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My sister and I were born at Crailing, a small village between Jedburgh and Kelso. We lived at the Home Farm. Our father was responsible for the running of the farm and estate duties. Home was a fairly large house near Crailing House. Heating of the house was from Paraffin heaters. On early mornings in winter there were ferns of frost on the inside of the windows as well as outside! There was an enormous black iron range in the kitchen, this tended to devour gigantic amounts of wood and coal, but provided little heat. As a family we would sit round this monstrosity, our body fronts warm and our backs frozen! However, Mother being an excellent homemaker, baked bread on this range. Scones were baked on a girdle, cakes, large Fadges ( a type of scone) were baked in the oven. A large black iron kettle hung over the open fire. Water could also be heated from a boiler in this range. I well remember the cleaning of this fire place. After the ashes were removed a vigorous polish with black lead and a product called Zebo wasn’t the most pleasant chore!

Mother baked most days. We were lucky to live in the country during the War years. A large garden to the rear of our house produced fresh vegetables and fruit. Raspberries, black currants and strawberries were made into jam. Turnips, potatoes, green beans and peas, along with beetroot and carrots were grown. Nothing was ever wasted, any food scraps, vegetable peelings etc. were fed to the pigs and hens. The hens ran around the stack yard very much free range — we were sent to seek out eggs from ‘laying away’ hens. They much preferred a nest under a hedge or a drystane dyke to their nest boxes in the hen house. The eggs were carefully stored in large stone jars — crocks. They were filled with a liquid ‘water glass’. This preserved the eggs by sealing in the pores of the shell. Another method was rubbing the eggs in butter. This supply was used when the poultry were ‘off the lay’. The byre housed three cows, which had to be had to be milked twice a day. Milk was carried up to Crailing House every day in large buckets with lids — pitchers. Great care was taken not to spill any.

Butter was made every week, with a hand turning churn - a long and laborious task. Mother took a great pride in the presentation of butter; beautiful sea shell and flower patterns adorned every slab.

In the stable were two horses, working horses. There were no tractors. They were used every day to keep farm and estate work functioning. Ploughing, harvesting, hay making and never ending cart loads of wood required for the fires. There was a saw mill in the yard. Logs were cut and stacked up to dry in a barn. We helped to carry the logs from the saw to the barn. As children we were often in the stable, cleaning leather harness and brasses was a job eagerly carried out — if there was a promise of a ride on a horse. I can remember the largest horse was used to pull a snow plough in severe winters. Snow provided sledge time fun. Father made out two sledges himself. He also made all his bee hives; he was clever with wood work.

There always seemed to be two pigs in the pigsty. There would be a pig killing twice a year. Meat from the animals provided us with bacon throughout the year. As I remember, the pig killing day was a big event. We were never allowed to witness this happening but we could certainly hear the dreadful screaming of the slaughtered pig — it got its throat cut. My parents were very busy in the evening after the pig killing. There was very much a sense of occasion about this ritual. In fact, a feeling of great camaraderie with the neighbours helping to cut up the carcass. Nothing was wasted. Mother washed all the intestines and scrubbed them in coarse salt, all ready for sausage filling. The hams were cured in large wooden tubs with salt peter and brown sugar. As I recall out kitchen always had hams hung from ‘cleeks’ in the ceiling. Every morsel of meat was used, ears, snout…were made into potted meat. Trotters were carefully cleaned and boiled up. As we didn’t have electricity, lighting was provided by tilley lamps, which fame off a warm glow and a faint hissing sound. I can remember a great deal of banter and laughter, mingling with the sounds of knives being sharpened on steels on those nights. Every neighbour left with a package of pork, spare ribs, roast etc. In turn when they killed a pig, Father would help and return with a package of meat. Father was a keen fisherman so we ate trout and grayling from the river. We children played a lot by the river — catching minnows in jam jars was a favourite occupation. In winter the salmon arrived. I don’t think there was too much attention paid to how the fish were actually caught. Poached fish were all the more tasty! No fishmonger vans called on us, though there was a grocery van every week. We didn’t have much ‘shop bought’ bread, as I recall it, it was a dark grey colour.

Sometimes rabbit skins were scraped, treated and pinned out on a frame and dried. Those pelts were sold to a gypsy type trader who called in at the farm. He had a pony and trap. There was great excitement if were invited to sit up in the trap and possibly actually hold the reins of the pony!

Another great asset to our household was honey. Father was a bee keeper with lots of hives in the vegetable garden. Honey was a great treat in wartime. I remember my parents busy bottling the runny honey and cutting up combs from the frames. My sister and I helped wash out the jars and put lids on after a jar was filled. This produce was boxed up and sent to venues from the North of Scotland to the far South of England. He also sold it to stores in Edinburgh.

