The Seagrove Sessions

Agnes and Eleanor give us their memories of childhood. Playing hide and seek in a scrapyard, taking on the notorious waves in Portobello outdoor pool, getting in to picture house with jeelie jars and long, happy summers at Forth in Lanarkshire. Agnes's widowed mum who worked hard to keep house and Eleanor's who had a rather grim sense of humour and just loved to play tricks with her false arm.  

It's part three from Jeanette. We hear about her first flat on the wrong side of Elder Street, the side that was being demolished for the St James shopping centre. That's the one before the present the new one. Then we hear all about life on Piershill Square West. This is Jeanette so they are lively tales, told in an earthy way. Yes there is swearing but you won't hear it, just the blanks!!  We fi...

More tales more Doris, who we heard from in episode two of The Seagrove Sessions. We hear more about her job at W& AK Johnson, the printers. How her classrom was set up at Lochend primary school. Her job as an usherette at The State picture house, on Great Junction Street. Earning extra money for a Spanish holiday. Quite the adventure in 1959. For information about North Edinburgh Dementia Care's...

Great memories from Betty, from the 1930s and 40s. Tenement life in The Pleasance, on the southside of Edinburgh, where her grandprents lived. Every child's dream- her granny had a sweet shop! Betty's evocative stories give a real sense of what it was like to be brought up in a close knit family before World War Two. Also what it was like to be one of the families who moved out from the crowded te...

In episode 16 we return to the vivid and entertaining story telling of Jeanette. This time its all about growing up in the mining village of Newton, Midlothian, in the 1950s and 60s. Childhood in the village, the mischief she got up to: including stealing cabbages and turnips from the farmer's fields and taking a dare to jump a barbed wire wall. She still has the scar on her knee from that adventu...

Episode 15 of the Seagrove Sessions is something a little different. It is an interview with a loved one of one of our members at The Seagrove Centre.   Kathleen tells us about being a carer, not only for her husband Ronnie, but before him her mother. It is a candid, pragmatic and honest account of looking after a partner who is on their dementia journey. You hear about the trials, tribulations, a...

In episode 14 we head to Lincolnshire and the great fishing port of grimsby. Judith tells us of her childhood and growing up in the town. From her father being a policeman and her uncle working in the docks, its a fascinating glimpse of bygone Grimsby. Memories of the sound of people going to work in their clogs or the waves of workers on their bikes starting their shift. We hear about her dancing...

Episode 13 sees us listening in on a conversation between Judith, Doris, Vi, Joan and Eleanor. Lots of laughs and memories. Dance halls and waiting for an invitation to dance, the perils of Ice skating on speed skates, swimming at Portobello outdoor pool and its famous life guard and wave machine. Learning to swim in the North Sea! Playing in the street and in the park- and we learn what chummy se...

Welcome to episode 12 of the Seagrove Sessions. An episode not only full of memories but thoughts on life. What a long life it is too. Mary was born on the Isle of lewis in 1935. She moved to Edinburgh in 1955. We hear about being brought on the island. Collecting the peat, life in a Black House. How independent people had to so far from the main land and her Grannies's firm belief in education. W...

Episode 11 of the Seagrove Sessions see us on the beat with Ricky. The local bobby patrolling his beat is a much missed form of policing. Ricky worked in The Grassmarket, Royal Mile and Craigmillar areas of Edinburgh in the 1960s. We hear about helping to clear a rowdy pub, being on a night shift, helping out a local chip shop and the most important item in a police box. Also the serious side of t...

This episode contains adult language. I've always wanted to say that. Fear not though the adult language has been silenced but you'll get the gist. It's a cracking episode from Jeanette. Tales of being brought up in a Midlothian mining village, one of a family of 14. We learn how to work for Littlewoods on Princes Street but still go dancing at the Palais on a work day afternoon. The tedious task...

We are back in the high flying world of international finance and insurance. Stewart continues his story of working in the international insurance sector. After leaving Switzerland he begins working for a Quatari insurance company. We hear all about the bizarre world of reinsurance and investing in syndicates via Lloyds of London. Once again the amounts of money he was dealing with was eyewatering...

A fun wee episode with Ruth. Dancing at the Palais De Danse at Fountainbridge, at 14. Under the annoyingly watchful eye of her brothers. Being paraded about in her kilt by her aunt, when on holiday in Somerset. Nights spent in a crowded air raid shelters and how big brother watched over her at home....a glass eye was involved!

In this episode we listen in on a conversation between Judith, Doris, Joan and Vi. We hear all about their local shops, going for the messages and making the two ounces of sweet ration last for a week. How the dividend worked at the Cooperative store. How to make the best tablet.  Memories of wearing your sister's hand-me-downs, the excitement of getting a radiogram and the joys of cleaning tripe...

Evocative memories from Olivia of Leith in the 1940s and 50s. We hear about the return of her father, after being away at war for five years. Tales of cadging jam pieces from neighbours, taking a gang of young boys to the saturday morning matinee at the Capitol picture house, stealing apples, getting the messages at the wee shops, the butchers and the cooperative. Dancing a conga round Rabbie Burn...

Welcome to episode five of the Seagrove Sessions. We hear from Ken. Stories from his childhood- partly spent in Fife. Tales of his time being a goalkeeper for Ravelston Rangers. His love of numbers, which led to a career as an accountant. His 'golden years' as a Lothian Regional councillor in the 1980s.                                                                                                ...

An episode that really shows the variety of life experiences that members of The Seagrove Centre have had. Stewart tells us of his 30 year career as an accountant and auditor in Glasgow, London, Bermuda, USA and Switzerland. From counting whisky casks in the west of Scotland to assessing the insurance business in Brazil. Overseeing eye watering amounts of money and clocking up thousands of air mil...

Episode three and we head south of the border, down Lancashire way. Evocative memories from Barbara of growing up in Stacksteads in the 1940s and 50s. We find out what life was like in a dark valley full of factories and mills. We hear about her love of dancing, the importance of the Baptist church in her life. We learn what a 'clicker' did. Her father was one. The music used in this episode is 'M...

Episode two of The Seagrove Session is dedicated to childhood once again. This time though its all stories and tales from Doris. We hear about tenement life in Leith, childhood screenings on Saturday mornings at the Capitol cinema. Looking after wee brothers, visiting grannies and dad's job as a train driver. Of chicks being hatched out in the oven of the kitchen range. Starring in the 1951 Edinbu...

Memories and stories from members of North Edinburgh Dementia Care's Seagrove Centre. We hear from Pat, Ricky, Judith, Vi, Joan, Vi, Betty, Robert, Stuart and Betty. Memories of childhood, school, playing in the street and the park. Tenement life, mums and dads, brothers and sisters. Being evacuated during World War Two and playing football at Easter Road and Hampden Park. Stories from the 1930s t...