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Res.2.14 Married couple, c.70 yrs, corporation tenants, male interviewer, 14 April 1961

 Item
Identifier: EUA IN1/ACU/S3/4/2/2/14

Scope and Contents

Topics discussed include: Living accommodation and family; early life in Leith; personal finance; hobbies. Kinship diagram included. Interviewer is male.

INTVEEs live in one of area's old people's flats built by the Department of Health for Scotland about four years ago. Two changes have been made since they were built - the washing lines have been moved from the far end to just outside the kitchen windows and the children's playground, which was just outside the houses, has been removed. They hadn’t objected to local children playing there but it had attracted children from all over and they often made noise up to 11pm. Prior to moving to this apartment the interviewees had lived for 17 years in a four apartment flat, also in the area. They requested to move to a smaller house once all their children had left home. They are both originally from Leith and had lived in a butt and ben with five of them in a room and kitchen. They slept in the kitchen while the children slept in the main room. INTVER doesn’t think they have particularly warm memories of Leith. They don't think there is much difference between neighbour relations in Leith and North Edinburgh estates. When they moved from Leith they enjoyed having more space and a proper bathroom. Female INTVEE thinks there are big changes in the upbringing of children and says there are too many mothers out working now when they should be looking after their children. She is quoted as saying "you see children flung out around here at 7 o'clock in the morning - just little toddlers. It's dreadful". She is also quoted as saying "Nowadays it seems that the women get all these things on HP [hire purchase] and then have to go out to work to earn the money, whereas they could do without all these things". She remembers staying up to 3am to make clothes, all the women in her day used to make their own clothes. The house had been awful when they first moved in - all the walls were running wet. Male interviewer was annoyed when tobacco vouchers were dropped because people were complaining that smokers were given money in this way. Generally thought the workmanship of the house was bad. INTVER comments that the house was very clean and quite modern looking "Generally apart from the three piece suite which was rexine, the furniture had quite a prosperous almost middles class look to it". There was a large curtain in the living room to hide the bedroom part. They are quite pleased with the area and think the people are nice. They watch the television, which is rented, in the evening - Wagon Train and Emergency Ward 10 - they always have it on ITV except to watch "Tonight" which is on the BBC.

Dates

  • Other: 14 April 1961

Conditions Governing Access

Public access to these records is governed by UK data protection legislation. Whilst some records may be accessed freely by researchers, the aforementioned legislation means that records conveying personal information on named individuals may be closed to the public for a set time. Where records relate to named deceased adults, they will be open 75 years after the latest date referenced in the record, on the next 1 January. Records relating to individuals below 18 years of age or adults not proven to be deceased will be open 100 years after the latest date recorded in the record, on the next 1 January.

Extent

10 Sheets

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections Repository

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