By Julia Campbell [nee Crombie]. b. Elie 1922
Small Shops, Elie 1930s – High Street from Station
Menzies – Bookstall at the Station
Sweet Shop
Shoe Shop – Terras
Butchers Shop – McCallum then Hughes
Greigs – Garage Shop
Graham – Bakers
Drapers – Miss Betts two sisters owned this shop
Fruit & Veg – Miss Kings
Fruit & Veg- Oddies
Grocer – Melville’s
Shoe Shop – Nan Graham’s
Brattasani – Chip Shop
Grocers – Dewars
Stationers- Mr & Miss Mackie
Bruce – Plumbers
Post Office
Bank Street
Cummings – Drapers
Harris – Barbers
Adamson – Bakers
2 x Pubs and 2 x Banks
Earlsferry
Hudsons – Dairy Lows – Grocers
Brattasani Cummings – Grocers
Stationers Later Boullet – Bakers
Bruce – Grocer Thomson – China Shop
Donaldsons – Painters Hairdresser later 30’s
Dear Julia . So very interesting to read your recollections . Bruce the plumbers you refer to consisted of my Grandfather Jock Bruce and his brother Andrew later joined by my father James. I think my great aunt Davine had a grocers shop on Bank Street . Later my grandfather bought a ships lifeboat and used to run trips for visitors from the harbour . My fathers cousin George Bruce ran a garage for cars on Bank St and also worked on the bins.
Kind Regards Gordon Bruce
Hi
I’ve just seen this recollection. Do you, or does anyone, know anything more about Donaldsons, the painters from Earlsferry (and Elie)? I’d love to hear about the shop, or even a photo???
Many thanks.
Jan
Hi Jan
Tom Donaldson was a great friend of my grandfather Jock Bruce ( Plumber from 11 Bank Street) Tom was provost at one time and my grandfather was a baillie. Tom used to call in to take my papa out for a drink much to the anger and distress of my granny Isabella who was a strong character. Tom built a house in a large walled garden at the end of Earlsferry where the two roads meet. Eventually he succumbed to dementia brought on according to my granny be excessive drinking. I recollect him as a lovely funny man with a very red face. Gordon Bruce
How lovely to hear your comments – thank you. Yes, Tom did enjoy a wee dram or two. I only met him once with my husband, who was Tom’s nephew. I also recall his red face. I expect too, that the lead in the paint (his earlier painting jobs) may have contributed to dementia. Do you by any chance recall his father – William Given Donaldson, or his sister – Violet Donaldson? Good to hear your recollections though, so thank you.
Jan
Remember that well.Just adjacent to Adamsons the bakers. It was a holiday treat for myself to get a beard after a haircut. My father said they used to take bets in the barbers when it was illegal ! Gordon Bruce
I remember being taken for haircuts along the road in Bank Street (would that have been Mr Harris?). He was an ex stage ventriloquist and there was a wee man in his strop cabinet who I swear I heard threatening to come out if we didn’t sit still and behave. Before we left he gave us (the boys) a beard and moustache with greasepaint.
Remember that well.Just adjacent to Adamsons the bakers. It was a holiday treat for myself to get a beard after a haircut. My father said they used to take bets in the barbers when it was illegal ! Gordon Bruce
The entry “Graham – bakers” and “Shoe shop – Nan Graham’s” interested me.
My father Hugh Graham, and his father before him, owned a bakery – I think at the rear of 23-25 High Street. My father left the bakery probably about 1950, not long after I was born (1948) so that he did not have to travel from Edinburgh. We came to Australia in 1961. 29 High Street I remember as the family home, and I think 23 High Street was where my aunt had a grocery shop. Was this the shoe shop and was Nan Graham related to my father?
George Graham
This is so very interesting. Thank You for posting.
I am especially interested in McCallum Butcher Shop as they were my great uncles.
I wonder if you knew the family?
My grandmother was born in Elie in 1900 and was Jean McCallum / her father had McCallum Grocers. Her brothers were slightly older and she had a younger sister Mattie ( Matilda)
The family lived above the grocer shop until they moved to Hopwood on Park Place.
My father Eric Grant was born in 1924 and was evacuated to Elie from Edinburgh and attended Anstruther High School.
My daughter has just purchased Hopwood and it has reignited our interest and passion for this wonderful place.
Hi Fionna
Thanks for your request. Unfortunately, I do not have any recollection or knowledge of the McCallum family.
I was 13 when we came to Australia in 1961, and had only visited my grandmother (Graham) and aunt (Wilhelmina Graham of the grocery store) perhaps a couple of times a year prior to leaving. As a young lad I probably took little or no notice of others around me at the time.
Sorry I could not be of help.
George
Back in the 1950s my family used to spend holidays with cousins in Woodside Crescent . I have a scar on my knee fromwhen I felloff my cousin’s bike onto gravel – should probably have been stitched!
One year we spent a fortnight at Seafield Bank on The Toft. It was a guest house in thse days.
I have a memory of going to a library during every holiday in Elie – in my memory it was a small dark place, on the left-hand side of one of the narrow roads/lanes leading down to the sea. I’ve scoured Google Streetview looking for the place without definite success. Fountain Lane seems to fit my fuzzy memory best. Was there ever a small library there?
If not, where was the library in the 1950s?
Other happy memories of those holidays include buyng acid drops in some shop on the High Street, and buying a shell-covered box in a shop which in my memory was where “Harbour house” is now.
One of the things I loved about Elie was the drifts of sand along the edges of the seaward streets, and the feel of it under my Clark’s sandals. I’m glad to see that it’s still the same!
And of course it was always sunny.