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Archiver > SCT-ROXBURGH > 2002-07 > 1025812767


From: "Roy G. Perkins" <>
Subject: [SCT-ROXBURGH] Re: {not a subscriber} RAILWAYS
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 20:59:27 +0100
References: <002001c2238b$45aeb8e0$c3093b8e@ab.hsia.telus.net>


Hi Alison,

Thanks for those interesting comments. However, as far as I'm aware,
Riccarton was never a construction village. It was however a village
established by the North British Railway Co. Ltd., to accomodate that
'Company's Servants'. In its early years it was 'ruled' by a triad of women
whose names escape me but are recorded, eventually the North British acted
to break this power group by transferring the offenders elsewhere on their
network. I remember Riccarton well as a boy when it was close to the end of
its days. It was as intriguing place to a young boy: the more so because my
grandmother would tell stories of walking to Riccarton on a Saturday night
for a dance from her home in Tarset, Northumberland, ? 15 miles away? And
then presumably home again afterward.

The Riccarton dances were infamous, the station buffet was the 'bar', the
school hall the dance venue. There was no way the police could raid the
place: the only realistic access was by train and the village was full of
railwaymen, so a surprise raid was to all intents and purposes impossible. I
had relatives who lived in Riccarton and to me visiting there was always a
pleasure. A strange place almost inevitably but that's what made it so
fascinating. There's nothing left now except the school house and the
weighbridge. When the railway closed the remaining residents were moved out,
the village sold to the Forestry Commission and then blown up!

If anyone has interests in Riccarton I have many photo's going back to about
1908 which I'm quite happy to share. No they're not all of the railway in
fact there is one particularly delightful one of the children of Riccarton
about 1912.

Regards

Roy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roland and Alison deCaen" <>
To: "news.Roxburgh" <>
Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2002 7:44 PM
Subject: {not a subscriber} RAILWAYS


> O.K. RAILWAYS this month !
> I find it interesting to note the changes that the building of the Waverly
Line through the Borders made to many people. Ancestors who had been
shepherds for 100s of yrs became plate layers. What a contrast in
occupations ! Also the building of construction villages like Riccarton
Junction and the arriavel of migrant workers from other parts of Scotland,
England and Ireland. The evolution of a new culture and intermarriage with
those other than Borderers
> Alison in Calgary
>
>
>


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