Fountain Close and Weirs Close

[cavvytri]

Hi Mo.
My Great granny lived in such a place....Milne's Court just off the Royal mile, up towards the castle, and when there was a high wind the whole building used to sway a bit! Dad was brought up in a 2 roomed tenement with 9 brothers and sisters and my Grandparents which was owned by Edinburgh Corporation as my Grandad worked for them. This was in Kings Stables Road at the foot of the castle.He remembered there being hundreds of horses there, used for all manner of things, breweries, dairies etc, and he remembers when he moved to North East England after WW2 he expected it to be a very dirty place with all the coal mines etc..and he says he was pleasantly surprised at how clean it was compared to where he came from! My ancestors moved from the farmlands of East Lothian into the city and the living conditions mustve been a BIG shock

[Skoosh]

Is this Weir's Close possibly named after Major Weir the Warlock?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major-Weir

Skoosh.

[Unė kthimi i papenduar]

Weir's Close named for George Weir, brewer in Edinburgh prior to 1709, who built a great stone tenement Weir's Land here in the east side of the close.

[Andyw65]

Hi

I'm hoping someone will be able to help me.

I have discovered that my ancestor, William Nicholson B: 1798, lived at 28 High Street, Fountain Close Edinburgh in 1851 and Weirs Close, Edinburgh in 1861.

What I am wanting to do is to get a "picture" of their way of life and what type of streets they were etc.



Thanks

I know this post is a long time after the first one, but my great, great grandfather also lived at the same address in the 1851 census.  The household members are shown as John Duffie Head, who at 32 is a shoemaker (carpet) who employs 10 men - all from Ireland.  My ancestor, William Carolan, immigrated to Scotland as part of the mass migration caused by the potato famine.  In subsequent census he is shown as a shoemaker journeyman, a qualified, but not experienced shoemaker, so Mr Duffie gave him a good start in Scotland.  Did he carry out his shoemaking business in Fountain Close as well as living there?  Im in the process of trying to find out.

Your ancestor isn't shown as part of the Duffie household so this would bare out the horrendous living conditions shown in the rest of this thread.

I would belatedly like to thank everyone who has posted on this thread as it's been a huge help with my research.  If anyone else has any information about John Duffie I'd be very grateful.

Many thanks

[Templar75]

I spent my first two years in life at the foot of Abbeyhill opposite Queen Mary's Bath House at Holyrood Palace, we lived in what was called a single end just one room where you slept, ate, and entertained oh and also had a portable bath, there was no room for a cot so my mother used the bottom drawer in a chest of drawers, I think she may have shut me in a few times. LOL

She could not take the Pram upstairs so she just left it at the main entrance door at the foot of the stairs, this was a new Kings Cross Pram like the Rolls Royce of Prams, you could not do that today it would be stolen like a snap of the fingers. In 1947 my parents were given keys to a new house a Prefab down at Joppa, this had all the mod cons that many a person would haven their eye teeth for.

Cheers.

Archie.