Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th April 2020

With the publishing of the answers below that's the quiz completed ten years of existence.

A. What, to Dunbar's music afficionados, was the significance of the Yardbirds track above?

a) When the band appeared in our Cavernous Victoria Ballroom on Sunday 17th July 1966, one hundred and nineteen minutes before the witching hour, for their measured 40 minutes set, their rendition, with Jimmy Page extemporising, of "Over Under Sideways Down" was not as impressive on the night as the band's practised take on Graham Gouldman's "Heart Full of Soul". The band debatably were enhanced by new member Jimmy Page - not everyone's favourite musician. He joined Jeff Beck as twin-lead, or was it bass, that night. Beck was unreliable on that tour, ofttimes going AWOL, and left the band four months later.

The “Over Under Sideways Down” track was released as a single (May '66), coupled with “Jeff's Boogie”. Beck didn't sing, only played lead and bass, and it was reputedly a tribute to/inspired by Bill Haley's 1954 sleeper “Rock Around the Clock” which eventually became a huge smash post-featuring as the opening music for the 1955 film “The Blackboard Jungle”. Jeff’s riffs on the reverse track was redolent of Berry at his best.

Their eponymously named album “Yardbirds”, containing the above two tracks, was released only two days prior to our date with the greats. The album was recorded over the couple of months following the single release (their only LP where the group wrote all the tracks and JB played lead and bass on all of them - this was indeed significant!). It was commonly known as 'Roger the Engineer" in the UK but over the pond and elsewhere it was released with the title "Over Under Sideways Down”.

B. When did H.M. Queen Elizabeth visit Dunbar in the halcyon days of the '50s?

a) 7th July 1956.

C. Which mode of transport did she use?

a) i) Royal Train to our town.
   ii) Car ferried her back to Holyrood Palace - but maybe not a Phantom V!

D. Who is buried in Dunbar Parish Cemetery in Family Lairs F124-126?

a) Lair F124 - Robert Charles Steuart Keith. 26/09/1910.
    Lair F125 - Margaret Stobie Keith. 31/07/1911.
    Lair F126 - Sir William John Keith. 22/1/1937, Lady Isobel Keith. 02/06/1969.

Sir William Keith was the first recorder for the weather station at Winterfield Public Park which was installed in 1935. At that time, it was located about forty metres from the main park entrance, on the right-hand side of the path.

E. Whose 'lead' coffin, as shown above, was discovered within the crypt of the north aisle of our Parish Kirk?

a) One could postulate with a degree of certainty, based on the shape of the coffin dated circa 1605, that within it are the remains of a lady. Her initials i.e. J.C. are crudely engraved on the outer and one would proffer the substantiate opinion that these refer to one Jean Cockburn!

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th March 2020

A. What were the two dwellings, Monadhliath House (85) and Lennanlea (91), on the southerly (railway) side of Countess Road, named after?

a) i) Built, like her “little-sister” house next door-but-one, by Billy Leggett, Monadhliath House (85), erected for John Bain in 1964, was named after the low grey mountain range in Inverness-shire near to the Bains' original home town of Newtonmore.

  ii) Lennanlea (91) was built for the MacLennan sisters post-war. Then, in the late-fifties, its denizens were the Folkardes following which it was purchased by fisherman David Lees.

Footnote:- There are more Inverness-shire connections on the southerly side of Countess Road. At Number 70 there is a bungalow called Lagganmore named after a spot near Newtonmore. Plus, oddly enough, there is a Cluny Estate in Inverness-shire, also nearby to Newtonmore, but there is no connection with that and the now renamed Underedge (93), which was formerly called Clunie.

B. When did Johnnie Cope utilise Dunbar's Old Harbour as a landing-place?

a) On the 20th September 1745.

