Winter Coal Deliveries in 1960's Edinburgh

This was taken from an 8mm home movie I took 50 years ago of the family business, "Hugh Leckie & Sons", which was one of Edinburgh's larger coal delivery businesses. The business was started by my grandfather and subsequently joined by my father, his 3 brothers and sister. More of the family history is at www.theleckies.com
It was located in St Leonards (Coal) Station in the South Side of Edinburgh and is now site to housing and car parking. Coal was brought into town by train from the mines, coming on the line from Duddingston (see my "Innocent Railway" video which was taken in the summer of 1968 covering the last train journey before the line closed - • Innocent Railway - Las... ).
In the coal yard, the coal was filled into 1 hundredweight (112 pounds) sacks and loaded onto lorries which then went out on deliveries around Edinburgh. Yes, that young man at the end who hoisted a 112 pound bag up on his shoulder then sprightly set off to a stairway to climb up to the customer's house and deliver it... was me :-)
Thanks goodness that was just a weekend and holiday job for me while attending school and university - it was hard work in all weathers!
The camera used was a Kodak Brownie 8 - 8mm movie camera with wind-up mechanism (no batteries needed).
www.nationalmed...

[@ancietman]

I'm glad people of years ago recorded their lives so we can look back on it.

[@jazzman1626]

Nothing’s cosier than sitting by an old black range fireplace with the kettle on the side of it, on a cold winter’s day with the cat or dog curled up at your feet, reading Oor Wullie and The Broons, wondering what’s going to make maw Broon “black affronted” this time lol.

[@MegaDeansy]

There was Leckie's coal-yard, a brewery (Ushers ??) crate-storage and Linton's the joiners all next to each other - as a young boy who stayed in St.Leonards Lane the area was THE greatest playground !. We were constantly building gang-huts, look-outs, forts etc, etc with the added excitement of being chased by all the workmen/security-guards of these businesses - Oh for a time-machine !

[@ronleckie]

Alan, if you find that time machine, take me along for the ride!

[@Kinghornish]

I recall way back in the Jan/Feb of ‘63, The Big Freeze was at it’s height, yet, many coal men persevered to deliver their bags and keep us alive, no joking there. One of my main memories was seeing these amazing chaps lug the coal into our tenement building at Comely Bank, as one of them waited for my mum to pay the ten shillings for our bag, I noticed that he had a runny nose, and that the discharge from his nostrils had actually frozen. Incredible times, never forgotten.

[@ronleckie]

Gordon, I remember days when we would deliver the coal, emptying the sacks into bunkers... but then when empty, the sacks were so frozen, that they still looked full :-) Had to jump on them to flatten them to stack back on the lorry to take back to the yard.

[@FluffyBunny-l9z]

I was only wee at the time but remember Mum speaking about it.

[@matthewpickard2783]

There are a lot of tenement stairs in Edinburgh. The coal men must have been athletes!

[@johnnyM809]

I remember as a wee laddie growing up in Restalrig in Edinburgh the coal man coming round our street and crashing the coal into the bunker at the side of our tenement. Also remember the chimney sweep coming round to clean the chimney. My mum used to put white sheets over all the furniture to protect it from the soot !

[@Crosshatch1212]

Mr mcready the chimney sweep from portobello was it ,

[@alastairleckie9538]

As an Edinburgh Leckie old enough to remember coal deliveries to my Granny's house at the back of some of the footage and remembering seeing a Hugh Leckie coal lorry in the Cowgate this was fascinating. Thank you!

[@johnheriot1070]

The good old days reminds me of my mum shouting over the window for her bag of coal for the old fire range fantastic to see this we used to hang on to the back of the coal lorry and get a hurl a big thanks

[@ThePanzer6]

Fascinating to watch

[@ralphmaltman9801]

i can remember my father worked at delivering coal in Edinburgh but it was with a horse and wagon and I'm sure it was Leckie coal company , I still have a photograph of him with the horse .and that was a long time ago .

[@ronleckie]

Hi Ralph. Thanks for commenting. I remember the stables we had next to the coal station, but don't remember actually having horses there - maybe a bit before my time. I don't have any horse-drawn coal pictures. All the best! Ron

[@jamescampbell6815]

Remember the faces, when I was in st Leonards garage , Bruce Lindsay's, repaired these lorries😊

[@Twelve50TV]

Excellent Video Ron, As an edinburgh resident and videographer, i appreciate this allot !

