Another day another sod cutting! Yesterdays was in Currie where Link Housing Association are building 30 flats onto the side of Lanark Rd. The steep slope they are building onto will ensure that the residents have stunning views onto the Water of Leith and mature woodland.
It stuck me last week when I was helping to cut the first sod at the Wester Hailes Healthy Living Centre that my Great Grandfather came over from Ireland to dig the canals in the 1860's and probably worked on the Union Canal near the centre.
It struck me that 150 years on here I was up to be ankles in mud digging holes a few yards away! Have we moved much further forward as a family? At least old man MacFarlane, the Great Grandfather in question, got paid for his efforts!
That old feller was a truly remarkable. He moved here to work as a navvy, taught himself to read and write and joined the Edinburgh Police where he rose to the rank of Sub Inspector in the CID, a remarkable feat especially considering that he was illiterate when he started to work and he was the first catholic Sub Inspector in the CID.
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