C. Where in our town is Holmleigh?

a) It is a bungalow at 72 Countess Road virtually opposite the dwellings in A) above. Holmleigh, the former Tom Anderson house, was bought new in 1938 by his mother. It was built by Pearce Builders of Berwick upon Tweed. It was later owned by Melville Smith and is now owned by Gibby Cairns. The next house down (70) was also built by Pearce. Others on the Road were built equally by Cunningham and Pearce. The only exception to the ‘30s builds - shop included - was one with fancy paving, built by Denholm. (Billy Gillespie built a house near the former “Annie's Shop” much later.)

There is also another homonymic house called Holmlea, which is the last house on Queen’s Road as one leaves the town heading for Broxburn. This was built, on land acquired from the then Duke of Roxburghe, as a holiday home for Edinburgh solicitor John Turnbull WS, his wife and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Ethel Maude, in 1904. The roof was damaged by an internal fire in 1922. The daughter inherited the house on the demise of her parents and then in 1938 she wed Mr W R Fleming of Berwick. Ethel Maude died in 1981 and the house was purchased by the Ross family and subsequently by the McPhillips family.

D. Who was the Scots king who granted the immigrant Cospatrick his seat (in the basement) at Dunbar Castle?

a) Malcolm Canmore.

E. Who founded the Trinitarian Priory at Friarscroft?

a) Christiana de Brus, Countess of Dunbar, circa 1240-1248.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th February 2020

A. What was the date on which “oor toon” was founded?

a) circa 850 AD.

B. When were our Assembly Rooms near the foot of Cossars Wynd (formerly Crows Wynd) built?

a) 1822. They were constructed using ironstone rubble with Catcraig dressing, as per our 1845 “T”-Plan Railway Station House.

C. Which is the only other station in Scotland which, like Dunbar, has an "inner-loop"?

a) West Calder - so we are led to believe.

D. Who owned and farmed Summerfield Mains in the latter part of the 19th century?

a) George Swanston, born 9/1/1819 at Stow and died 10/3/1890 at Summerfield, and his wife Margaret Cockburn, born at Fogo, Berwickshire in 1828 and died 30/12/1922 at 11 Bayswell Park, Dunbar.

E. i) Why was one half of a “former” double villa on the town's Queen’s Road renamed Beechworth?

a) Because that was its original name.

and

    ii) What was it formerly called?

a) Ternhill.     

Originally built in post-Victorian times (1907) for a Dunbar Potato merchant/trader called D. B. Graham as a large double-villa, the concept was that the west half - now called Eastrigg – was reserved for his extended family and the east half for himself and his immediate family. Come the 1970's, cometh the man, in the shape of "Winco" John Jolly, his wife Molly, nee Messenger, and their teenagers, daughter Susan and son Gordon. The family renamed the house in memory of the Shropshire RAF Station Ternhill on which John served. With the death of the parents post millennium (JDJ in 2001) Ternhill was sold to the present occupiers, the Davidsons, in 2007 and they decided the property should revert back to its original name of Beechworth.

Incidentally the west half (Eastrigg), with its own side and rear doors, was originally called Redcroft and the earlier name of the 1930's bungalow called Wellstanlaw, between it and Kirkhill House was named Farragon, possibly after a Perthshire hill located on the rough moors between Aberfeldy and Loch Tummel.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th January 2020

A. What was the part-time occupation of Georgie Aitken, father of Naval officer and former DRFC and Scotland rugby player Ritchie Aitken, who resided at 25 Parsonspool?

a) Fire Engine driver (based at The Vennel) under the aegis of Firemaster and Burgh Surveyor Duncan Murdoch.

B. When our Secondary School removed from Woodbush to its present locus at what was once The Sailors' Park how long did the 'flitting' process take?

a) The removal process was undertaken over the weekend prior to the October (1961) midterm break and completed before school reformed on Wednesday the 25th.

C. Where are the streets in our town which only have odd numbers?

a) Elm Street + The Shore.

D. Which Street has four semi-detached houses with the same number?

a) Parsonspool with 44A through D.


