ONCE A PANNER

This is for people who would like to have their picture and their story or comment included in this

"Once A Panner" page

  so please send me your picture and some details. It would be nice for your friends to hear about you.

Keep visiting ! I   will try to add new people regularly.

Here is mine

I was born in the Pans in 1926 and still live there in 2005. A great place to be, with lovely people.

I have included a kind of Bio

below.

MY BIO.

I was born in No 7 Crown Square on the 24th. of July 1926

  I attended Cockenzie Primary school Cockenzie School 1932

Moved to 17 North Crescent and the" Pans" school in 1934

           Attended Preston Lodge Secondary School until I was 14 yrs. old.

                     Left school and started "Mechanical Engineering" apprenticeship in 1940

Finished my 6 years apprenticeship at Prestonlinks Colliery

Was made redundant, as the World War 2 was finishing in 1946

                             Found a good job as a toolmaker with Callum Grant and Partners a new firm at Macmerry

Was conscripted to the army after two months at the new job.

After Square Bashing with the BUFFS at Canterbury England.

                       Sat tests and was posted to a gun site in Rosyth Scotland as the gun fitter.

                                            Had my own workshop, kept myself busy doing other various jobs, sign writing picture framing etc.

                           Was demobbed in 1949 and went back to the job in the toolroom at Macmerry.

                  The company was now named Lothian Structural Developements or LSD.

                     when the firm closed in1972  I was Technical Manager, one of six managers

My posts during the years I served were.  

                              Chargehand, Foreman, Chief inspector, Planning Manager& Technical Manager.

I then started work as Production Manager with Adamson and Hatchet ,a Manchester company

manufacturing cargo containers, in a new factory at Macmerry

I stayed with this company until they closed in 1985

Here is my Wife Betty also a Panner

Betty was born in Newarthill but came to Perestonpans as a child

and was brought up at 19 North Crescent.

Yes next door to me.

She, also attended Prestonpans Public School ,

and in 1944 was dux of that school.

She attended Preston Lodge High School until she was sixteen

then went to a college to train as a comptometer operator.

She was then employed by St. Cuthberts C.O.O.P.

We were married in 1954 and had four children

when they were in their teens Betty went back to further education

and finally to Edinburgh University where she was capped B.A. English Literature and English Language

Her final occupation was a teacher of English at a Secondary School

MUSICAL PANNERS

THE WILSON BROTHERS

DYNAMIC DUO

The Wilson brothers Bobby and Arthur were a well known duo in the nineteen seventies playing guitars and singing in harmony.They made their debut at a church congregational social, where the minister Rev. P. McPhail introduced them as "The Wilson Brothers", the name stuck and from then on they used it. At Preston Lodge High School where they were pupils aged fifteen and thirteen they gained experience performing in concerts and shows, produced and directed by Mr Hay.The boys were popular with the other pupils, especially the girls.

As they got older they entertained in most of the clubs and hotels in East and West Lothian, where they were often billed as "The Wilson Brothers the Dynamic Duo".The brothers can still do a turn at parties, but the duo now is Arthur and his sister Margot, they have formed a band called Limelight and play at weddings, dances etc. Arthur's son Stuart, Iain McNeil and Duncan Smith make up the five piece band.To hear the band click the link below.

                                                             http://macarthurmusic.com/limelight

                    You can also hear them singing at Prestonpans Labour Club in 1971 if you click the next link

                          http://www.edinburghsongwriters.net/arthurw/mp3s/wilsonbros/ladyrose.m3u

                                                            Arthur and Margot     Arthur and Bobby

Here are two well known Panners

----

-Jean Whitelaw Nettie Ormiston

Jean and Nettie

These two ladies were licensed grocers- owning shops at opposite ends of Prestonpans.

Jean Whitelaw's shop was a traditional old fashioned grocery on the corner of the picture house entrance lane

it was a real favourite with young and old alike. "Whitelaws" was a first class shop and sold only the best quality food, and drink of course!

Nettie Ormiston( nee Mack) owned the more modern type of shop at the top end of Prestonpans in a new shopping area as this was in a large housing district the shop was very well stocked and sold all sorts of goods, especially vegetables.

