Innerwick
Immediately post-war, Innerwick had no mains water, no mains electricity and no gas (C.P. Snodgrass 1953 p425). By c1950, electricity had arrived in the village. Before this, the village had twelve oil street lamps.
Dick Houston, who lived at No 1 The Terrace, was the lamplighter (and painter)
Street lighting was paraffin lamps, mostly attached to brackets on house walls. The remains are still visible at the end of Torry’s house and the grieve’s house at Templemains. There were twelve lamps altogether and they were lit with matches.
If it was wet or windy, Dick had a cover which went over both himself and the lamp. He carried a small ladder so that he could reach the lamps. He had, of course to return in the morning to put them out unless it had been very windy during the night.
Once or twice a week he would go round and fill the lamps with paraffin and give them a clean. It was the early 1950s when electricity eventually arrived in Innerwick so these lamps were important.
Innerwick Exhibition