E. Where is the above engraved wall mark?

a) It is situated at Beveridge Row, just north of the Cottage Hospital entrance and denotes the location of a water hydrant.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th December 2019

A. What is the capacity of Deer Park Cemetery apropos the number of lairs plottable?

a) 1451, unless or until some more roods or indeed perches between trees and paths are made available or indeed until two pathways are redeemed. Moreover, under a score (16) of the last N to S rank/tranche on the east periphery are available!

B. When did the artist, featured on the track above, guest at our Victoria Ballroom?

a) Wayne Fontana featured in our Summer Sounds '66. Oddly enough he adopted the surname Fontana from D.J. Fontana, drummer with Elvis's Blue Moon Boys, and it comes as no surprise he signed (with The Mindbenders, whom he parted company with in Oct'65) for Fontana Records.

C. Where, on the Breezy Burgh’s High Street, was located the Cafe Restaurant, run for the 'Forces' by the Church of Scotland?

a) Cuthbert and Andersons, which is presently 'The Store'.

D. Whose masonic mark is located near the chimney stack on the gable end of "Hilldoon", at the junction of Letham Place and Gardener Road?

a) William Evan Bisset, 1843 – 1907. He was a Master Stonemason, born and bred in Dunbar.


E. What is the connection between Dunbar and Robinson Crusoe?

a) Daniel Defoe. He wrote the book “Robinson Crusoe”, and also wrote about Dunbar in another of his books called “A tour thro’ the whole island of Great Britain – Volume III” published in 1727. He described Dunbar as “a handsome, well-built town, upon the sea-shore; where they have a kind of natural harbour, tho’ in the middle of dangerous rocks”. In 1706 he had been an English spy in Edinburgh doing everything he could to influence acceptance of the Treaty of Union and it is at this time that he visited Dunbar and gathered his impressions of the town which were later published in his book.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th November 2019

A. What sport did David Deane, the managing owner of our Palace of Pleasure, play at International level?

a) Rugby Union. He played for Dunbar and then Edinburgh Wanderers, and played for Scotland in two provincial matches when touring Argentina in September 1969.

B. When the first Dunbar Golf Club Championship, instigated by J. Douglas Barlas, was played on the East Links at the beginning of the 1950's who was the victor?

a) East Linton's Paddy Butler.

C. Where is Red Gable?

a) Red Gable is a shallow shoal or reef lying at 5.75 fathoms depth, roughly 1.2 nautical miles NW of Dunbar Castle at coordinates N56o01’ W2o 32’.

D. Who had built and lived in Knockenhair House for over forty years?

a)General Sir Reginald Wingate, 1st Baronet of Dunbar. He initially came to stay in Dunbar as a relief from the heat of Sudan where he served in the army, later having Knockenhair House built for him as a permanent residence. He was attracted to the town because of its golf facilities and the fresh air – the same as many a visitor and resident over the years.

E. What was the Holey Quay?

a) It was originally the site of Dunbar’s first harbour and was only a rocky inlet with rock-cut steps before having the stone quay built around it. It is situated on the north side of McArthur’s Store and part of its outline can still be seen in the paving of the area.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th October 2019

A. What is the new, official designation for Cattle Underpass/Tunnel ECM8/084, between the “Bleachfield” and “Ashfield” underpasses, which in past times was described as “Unbridge”?

a) Although it does not now have a designated plaque, unnecessary because no vehicular through traffic is permitted, on the Railtrack database it is now called “Underedge” after Network Rail were advised of the error. Coincidentally a house on Countess road originally called “Clunie” (by the initial owner, Mr Petrie, after his Perthshire stomping-ground), has been re-named “Underedge”. This was also the name of the 10+ acres of pasture-land which abutted the original farmhouse/dwelling of the same name from circa 1700.

B. When did Cowan's Park (part of) become Countess Park?

a) 1925.

C. What model of aeroplane carried out the trial torpedo bombings at Belhaven Bay in 1918?
a) The Sopwith Cuckoo. Link to Belhaven Bay Torpedo Trials

D. Where in Dunbar was a Second World War spy school located?

a) Between June 1943 and July 1945 Belhaven Hill School was used to train members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (F.A.N.Y.s) to intercept and decode Morse code messages from Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) agents working in France, who were reporting on German troop activities and locations and also to train some of the said S.O.E. agents, who were members of three man teams called Jedburghs, in the use of Morse code.