For many years Nettie's shop, "Lindsay and Mack" was a household name in Prestonpans.

Nettie and Jean are still to the fore doing there bit for charities, baking, jam making etc. and they both still

are members of the grocers association.

CATHERINE GRESHAM ( Nee Wilson )

U.S.A

Here is a lady Panner who has travelled far and wide. After leaving Preston Lodge High School she trained as a Medical Records Officer.From 1985 to 1989 she lived in Saudia Arabia and worked in a hospital there

When she returned to America Catherine studied to be a radiographer,after that she decided to train as a doctor of medicine and after having passed all her exams she is now a Physician Assistant, a kind of junior doctor.

she is now practising in an outpatient's clinic.

Catherine lives with her husband Ron in Abilene and is at present studying in Fort Worth.

Helen Hamilton (Nee McArthur)

Helen lives in Port Seton but she is still a Panner. As she says

"You can take a Panner out of the Pans

but you can't take the Pans out of a Panner"

Helen was an auxiliary at Prestonpans Primary School for many years and was very well known

and loved by the pupils.

Her husband Alistair is one of the top artists in East Lothian and runs an art gallery the "Harbour Gallery" in Port Seton.

The gallery is well worth a visit.

Alistair

ELIZABETH  TOWNS  ( NEE   JEFFERIES ) 

Liz  Jefferies another very clever Prestonpans girl

  Liz graduated from Edinburgh University with a M.A. in English and French in 1973. Then after training as a teacher at Moray House, where she qualified in English and History she taught in various secondary schools in Scotland. She now teaches in an Edinburgh school . Liz.is married to Callum Towns

also a teacher, but who is now an accountant. They live in Barnton Edinburgh, and have two children Emily and Kenneth .When she was at school in Prestonpans Liz lived with her Mother and Father Nan and David Jefferies at No.2 Redburn Road Prestonpans.She has a brother and sister, Ian and Catherine.

LIZ and CALLUM TOWNS

Maisie McNeil( Nee Russell )

Maisie on her way to crown Prestonpans Gala Queen in 2003

There are few people in Prestonpans, especially ladies who don't recognise Maisie McNeil.From an early age she attended dancing classes and later she was greatly in demand to pass on her skills by teaching many children of Prestonpans to " trip the light fantastic". Everyone wanted to go to "Maisie's Dancing".

. Anyone who has seen Maisie's pupils perform can't help being impressed.Who can forget the Community Week concerts in the Town Hall where the children, aged from two to eighteen performed a variety of dances in their lovely costumes, delighting the capacity audience with their talents. A credit to Maisie!

Margaret Mcleod

                                                                         MARGERET  ROSE

 MARGARET'S SHOP IN THE MAIN STREET

Margaret McLeod was not born in Prestonpans, but I think she deserves to be included on this page.Margaret's wool shop has been a fixture on the main street for the last thirty five years.There are not many one owner shops that have survived in today's cut throat markets It is proof of Margaret's expert knowledge of the wool and clothing trade which

she learned as an apprentice in the border mills,she originally came from Hawick.Her shop in the centre of the Pans has been well known for its quality goods since it first opened.

THE SCRATCHER

A well known resident in the High Street, the local picture house. Imagine the danger now if at the end of the show the double doors opened and everyone poured out onto the street to escape the national anthem which was played at the close

                                                            PRESTONPANS PICTURE HOUSE

John Hunter

John Hunter , Engineer and Shipbuilder, a really clever Panner indeed. He has a place in my most admired people, for his achievement ie, building on his own, an all steel full sized fully equipped fishing boat from scratch.

John served his apprenticeship as a fitter with Brown Brothers the well known shipbuilders at Lieth,

Edinburgh.He emigrated to SOUTH AFRICA.. and stayed there for some years, he then returned to Scotland  where he was employed as a fitter with the N.C.B. at Monktonhall colliery.

Andrew Muir

Painter  Decorater and Piper  First class

Andrew Muir is a well known personality in Presonpans, reknowend both for his

bagpipe playing and for his decorating skills.At one time if you had Andrew in to

decorate your home, you were really in vogue.

