Posts by MISS CLAUDIA
Burnbrae: The Dye Works and The House
Burnbrae, as we know, is located on the Milngavie Road out of Bearsden. Craighdu Burn, which runs in between McDonalds and Pure Gym, is the boundary between Bearsden and Milngavie. Thus the Burnbrae pub and restaurant and McDonalds are in Bearsden but Pure Gym and Kelvin Timber are in Milngavie. Going back to the 1920s,…
Read MoreTemple Saw Mill
You’ll be familiar with the drive from Anniesland towards Bearsden, passing Morrisons on your right, the Shell garage on the left, then going over the canal bridge (so wide you barely notice it IS a bridge). So does anything in this photo ring a bell? Maybe if I show you this comparison? Or how about…
Read MoreKilmun Street: Night of 14-15th March 1941
I was studying this photo from 1939, looking north across Dawsholm gas works and chemical works. My clumsy attempt to match it using Google Earth is below: To try to orientate you, you can just see the most westerly of the pools at Maryhill Locks on the right and the new houses in the middle…
Read MoreCroydon 15th August 1940: Bombing of Croydon Aerdrome
The bombing of Croydon Aerodrome (RAF Croydon), Thursday 15th August 1940 Britain had been at war just under one year but in that time Germany had forced the surrender of first Poland, then Denmark and Norway, then the Netherlands, Belgium and – unimaginably – France. Most of the British army in France had evacuated from Dunkirk but…
Read MoreCroydon 15th August 1940: Redwing and Rollason’s
What happened at Redwing? Redwing was located in the most easterly hangar of C block (so closest to Purely Way), according to Cluett. While several accounts describe it as a factory, Redwings only ever manufactured 12 planes and this seems to have been in the 1930s; by 1940 their business was aircraft maintenance and repair/ A…
Read MoreCroydon 15th August 1940: The Bourjois Factory and the rest of the factory estate
What happened at Bourjois? Bourjois made soaps and scents, including the famous “Evening in Paris”. This webpage: http://theglamourologist.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/cosmetics-and-world-war-two.html gives more details of the impact of the war on the cosmetics industry. Bill Whitehead was an apprentice at Bourjois. As he left work on that Thursday evening, he spoke to the commissionaire and they could see the…
Read MoreCroydon 15th August 1940: Corporation Housing Estate Purley Way
Local houses off of Purley Way With thanks to Anton Rippon for identifying this account from the Exeter Express and Echo “Rescue work, which started in Croydon within a few minutes of the dropping of the bombs last evening, continued until after midnight and was resumed at dawn today. “Four private houses were demolished on…
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