E. i) Who was the Commissionaire

    and

    ii) Who supplied the incidental music

at the Breezy Burgh of Dunbar’s Caledonian Playhouse Cinema, at the top of the New Road (Countess Road) on Abbey Road?

a) i) Peter “Turkey” McKenzie.

   ii) Louis (Henry) Allen's shop supplied six, 78rpm vinyl records which were exchanged every week.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th September 2019

A. What was an earlier name for the signature 14th hole, on Dunbar East Links, which is now erroneously called “Mill Stone Den”?

a) ”Harbour”. (i.e. Harbour at Vowtshore)

B. Where, locally, are the Howe, Cauld, and also, slightly farther afield, Ogle burns?

a) The first two are by The Halls and the third, the Ogle, south of the Broadwood, disgorges onto Thorntonloch Strand at Oldhamstocks's and Dunglass's shores.

C. Which shop, in our once-broad High Street, used to be The Windsor Cafe?

a) Leighton’s Gift Shop, which then became Brooke and Brown Solicitors (Paris Steele).
D. In which year was mixed bathing first officially allowed at Dunbar?

a) 1923, at the Old Bathe or Gentlemen’s Pool, situated below where the War Memorial stands. Prior to this, females used the Ladies Pool which was situated below The Glebe and eventually was replaced by the Safety Swimming Pool.

E. i) Who were probably the most successful, certainly chart-wise and at the top-of-their game, of all the bands to appear at our once much vaunted Victoria Ballroom?

And

   ii) Who from the band had an unnerving experience in 1960 with one of the original Rock-and-Rollers who also guested in our town on the 16th of May 1964?

 a. i) Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich appeared on Sunday 31st July 1966.

    ii) Dave Dee (17/12/1943 - 9/1/2009), was born Harman in Salisbury, Wiltshire. As a police cadet he attended the scene of a crash involving a Ford Consul, on 16/04/1960, near Chippenham, Wiltshire. Twenty-one-year-old popstar Eddie Cochran was thrown through the windscreen and died the following day (Sunday) of his injuries. Others who were injured in the car crash were Sharon Seeley and twenty-five-year-old Gene Vincent whose serious injuries sustained in the accident not only cut short his career but also his life due to ongoing complications. However, if Eddie had chosen the backbench seat of the Bristol-based Consul taxi he might have survived with his life and probably still had three steps to heaven.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th August 2019

A. What have the Deer Park, the Sloebiggin' Tower, Dunbar Golf Club and Brodie's Barometer got in common?

a) They were all created, built or founded in 1856.


B. When was there a serious gas explosion at the Breezy Burgh's New Victoria Ballroom?

a) On Saturday 29th July 1967. J Cairns Boston (our Impresario) was the only “casualty” having been blown through a plate-glass window at around 7:30 pm and he spent some time at Roodlands General Hospital. Our loss was Montrose's gain as come October of that year he joined them as Publicity and Entertainment Officer on the 15th - To many that was the day our “music” died.


C. What Year did Dunbar take part in the “It’s A Knockout” TV program on BBC TV and subsequently in the “Jeux Sans Frontieres” European version?

a) 1969. Dunbar ended the local competition in a draw with Burntisland and went through on the toss of a coin to the European round in Martigny, Switzerland. Dunbar were fourth out of five in Martigny, coming last in their Joker round. If they had won their Joker they would have won the competition, coming second in five of the eight rounds.


D. Who is the Dempster in the “new” Newtonlees development?

a) It is one, Montrose born, Henry McIntosh “Jock” Dempster, a former WW2 veteran who moved to Dunbar some years ago. He was awarded an Arctic Star by David Cameron in 2013 and a posthumous award of the Russian Ushakov medal. Jock, survived by his wife Maggie, died on Sunday the 5th of May 2013 in the ERI at the advanced age of 85.


