

ends were also incorporated into this building, and together with an extension

at the back, doubled the size of the house.

‘One of the great characters of the village, Kate Rook, lived in the third

single end. She was widowed in the first world war, and at one time was the

village postman. She had a set of drums which she played on the front steps

of the house. She smoked a pipe, chewed tobacco, enjoyed a bottle of stout

and talked to you over her top teeth, as they always fell down! She spent her

latter years in Stratheden Hospital where she celebrated her 100th birthday.

‘When we bought ‘The Tavern’ in April 1954 and moved into the house,

the only water on the premises was from a tap in the wash-house (now the

pub’s store) and a tap in the beer cellar. Kettles of water were boiled in order

to wash the glasses and all the toilets (house and pub) were dry. (Miss Isa

Warden, whose mother and father had earlier run the pub, said in the early

days of ‘The Tavern’ the bar was only a kitchen with an old stove and hearth).

Later on in 1954 water was put into the house and hot water from a boiler was

piped into the bar. Proper flush toilets were at last built, and in 1959, with

the arrival of deep drains, major alterations were carried out on the house.

All the west facing windows had been blocked up at some time and this no

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