Have you ever wondered about these paviours?
They skirt the northern and western sides of the inner footway outside Drummond Place Garden, and many examples have a peculiar blue-ish hue. The words read:
TEES SCORIA BRICK CO.
PATENT
One Joseph Wharton of Darlington patented a machine for making bricks, tiles, &c. from molten blast furnace slag (scoria) in 1877. They had the advantage of being tough, waterproof, and resistant to chemicals.
The pulley wheel shown in the photo here has emerged from recent tramwork excavations on Leith Walk.
Archaeologists will determine its significance, but to Spurtle observers it looks like evidence of the former cable-drawn Edinburgh tram system.
From 1899, it ran as far north as Pilrig Street, whereupon passengers would transfer to the more efficient electrically powered trams operated by Leith Town Council.
FOR SALE, the property of a Gentleman, CHESTNUT GELDING, 6 years old, 15.3½, thoroughly reliable in double and single harness and at all road traffic and steam, thoroughly seasoned and just out of work. Apply C. C. Baird & Son, M.R.C.V.S., York Lane.[1]
Scotsman, 15 January 1910
[1] Image Wikimedia commons, accessed 12.8.21.
The following correspondence appeared in the pages of the Edinburgh Evening Courant in 1852 and 1856.
Some details may have changed in the years since, but the general problem and particular tone are unmistakably familiar to students of New Town waste disposal.
THE clever capture of an alleged Edinburgh housebreaker by an amateur detective came to light yesterday, when the accused, George Alexander Melrose, residing at Crown Street, Leith, passed the bar of Edinburgh City Police Court on a charge of housebreaking. Interesting circumstances surround the story of Melrose’s arrest.[1]
The number of social agencies in connection with the Church is increasing so rapidly in our midst that many good men are beginning to wonder when time will be found for carrying on the more serious business of the Chruch, viz., the evangelisation of the masses. Time and again we have directed attention to the formation of men’s clubs in different parts of the City.
*****
This morning, a particularly sad accident occurred at the Waverley Station, Edinburgh, resulting in the death of an old man of about 70, who had spent the best part of his life working the Waverley.
There were 65 new prisoners brought to the bar, the charges being: Disorderly, 30; football on the street, 9; incapable and theft, 5 each; assault, 4; begging and malicious mischief, 3 each; indecent conduct, 2; nuisance, drunk in charge of a horse, loitering, and throwing missiles, 1 each.
Alexander Hendry, an elderly man, was charged at a pleading diet of Edinburgh Sheriff Court today, with a number of thefts.
Sheriff Guy heard proof, in Edinburgh Sheriff Court to-day, in an action arising out of an accident to a little boy named Charles Hunter on 11th November, 1904.