[@ronleckie]

Much appreciated! I was a teenager when I took that in the 60's with a wind-up Kodak 8mm camera. I much prefer today's video technology, but do wish I had taken more back then with that low-tech. 😉

[@3Belmont]

The smaller coal bags (Bituminous coal), you would need two per week, but would provide all the hot water you required. The larger coal bags would have contained Coalite or similar smokeless coke coal. Both bags would weigh 1 cwt, about 8 stone (112lbs) today's weight would be 50kgs. Cost today coal £16 for coal and about £20 for the coke.

[@iainpringle9993]

Great knowledge!

[@jimmygibson7024]

I remember playing in the coal yard at St Leonard St. I lived in Henry St. My brother was a coal man.

[@ricardosuarez8023]

Brilliant. Thanks for posting.

[@elizabethhenderson8981]

remember Leckie from when i lived in Arthur street, my mother would shout at him two bags.

[@rosiefoureyes6742]

I remember the coal man coming up the stairs to our top floor tenement flat in Marionville Road. I think the bags came on a horse drawn cart, mid to late 1950s. We left Edinburgh in 1960 when I was eight.

[@carronalee]

Brilliant. Back-breaking, filthy work - rail, hail & snow. People who do these type of jobs should earn the same wage as any high-earning CEO who sits behind a desk all day.

[@floor993]

Wonderful!

[@BlueShadow777]

I could be mistaken but as a kid I seem to remember your truck delivering to my dad's shop at Meadowbank "Danny's". I'm sure we used to sell your coal. If so, do you have any film or pics of that?

[@ronleckie]

Hello! I did take some of the "packaged fuel" that was sold to shops for resale. Look at this one... kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWfdYqiaerSfp6M Sorry - but not at "Danny's" 😉

[@Crosshatch1212]

That was my gf dads company that done the chimney sweeping ,based at portobello and coal delivery to Magdalene was turn bulls coal yard ,from newcraighall minining I think ,I played up there on my motorbikes ,

[@thomascatford2627]

The good old days

[@FreeRadical1015]

outstanding

[@peteleckie]

I'm peter leckie my dad same name worked with his brother jimmy from st Leonards coal yard although only about nine or ten at the time i spent many hours with my dad there

[@ronleckie]

Pete, glad this brought back memories!

[@eckto3]

I loved delivering coal, first with Rab Watters, Pans/Port Seton then with Jim Fortune, Macmerry. Would load up late afternoon at Monktonhall.

[@brianknowles1727]

We had coal delivered by wagon they tipped it on road then we had get the coal into the coal house by barrow or bucket.

[@DerekWilliamsMusic]

Thanks for this wonderful video. I had no idea such records existed.

[@ronleckie]

Glad it is of interest ☺️ www.ronleckie.com

[@daveated1]

Crackin vid..cheers .

[@MrJohnnybe123]

Keeps u fit and tough

[@MsPhantom7]

Remember when at Jenners depository we used to hire in furniture porters on removals from leckie back in the seventies

[@ronleckie]

Yes, when the coal business was slow during summer months, removals were a good way to keep the staff working.

[@COIcultist]

I only worked in two bagging coal yards in the 1980s. Never saw the conveyor type loading device in either but I suppose the prevalence of the small bunker(?) gravity feed loader with a slack screen meant you were loading at vehicle deck height. Is there a proper name for the small gravity loading bunkers? You realise what you have forgotten over 30 plus years.

[@davidwaterhouse2552]

This Footage is brilliant, my Great Uncle Eric did this jo bin the 1960's in Manchester. Hard Working men! I saw one of them with his money bag, I would like to see a street robber of today try to rob this man, and see what happened to them ( the robber that is) ! I see delivery vans now from all the major supermarkets delivering to peoples houses ,and they all have 'no cash carried' written on them! What different times we live in! dx

[@ronleckie]

@@davidwaterhouse2552 Thanks, David! My grandfather only got mugged and robbed once on the street as he walked home with the day’s takings from all lorries. An inside job, of course. Yes, it was hard work - I only did it weekends and holidays before heading to university - but some great life lessons from it for me. 😉

[@davidwaterhouse2552]

