by War Baby » Tue May 22, 2012 12:05 pm
Junkcatcher,
My sister was going to Uddingston Grammar School at the time Manuel was around, and she usually got off the bus at Hamilton Road and walked over Mount Vernon Avenue to the Church Army Houses at Barrachnie, where she and I lived. When one of Manuel's victims was found buried next to the farm track, just off the avenue, it became too risky for her to take that lonely walk, and she stayed on the bus till she got to Parkhead. Then she got a tram back down Westmuir St, and through Shettleston, to get to Barrachnie.
There was definitely a threat in the air when you walked the avenue at that time. In those days, when you came up the hill from Hamilton Road and reached the railway bridge, a corner turned to the right and you could see Burntbroom Farm squatting on a hill when you reached the next corner, the sharp corner with the farm track running off it to the side. Did you say this was Hamilton's Farm, because I thought it was Burntbroom Farm?
Apart from the farm, and the tall chimney belonging to the brickworks, there was no signs of civilisation - no houses, just fields. And then from here, the road climbed upwards gradually, until you reached the highest point, but even here there were no houses to the right of the road as you looked towards Barrachnie. There was the lodge, nestling in amongst the trees down to the left, and beyond that you could see the Church Army Houses and Garrowhill, but no other houses.
...There is still a short stretch of the original tarmac left down near the sharp corner. If you walked the avenue at night, the sharp corner was in pitch darkness because it was enclosed by tall hawthorn hedges and trees, and it was an eerie, silent place that sent shivers down your spine. I sometimes started running because it was so scarey. There were no street lights on the avenue.