Interviews of Sheila Young

In interview 1 of 2 (EL13/1/1/1), Sheila Young recalls her childhood and early schooldays in East Linton. As an only child, she recalls how strange it was to start school and be around other children. She remembers the school day, her teachers and some of the playground games. Sheila especially liked the headmaster, Mr Roy, who would read Wee MacGreegor stories to the older children.

Sheila always went home for lunch, which was served as a full dinner such as stew and potatoes and vegetables, followed by rice pudding. At that time, there were lots of shops in East Linton and people bought most of their provisions locally. In addition to food shops, there were 2 shoe shops, a clothes shop and a wool shop. Sheila did a number of craft activities at school and recalled also knitting and doing craft work at home.

Sheila also remembers trips to Dunbar (her grandparents lived in nearby West Barnes) and Edinburgh, where she was taken for afternoon tea on the bridges and went round various sites. At the very end of the interview, the session is restarted so that Sheila can record the terrible outside toilets at her school at Abberfield.

In the second interview (EL13/1/1/3) with Sheila Young, she talks first about travelling around the farms towards the Lammermuirs and Garvald, accompanying her dad as he made his rounds as an insurance man with the Prudential. She also talks about how his job sometimes impacted on family life and about his love of cars, his time as a special constable and some of the day trips she recalls.

She then speak about the West Barns Inn which her grandparents ran through the war years and into the 1960s. Sheila recalls being taken there as a child and watching her granny get ready to open the bar in the evening. In the bar itself, there were separate areas for men and women and also a jug bar, where people could bring a jug to be filled with beer. Children were also able to buy soft drinks and snacks here, and get money for the empty lemonade bottles they returned. The beer was all from the Bellhaven brewery and no food was served then.

Sheila’s grandparents knew lots of local people, especially through the malting factory (which were across from the pub) and the Boyd stables. Sheila recalled the horses being trained along the beach at Bellhaven (which is now a popular surfing beach) and recalled that Norman and Peter Stirk, both jockeys at the stable, had stayed on and both opened shops locally.