Q & A WITH… SANDRA GRAY

This is the start of what we hope will be a fairly regular series of short question and answer interviews with people in which we ask them about their experience and memories of living and working in Wester Hailes over the decades. Our first interviewee is Sandra Gray:

When did you move to Wester Hailes and why?

I came to Wester Hailes in 1980. I moved from Broomhouse because the flat I was living in there was damp and horrible and we got a flat in what was then Wester Hailes Drive, now Harvesters Way, which was much nicer. It had central heating and it was a good bit more spacious. I’ve lived there ever since.

Wester Hailes had better facilities than Broomhouse – there was the shopping centre and a lot more open space for my kids to play in. You could walk to the shopping centre and the kids could walk to school without having to cross a road.

Tell us a bit about yourself please

When I moved to Wester Hailes at first the kids were still quite young and I was a stay at home mum. But, as they got older, I started to look for something to do, I wanted to try and get back to work. I went along to WHOT (the Wester Hailes Opportunities Trust) who helped people with training and they put me through a couple of courses, one of which was word processing and then they got me a placement as a volunteer with the Windmill. This was about 1990. The Windmill ran a day care centre and helped people who had mental health problems and, after a bit, I got a part-time paid post there doing admin work. The Windmill closed down in 1992 when its funding came to an end and I got a new job with CHIP (the Community Housing Information Project) which was run by the Rep Council. Round about the same time I was also starting to get involved with my local Neighbourhood Council.

The job at CHIP was very interesting. I worked hand in hand with the Rep Council’s Housing Spokesperson who was Marion Diamond. That went on for about five years but came to an end when Urban Aid grant was withdrawn. Then I went on to work for Seedlings a local child care project for a couple of years until it was merged with what became Smile Childcare. I left that in 1997 and spent three years running a joinery business’s office before joining Wester Hailes Community Housing Association (now Prospect) in 2000 where I still work.

What are your best memories of Wester Hailes?

I think how well I’ve done and how well my kids have done.  They got a proper education – Clovenstone Primary School gave them a great start – and now they’re employed in good jobs. Overall, bringing up a family in Wester Hailes has been a positive experience. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t moved to Wester Hailes and benefitted from all the local projects I’ve worked for and been involved in.

In what ways has Wester Hailes changed over the years?

Facilities and housing have definitely improved. The demolition of most of the multis changed the face of Wester Hailes. The upgrading of security in common stairs and improvements to the environment in general means that the quality of life is now much better. Having a train station and improvements to the bus services has made local transport much better now than it was back in 1980. There are facilities like a doctors surgery and a dentist on your doorstep and then there’s all the projects that have been set up over the years to help local people.

DIRTY DEN & DOCTOR WHO

In November 1990, Wester Hailes was graced for a day by a soap legend when Leslie Grantham, aka Dirty Den, came to open Edinburgh District Council’s new local office in the shopping centre. As the Sentinel put it: “to millions of Eastenders viewers he was the man you love to hate” and very probably one of the most well kent faces throughout Britain at the time. He had recently been killed off from Eastenders and he revealed to Mark Smith who interviewed him for the Sentinel that it was at his own request:

“Well I was doing something that everybody else wants to do. I had a fun time…The trouble is, that stops after a while – because it’s like a factory. You still enjoy their [the other cast members’] company, but for some reason I felt my energy was going and I just couldn’t go anywhere else. So I asked to leave…….and I left.”

Leslie became an actor, he said, because “everyone” told him he should but he went to drama school first to hone his talents (see example above). He was at pains, however, to point out that he was very far from a sensitive luvvie. He was born in a basment flat and later moved to a “sprawling housing estate” and felt that this start in life had given him a sense of perspective:

“If you’ve come from a rarified atmosphere you are only aware of what is around you. Where as, if you start at the bottom then even one step up the ladder is an improvement”

He was, he insisted, just a normal bloke who wasn’t sure about “this mega-stardom business” – acting was just a job of work to him. Leslie was then starring in a new TV series called The Paradise Club (anyone remember that?) and he was hoping it would be even better for him than Eastenders but, if not, he was prepared to be philosophical:

“I’ve had a great nine years and not many people have got into that position from where I’ve come from”

But the real revelation was that Dirty Den was once a dalek! Leslie actually began his television career in Doctor Who playing a dalek who tried to destroy the earth with a huge bomb before being blown to bits by it instead.

“I tell you, once you’ve played a dalek, the only way is up. I didn’t actually do the voice or anything, you just wander around with this costume stuck on your head. It was fun to do though. Doing these sorts of things on television is really silly, we just ran around like school kids having a laugh.”

– NOT A DALEK!

Dustin Hoffman talks to the Sentinel

"Dorothy Michaels" sends a special greeting to all Sentinel readers

Dustin Hoffman returns to the small screen this weekend in a new series Luck. His stellar career has spanned 45 years with many critcally aclaimed performances including The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man.