E. Why, amongst the inappropriate novel street names in our “Breezy Burgh”, have we acquired “Torry Wynd” and “Bill Torry Memorial Garden”?

 a) Like Baillie Court this is, as a name, quite appropriate, unlike many at best whimsical street names in Dunbar South. Willie, as fellow golfers knew him or Bill-Clerk-of-Works at Taylor Wimpey as his workmates knew him, died quite suddenly (in his early sixties) on 17th November 2012 whilst on holiday in Dufton, near Appleby-in-Westmoreland, Cumbria, visiting his daughter. He moved from Haddington to Dunbar (Schoolhouse, Park Avenue) quite a few years ago. An assiduous worker, very much a gentleman golfer at Winterfield, as was his father. Will Junior played off single figures for many years. It turns out, in the Autumn of his golfing years, much to his chagrin, he crossed to the eastern edge of the town and joined the opposition at “The Big Club”. An all-round nice guy, like his old man, also Willie (William Watson) who died in Haddington ex-Congalton aged 90, on the 23rd June 2008.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th July 2019

A. What was the name for the brae as one approaches Broxburn, when one passes what is now Deer Park Cemetery?

a) Luggit.

B. Which close was better known as “Beattie's” through the 30s and 40s?

a) Logan’s.

C. Where was Lousie Law Green?

a) In the Boroughdales.

D. Who were the Squadrone Volante?

a) They were a group of thirty Scottish politicians, including the Duke of Roxburghe, who were instrumental in the “shaping” of the Act of Union. On at least one occasion, and it is recorded, they convened at Broxburn House.

E. How was money raised in 1718 and 1738 to finance improvements to Cromwell Harbour?

a) An Act of Parliament was passed allowing a duty of two pennies or tuppence to be charged on every pint of ale drunk in the town (a “tuppence” was thus the name for a pint of ale). Quite an expensive tax as beer was, at the time, around fifteen pennies a pint although it should be borne in mind that a Scots Pint was equal to three English (Imperial) pints.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th June 2019

A. What was the date on the sundial which once graced the strand-side St Ann's Church?

a) 1649.
B. How did Silver Street get its name?

a) Some silver coins were found there when workmen were first laying out the street.

C. Which shop, on our once-broad High St, was owned by a member of the 'Forte Clan' and in which year did he take over?

a) Philip Forte, a confectioner, in 1928, owned number 139 (fascia added 1932), formerly The Kilt Shop, Venezia and now Adriano's.

D. Who was the Dunbar fisherman, in 1968, who advertised one of Mackintosh's sweets?

a) Peter “Boups” Johnstone advertised Toffo aboard his boat at our Victoria Harbour. (Toffo was produced until 2008.)

E. Why was Barns Ness so called?

a) Oddly enough, and fact being stranger than fiction, a Mr. Ness owned the barns or granaries located there.

Daly's Corner Quiz

Original & Best

13th May 2019

A. What kind of habitation might the Iron Age people of Lochend have dwelt in?

a) A crannog – possibly propinquous to the present location of 32 Wilson Place, which is the updated location of a massive burial cist of The Iron Age people of Lochend (NT 681 776)

B. When did Dunbar install a formally regulated water supply?

 a) In August 1766, an agreement was made with Mr Hay of Spott to bring water into the town, by means of leaden pipes, from St John’s Well and the Smithy Well near Spott. The improvement cost a total of £1,700 (around £280,000 nowadays) and was fully operational by September 1767.

C. Where, near the shoreline, were The Breezy Burgh's Poo-pits?

 a) On the Custom House Square side of Broadhaven, near MacArthur’s Store.

D. Where was the ancient Ruchlaw close?

 a) Its course was opposite to the Girnal (Dreadnought), on Lamer Street, through to the Tobacco Close (the Long Lobby) at the rear of the Old Ship Inn

 E. Why were the three arches of the town gates partially removed?

a) In order to allow pipes to be laid down to bring water into the town.