There was never a shortage of sugar in our house. Father was allowed sugar rations for feeding the bees over winter. It arrived in cwt. Bags. Mother made candy for the bees and candy for us!

Out clothes were mostly home made. Knitted jerseys and tweed skirts, long woollen stockings with garters, Pixie hoods along with marching mittens were knitted. Vests, pants and a garment called a Liberty Bodice were brought from a draper’s shop in Jedburgh. One special dress I had was made from parachute silk. I can’t really recall my mother and grandmother sitting without sewing or knitting to hand. We could both knit before were went to school. We learned to make kettle holders first — 3 knitted 6 inch squares were sewn up. This provided an ideal shield when holding the kettle.

Every bit of discarded clothing was put into a sack and used to make ‘Clippie Rugs’. This type of rug had a hessian back and all sorts of material was cut up into strips to make the rug. A frame was set up, the hessian fixed firmly to each end. Patterns were drawn on the backing and different colours were selected from the clippie cuttings. We children used a small tool to push the strips of cloth through the hessian. On winter evenings this was a usual occupation for my sister and I. We would sit round the fire with our knotted slippers on, and listen to the wireless as the radio was called then. Gracie Fields singing was popular at the time, as was Arthur Askey. The News was the most important past of the wireless. Speeches by Winston Churchill were listened to with great reverence. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ ‘Home Service’ and the ‘Light’ programme seemed to be what was available. The wireless worked by means of batteries, dry batteries and wet batteries — wet batteries contained an acid so they were kept in special wooden boxes with a rope handle — again crafted by Father! Batteries were changed frequently; they didn’t last too long.

Rabbit catchers, and a gamekeeper were employed. Rabbit snares were set and checked daily. It was a common sight in the Borders to see men pushing bicycles covered with dead rabbits. The bicycle would be absolutely festooned with rabbit fur. They were draped over the handlebars and every part of the framework. Local butchers readily paid money for rabbit meat. In many homes rabbit stew was a main diet, also milk puddings in the form of semolina, sago and custards and curds, a pudding made from milk and rennet. Rabbit meat in war years was a ‘God send’; ordinary beef etc. was strictly rationed.

Father possessed a gun, which he used a lot. This gun was kept in the kitchen propped up against a grandfather clock! Cartridges for the gun were kept well out of reach on a very high shelf. All so different to nowadays where a gun has to be kept in a steel cabinet and locked securely. He shot rabbits and crows. Crows were much in demand in London; they were made into crow pies! Large wicker baskets were filled and sent off from Nisbet Railway Station. Another food sent off to London was eels from the river. They were speared at night with the help of torchlights. Father rather enjoyed this sport. Tobacco plants were grown, harvested and dried in a loft. Perhaps this wasn’t a huge success as he still smoked John Player & Crave A. cigarettes!

Crops grown on the farm were mainly barley, oars, sugar beet, potatoes, and turnips. Harvest time and haymaking were out favourite time. The horse and cat would be loaded up and we would perch on whatever crop was harvested. Then it was home to the stack yard. Stacks of hay and corn were often home o rats so we were always wary. When a cornfield was harvested with a binder, all the rabbits in that particular field sheltered in the middle, so after the final cut they scattered everywhere. This was the time the local lads seized heavy sticks and clubbed them to death.

At Crailing our rooms were lit with paraffin Aladdin lamps. Our windows were completely blacked out at night. Heavy dark curtains prevented any glimmer of lamplight to be visible. A memory is of the family being assembled outside the front door, and Father pointing towards the sky saying ‘The Gerry planes are flying over now’. He knew the sound of them, as they were completely different from the British.

Army tanks were regularly seen to use the road that passed by Grandmother’s lodge house. She kept hens; eggs were traded in when the grocery van called. Granny knitted vast amounts of garments for the troops. Socks, balaclava helmets, scarves, and mitts. As a member of the Church Womanise’ Guild she arranged wool supplies to be brought to whoever would knot. Wool arrived in hanks, so we were called upon to hold out the wool while she rolled it into more manageable balls. Granny often said if she ever got her hands on Hitler, she would throw him into a hive of Father’s bees and hail nail the lid down! — a very practical woman, our Grandmother!

We read the accounts of the War from the daily newspaper, and listened intently to reports on the wireless.