Many of his films are serious affairs but he also has a flair for comedy.  In 1983 he came to Britain to promote his new film, the box office success story Tootsie, a gender swapping comedy about an out of work actor who gains employment and stardom once he disguises himself as a woman.  The film surprised many by becoming Columbia’s biggest grossing film of all time.  In amongst the promotional tour Hoffman took the time to give a lengthy interview to the Sentinel’s Mark Hagen.  Interestingly he says that some of the inspiration for the film came out of his experience of making Kramer vs. Kramer and thinking about the different roles in life played by men and women. You can read this interview in full by clicking here on Dustin’s “Tootsie”.

MEMORIES OF SIGHTHILL CAMP

Well before Wester Hailes was built, before even the Calders prefabs, the first “new” Council housing provided in the area after the Second World War, was Sighthill Camp, also known as the “Ack Ack Camp” because of the anti-aircraft battery that had been sited there.

The Camp occupied what is now the south-west portion of Bankhead Industrial Estate and consisted of converted army Nissan huts divided up to provide homes for 52 families. In 1987, Mandy Rhodes, a reporter for the Sentinel, talked to Bert Falconer, former resident and community activist, aboout his memories of the place.

The accommodation was extremely basic and cramped:

“The long huts were separated off into two-roomed apartments that housed each family. Walls were thin and privacy in short supply. We all washed and cooked together in a big communal kitchen and washplace.”

Nevertheless, in Bert’s view, this close quarters form of living had plenty of positive aspects:

“Of course it’s true that you do tend to always remember the good times. It was difficult at times but we were all thrown together, lots of young couples. It forged strong friendship links and that helped us get through anything.”

Even if the actual accommodation wasn’t up to much there were other advantages – plenty of open space for children to play  and the Camp had its own nursery school and shop. Above all, there was the community spirit which made it a very special place to live.

“There was a family atmosphere and we all looked out for each other and, privacy notwithstanding, my family grew from a family of two children to a family of four children by the time we left in 1958.” 

There was a particular family addition which Bert recalled which perhaps best exemplified that close-knit, supportive atmosphere:

“We were all in a real flap because one woman was about to give birth to her first baby and it was the camp’s first birth so there were about 20 nervous “fathers” all pacing about waiting for the birth. But to everyone’s joy and surprise there wasn’t one baby but three! Triplets! There were a lot of toasts drunk that night.”

And what grew up was more than just an informal, good neighbour type of network. Following “a packed public meeting attended by council officials and councillors” a tenants association was set up of which Bert was a founder member and could well have been the first of its kind in Edinburgh.

Bert thought of Sighthill Camp as an extremely happy time in his life and believed it gave his four children a great start and a solid grounding in values. Ironic that a temporary housing expedient which, even for the times, was pretty basic living could result in such a positive outcome while subsequent schemes built to much higher standards, costing huge amounts more, failed so badly in this regard.

RUDE BOYS

Over the years the Sentinel carried out many interviews with prominent people in the fields of politics, sport, music and the arts. Generally, the interviewees seemed more than happy to talk and the resulting articles made very interesting reading. A few, however, turned out to be memorable (and revealing) for rather different reasons.

The writer James Kelman, winner of the Booker Prize in 1994 for his novel “How late it was, how late”, was one. When he came to Wester Hailes the following year to give a talk at Club 85, a bit of a car crash interview ensued. It was conducted by Helen Arthurs and she was not at all impressed by him!

Under the headline “How Rude He Was – How Rude”, Helen absolutely panned the “dour Mr Kelman”. She had been looking forward to having the chance to speak to him, she said, but felt that he appeared none too pleased to be approached and that everything went downhill from there.

“My first question ran along the lines of what had inspired him to write his controversial award winning novel…Mr Kelman responded with the line, “Oh God, it’s those sort of questions is it.” What could I say to that. What sort of questions did he expect?”

Talking to him, she found, was like drawing blood from the proverbial stone.

“Did he plan [his books] before he started to write, I asked. “When you’re writing you just write to finish the story,” was his reply. Sorry I asked.”

Things never got any better and it does seem a real pity because here was a man whose stated intention has been to write as “one of my own people…to remain part of my own community” and yet, in talking to a community newspaper, owned and managed by local people, he simply conveyed the impression of being surly and uncommunicative.

Helen’s article concluded:

“Enough was enough. Here I was talking to an award winning author who had nothing to say. Or it is probably nearer the truth to say that he didn’t really want to speak to me anyway.”

Another such was Andy Roxburgh. Not the archetypal football manager you might think – a teacher, polite, a bit pedantic (remember how it was always Alistair never Ally McCoist when he referred to him).

Not a bit of it. Stewart McRobert who was despatched to interview him was so scarred by the experience that he felt moved to pen a tongue-in-cheek open letter about it to editor Susan Dalgety in the Sentinel’s 200th souvenir edition. It had left him, he wrote, “having recurring nightmares”.