@@ronleckie Oh Wow! I am so sorry to hear that Your Grandfather was actually 'MUGGED', I didn't mean to sound sarcastic, I meant that he looked like a 'tough fella' who nobody would attempt to mess with and I was celebrating this ! God Bless Your Grandfather and those hard working men, who built our great nation (that is now in decay sadly) As the late GREAT Fred Dibnah once said; Britain was built by Men in Overalls, and Ruined by Men in Suits! dx

[@davidwelsh1997]

Police box at Cranston Street still there :)

[@stephenswistchew7720]

We had a coal man who was rather well endowed and his cry was. Coal for hole After a couple of days in our village he changed his cry to coal for money 😂😂😂😂😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@brachio1000]

I've been working on an article/essay about my uncle's days as a rock-and-roll musician from 1958 to 1965. I'm including a bit of family history, which oughta' include the coal yard owned by his father and uncle from the late forties through early sixties. I was there as a small boy, but I've suddenly realized I have no idea how it worked. I remember a concrete building, a scale, and more or less how my grandpa and great uncle delivered the coal to houses (and I have one of the coal shovels), but that's about it. I'm hoping you can tell me how, based on your experience, the coal was transferred from the train car into storage and how it was stored -- free or bagged? in a pile on the ground? in a bin of some sort? Thanks in advance.

[@ronleckie]

Hello! I would be very happy to help. Please give me your email address and we can take it offline. Or, you may be able to find mine online with a search.

[@brachio1000]

Thanks. I talked to a cousin with a better memory and got what I needed. The coal yard is background to my uncle's rock-and-roll career, so I needed only a couple sentences, but I didn't want them to be nonsense. It turns out that my grandfather and great uncle did most of the work by shovel. This must explain why Grandpa had bulging biceps even as a very old man. Again, thanks. Fine video, by the way.

[@ronleckie]

Glad you got help. Briefly, mostly the coal was shoveled straight out of the wagon into bags on scales and filled to 112lbs. When it was not needed right away, we used a conveyor belt that we shoveled the coal into and the conveyor transported the coal up and over to the storage "bins" where it would sit freely until needed to be bagged for delivery. Glad you liked the video.

[@brachio1000]

My cousin doesn't remember the coal being bagged. Now that I think about it, though, I can't imagine how they could've weighed it otherwise or delivered precise amounts. I'm gonna' say it went into bags even though I'm not utterly sure. Thanks.

[@Crosshatch1212]

Magdalene housing scheme here I used to walk the rail way sides looking for coal as a kid that had fell of the trains going in to portobello freight from miller hill ,

[@nickwatson2167]

Cranston street the very end edit ? I couldn't tell you anywhere else though

[@nickwatson2167]

Yeh I am right just checked google maps . Number 1 Cranston street . How did the pavement go from small to large ? I mean in modern days the pub and doors where larger than now . Must have had to sure up the foundations of the flats maybe ?

[@ronleckie]

Yes, Cranston St. The prior clip shows me as a young man taking a bag off and going into a stair. I think that might have been somewhere in Abbeyhill area. I get back regularly but have not lived in Edinburgh since mid-70's.

[@Crosshatch1212]

@@ronleckiedid you ever do magadalene and know the chimney sweep in portobello ,

[@daveated1]

piershill deliveries

[@JohnDLewis]

Hi, I'm a musician from County Durham. I'm creating a music video for a track I've written and wondered whether you'd allow me to use a few seconds from your brilliant video. I would credit you in the video's end credits. I should add that I make no money from the music. Thanks John.

[@ronleckie]

John, yes, you may use a clip with appropriate credit. Thanks for asking. Can you share the result?

[@JohnDLewis]

@@ronleckie Thank you so much. Yes, I will send you a link once it's done.

[@lashimbah]

Takes me back to the early 80s working for Elliotts in Hampshire, blimey coal, coke, anthracite and heat beads, plus Ken the boss dealing with complaints. "Harwins coal is cheaper than yours" reply "well thats the place to get it then"

[@joyceaitchison5900]

Could you imagine folk now a days doing that oh I need gloves, sacks too heavy, its too cold , I go up stairs - that's the days when men were men he he.

[@Crosshatch1212]

What getting up in the morning cleaning the great then getting it started with chip fat etc .nothing went in the bucket back then ,