As children we were the envy of the village children — we were dressed in American, very fashionable, new clothes. Relatives in USA sent regular parcels of clothing. The string and paper were kept and used many times over — even the tiniest piece of string was ticked away for future use. What joy we had when opening these foreign packs. Sweets and biscuits, dried fruit, tea, coffee and goodies of all kinds — the only items that was not so popular was green tea, we couldn’t quite cultivate a taste for this! From Australian relatives cam large boxes of fruit slab cake, at Christmas dried fruit was not available not even on ration, so it was a lovely treat.

Boiled mashed parsnips with banana essence was a sandwich filling. Tins of dried egg were also on many larder shelves. Many Border country homes even before the war had a small barrel of salted herrings in brine. This barrel was called a ‘kitty bine’, the herrings kept preserved for months. ‘Tatties and herring’ was a good meal.

There was no National Health Service when we were small children. I can recall one incident when we were both in bed with measles. Dr. arrived and prescribed a medicine called Medical Food, which was really quite nice. There was also another thing to prescribe. Fish malt! The taste of this thick brown malt was horrible. It came in a large white tub. Mother put out spoons of this malt on a bedside tray twice a day. We assured her we had taken this. In actual fact, we rallied round the help of our two cats who just loved it! Monty and Muffy had sleek coats like seals — and we bot better without any of the fishy malt! I can remember our parents talking about some Italian Prisoners of War who found a dead fox in a field — they took it back to camp and ate it!

Gas masks were carried to school by all the children. Crailing School had two teachers, two very efficient ladies. One taught the younger children and the other, older pupils. If it was a wet or snowy morning, teachers removed all the wet garments and dried them over the radiators in the school lobby. They were dry and warm for out return journey home. A partition divided the schoolroom into two sections. Maps covered every bit of the walls. A huge black stove provided heating for the building. On this stove every pupil had their own enamel mug, which was identified with coloured wool round the handle. Mugs were filled with Bovril or Oxo at lunchtime. The head teacher always made those up. We carried our ‘dinner time piece’ every day. Bread and jam was normal, cheese was rationed and considered a luxury food. Hot cooked school dinners came to Crailing in the late 1940s. Every pupil owned a slate board. Slate pencils were given out every morning. A damp cloth was used to clean this slate. There were very few hotter books — a few for the older children. Play time games included skipping, tops, peever stones thrown on chalked ‘beds’ and a general favourite, rounder, a team game with a ball. Glass balls moved around in a circle was a firm favourite with the boys as well as conkers on strings. We had a school choir and also a musical instrument band. We played tambourines with great gusto! Every child was involved, even though our ‘talents’ were not highly acclaimed!

School Christmas parties were an eagerly awaited event. The previous year’s Christmas cards were brought out, old names cut out and new names printed in. Hours were spent making home made decorations. Coloured gummed paper was cut in strips for paper chains to adorn the walls. There was never a Christmas tree, but we were well pleased with fir cones brought in from the woods. There was another party held in the village. This was especially for Evacuee Children. If wasn’t every evacuee child that fitted into country life. Away from parents and friends it must have been a traumatic experience for them, more so city children, to arrive at Crailing. Very often they came from poorer homes. Some of them were even swearing!!! — a huge shock to us! However, we all got along pretty well.

We can never recall fear during wartime, though we were always warned — don’t speak to strangers, they may be Germans!

A battalion of Canadian soldiers were billeted near us. The surrounding fields adjacent to our house was filled with their army vehicles. Our parents often had social evenings for those men. We have recollections of songs from Canada, Scottish songs and war time favourites. Canadian soldiers gave us chewing gum — a great novelty! The officers were allocated the Harness Rooms, which were really big rooms. Soldiers were in the other out buildings. Friendships were kindled with local girls. One girl later married a Canadian and emigrated to Canada.

Soap was another item that was really scarce. Mother made her own. There was a fire lit under an old boiler, in what was known as the wash house building. Whatever she used was boiled in this boiler and the soap put in moulds. Sometimes she used this boiler to boil clothes.

Father was a member of Crailing Home Guard. The company used to exercise various Guard procedures in nearby fields. One unfortunate soldier fell from a parachute, which failed to function. He was found head and soldiers fully immersed into the ground.

No bombs fell at Crailing. German planes whose target was the Forth Rail Bridge or Leith jettisoned bombs into a wood at Fountainhall; they were being chased by British Fighter aircraft.

We collected rose hips from hedgerows. The hips were sent off to be made into rose hip syrup. We were paid a few pence for full baskets. Scrogs, a type of small wild apples were also gathered. Grandmother made jelly and chutney from this fruit. The ammunitions factory at Charlesfield, St. Boswells played a major role in the Borders war effort. They employed mainly women.

Crailing is a very small village — we did not have celebrations for VE day. Bunting was hung up round the village and my sister and I had new red, white and blue ribbons for our hair.

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