When he was ushered into Roxburgh’s presence, trouble started right away:

“First of all he objected to me using a tape machine. Second, he objected to my line of questioning. However, I was determined to get this interview in the bag so I carried on. There then followed an uncomfortable twenty minutes which still makes me break into a cold sweat when I think about it.”

At the end of the interview, John Millar, the Sentinel’s photographer asked the manager of our national team if he could manage a smile while he took his picture. This request, Stewart recounted, provoked an entirely opposite response: “I could feel the gamma rays melting John’s lens”.

He ended the letter with the following plea:

“In conclusion, I want to say that I hope writing this letter, means that I can finally put this episode behind me, and if at any time in the future you want Andy Roxburgh interviewed again, please do it yourself.”

Betty The Brave

The Sentinel managed to balance its coverage between issues of national importance as well as giving up time and space to the people who made up the community of Wester Hailes.  We’ve already featured a couple of names from the past who appeared on its pages.  This week, we’re able to take a look at a local resident who represented both local and national concerns in her campaigning role. 

Campaigning for older people's free travel on public transport

In 1985, the then Secretary of State for Social Services, Norman Fowler MP was conducting a review of social security with a view to making cuts.  Betty Fulton was the Wester Hailes representative of the Scottish Old Age Pensioners Association which sought to influence social policy affecting older people.  With concern mounting over the scale and potential impact of the proposed cuts and what that would mean for pensioners, Betty became involved with city and region wide campaigning organisations who were organising a week of action co-ordinated with similar action in other parts of the country.  This included occupying the headquarters of Scottish Conservative Party which brought publicity to their campaign, giving them a chance to highlight the seriousness of the anticipated changes. 

 It also took her to London for a protest rally where she was interviewed for BBC Radio’s News At One.  Betty had clear views about the effects of the Conservative Government’s policies and in particular about Margaret Thatcher.  When asked by the BBC reporter what good it would do coming all the way down from Scotland to London to campaign on an almost certainly lost battle, she pointed out that Britain was supposed to include Scotland and that Margaret Thatcher had done nothing for the people of Scotland. 

 Although written 27 years ago, this article surely still has relevance for us today.  Betty talks about the hardships facing Wester Hailes where the proposed welfare cuts will affect practically every home.  She reflects on how difficult it is for young people, leaving school with no prospect of a job.  And she is concerned about the loss of hope she is observing as people feel they have no influence or power to change the situation being faced.  Reaching out across time, she is able to remind us of what life was like before 1945, before the Welfare State existed, before the implementation of the Beveridge Report.  As a child, she saw what happened to those who were poor and elderly, having to enter Poor Houses which weren’t completely abolished until 1948 with the demise of the Poor Law system.  It was the memory of those terrible conditions that gave her the impetus to continue fighting for a decent standard of living for all and to call on others to stand with her.

 You can read Betty’s interview in full by clicking here on Sentinel December 1985. 

WHEN ALEX WAS THE MAN

Hibs are looking for a new manager, Hearts are up for sale and neither are anywhere near challenging the Old Firm in the league this season – top flight football in Edinburgh is not exactly in the best of health.

Today we’re going to take a quick peek back twenty two years when season 1989-90 was just about to get underway and a certain Alex Miller was in charge at Hibs. Interviewed by the Sentinel under the hopeful headline of “ONWARDS AND UPWARDS”, his assessment of how his team was likely to do was pretty cautious:

“It’s going to be very difficult…We think we’ve seen an improvement at Easter Road, but the club cannot be turned round in two years. I feel there was a lack of ambition here before, but we have built a good foundation to build on.”

Then he was asked who he thought would be the key players for Hibs in the season ahead:

“I would look for John Collins doing more. He was a young boy with potential, but he is not a young boy anymore. He has got to take games by the scruff of the neck and make things happen. I would also look for quite a lot from Keith Houchen. He is now looking very strong and I would like to see him doing well this season.”

And the top players in the SPL?

“Our goalkeeper Andy Goram is the best in Scotland. He’s been a magnificent buy for this club in terms of attitude as well as ability. In defence, the Miller-McLeish pairing at Aberdeen is so strong. As far as midfield is concerned, Paul McStay is the best and up front Maurice Johnston is a striker who knows what the game is about.”

Andy Goram, Willie Miller, Alex McLeish, Paul McStay, Maurice Johnstone: a roll call of great players that does seem to support the view that the 2011 version of the Scottish game contains nothing like the quality it did more than two decades ago.

But who knows what the future will bring. Whether the new Hibs Manager is Pat Fenlon or Michael O’Neill or Billy Brown maybe this will be the year Hibs finally win the Scottish Cup again…maybe homegrown players of true class will again feature in the SPL…and maybe Vlad will agree to sell Hearts to a supporters consortium for the price of one penny!