In world war 2 Andrew served with the K.O.S.B. 7th. Battalion as a piper and saw service

in France, Arnhem, and Norway.

After the war Andrew continued piping and played in the local pipe band, and as a solo piper at many functions

His lovely wife Peggy often on the same bill as a country dancer

Dorothy Clyde

Potter

Dorothy Clyde will be remembered for bringing back the art of the potter to Prestonpans,which at one time was world famous for its pottery wares.Dorothy was a true artist an expert in her field .She served an apprenticeship at Portobello Pottery and knew all the tricks of the trade.She soon had a good going pottery established in the Pans , at Piper's Wynd . PYPER'S WYND POTTERY. soon became a household name exporting her tan coloured wares around the world. There are not many homes in Prestonpans without one of Dorothy's vases or tea mugs on the shelf.

                                    A PYPERS WYND POTTERY VASE BY DOROTHY CLYDE

                                                               Helen Brown  ( Nee Gunn )

                                                                           A real wee Panner

                        Helen Gunn  aged about 5 years old

Helen Gunn.was only 14 years old when she left 3 Park View.Prestonpans in1974 along with her Mum, Dad and five siblings.They emigrated to Australia, where Dad had had found a job in the nickel mines.He had paid ten pounds towards the Australian government assisted air fare.This was money well spent by Australia, as Helen is now a real Aussie, very proud of her new country.She still has fond memories of the Pans and the folk here, whom she hopes to visit with her husband Gary one day..

Helen has been happily married to Gary Brown for 20 years.They have three children , Nicole,Aaron and Chris and their two Grandchildren are Vanessa and Levi.They all love their home in Australia. Their E-MAIL address is,

helen-gary@westnet.com.au

                                   Helen and Gary                                  Their two lovely grandchildren

                                                            Vanessa and Levi

NEW PANNERS

THE BARKERS

The Barkers are not born Panners, but for the short time they have been in the town they have made their mark and deserve a mention here. They have taken an interest in many aspects of the town's activities and their knowledge of the town's history etc. is exemplary as you can see from their excellent web-site.

click link below.

                                                                       http://www.barker-family.info/

              Ian and Dorothy

                                                            An Entrepreneurial Panner

            Craig Douglass

Craig Douglas moved to Spain in the early 1990s with no job and very
little money. He quickly established himself as a sales and marketing
person in the holiday servicing industry and went on to become sales and
marketing director of the Timelinx (http://www.timelinx.com/en/) where he had to
travel all over the world, probably the most widely traveled panner. He
is now busy setting up his own company in the travel/leisure sector and
is currently working in Italy.

Another Pretty Clever Panner

Jennifer Sibbald

8 Nethershot Road

  PRESTONPANS

Jennifer will graduate at Edinburgh University on Tuesday 20th June 2006 with a

Bsc. Hons.1st class in maths.

Jennifer was a former Dux of Preston Lodge High School.

ALISTAIR SNEDDON

                                                              A BORN AND BRED PANNER

To introduce Alistair I will copy the comments he made on my web site.The last line made me very proud and grateful for his compliment.

comments: Great site. I'm a born and bred 'Panner' but have lived here in NZ for about 50yrs now, with a few trips home from time to time. Was last in the pans from 1999 to 2002 and there were no new houses at Castlepark then nor was the Goth (I used to manage it) restored or open.
Hope you keep updating the site, a lot of us appreciate it.

Alistair was born in1938 and first lived at 4 High Street Prestonpans almost opposite Honeymoon Building I remember the house well.His Grandfather was Sutherland the Coal Merchant.His Mother was better known by her maiden name, Mary Sutherland until she died in 2000.For a time the family lived at 3 Grange Rd then at 12 Grange Cres.West.

Alistair is now retired after serving 14years in New Zealand police force, then running his own

photographic retail business. A very interesting success story from the Pans

Alistair would be pleassed to hear from old friends ,click  alastair.sneddon@gmail.com

HONEYMOON TERRACE

Today