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"Everlasting"

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Andy Hort @[email protected] · 2025-08-28 · 07:48 UTC

Alright

"Everlasting"

#andysdailytune #alright #nowplaying #newmusic #indiemusic #music

Andy Hort @[email protected] · 2025-08-28 · 07:48 UTC

Alright

"Everlasting"

#music #indiemusic #newmusic #nowplaying #alright #andysdailytune

Andy Hort @[email protected] · 2025-08-28 · 07:48 UTC

Alright

"Everlasting"

This thread was originally written and published in June 2022.

#andysdailytune #alright #nowplaying #newmusic #indiemusic #music

Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-10-11 · 21:39 UTC

Rose Mount: the thread about a long gone West End villa and model housing schemes

What better way to start the day than with a quick refresher on why this unusual and distinctive block is so called and on a little of its history:

Tweet by @LizzieHelenMay on Rosemount Buildings, 19/6/2022

The name Rosemount is taken from a villa of that name – Rose Mount – which once occupied this corner of land that was then outside the city limits. It was the domain of William Morison, a writer (in Scottish law; a Solicitor). Morison feud this land from the Heriot Trust in 1790 (under old Scottish feudal property law, a smaller portion of land – the feu – was split off of a larger holding for development, but the owner of the latter remained the feudal superior of the former, and was paid a feu duty as such.)

!799-1800 Edinburgh Post Office directory

Morison owned the plot of land south of the road to Glasgow via Linlithgow, and surrounded by the Dalry House estate to the west, Bonar of Grove to the south and Walker of Gardner’s Hall to the east. Note at this time the modern street name of Morrison Street did not exist (Morrison is a modern rendering of the traditional Morison). Instead of a single street name, the road was progressively Rose Mount, Tobago Street and then the more ancient lost place names of Castle Barns and Orchardfield.

“Edinburgh Castle from the South West”, early 19th century, Patrick Nasmyth. This view is taken from the area known as Orchardfield, which was a literal name for a portion of orchard land long linked to the Castle. This area is now occupied by Bread Street. From Edinburgh University Art Collection, EU0974, © 2020 University of Edinburgh.

Morison also owned the properties of Whitehouse and Adiefield in the same stretch.

Ainslie Town Plan, 1804, showing Morison at Rosemount and his neighbours. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Tobago Street was so called because the owner of the land here was one Nathaniel Davidson “of the Island of Tobago“. We can assume a plantation owner of some description. Castle Barns and Orchardfield dated back to the early Kings of Scotland, David I having an orchard and barns there in 1120 to service the castle with produce. Morison and Rose Mount are first mentioned in the feuing of 1790s and by the 1817 revision of the Town Plan, a bay-fronted house can be seen looking down an ornamental driveway and avenue along the Glasgow Road, perfectly positioned to catch the evening sun and make a statement to anyone arriving in the city from the direction of West Lothian, Stirling and Glasgow.

Rosemount, indicated by the arrow. Kirkwood’s Town Plan of 1817. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Morison is “the late” William Morison by 1824, when his lands here called “Morison’s Park” are offered for feuing. It is noted at this time that the street that would later be called Morrison Street was intended to be called St. Cuthbert’s Street. By 1849 the city is growing up around Rose Mount, the driveway and avenue seem somewhat suppressed and the structure to the rear of the house is in ruin. By this time Morrison Street (note the different spelling) is clearly established, but the buildings along its north side are not as of yet.

1849 OS Town Plan, showing Rose Mount on Morrison Street. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Morrison Street was probably not named for our William Morison, but for Thomas Morison or Morrison – a wealthy builder from Muthill near Crieff in Pertshire – whose bequest founded the Morrison’s Academy private school in Crieff. After Thomas Morison’s death, the trustees of his estate – lead by one Captain Hugh Morrison – bought William Morison’s land to the north of what would become Morrison Street and developed the streets of Dewar Place, Torphicen Street etc. By 1848, Rose Mount (site marked X) falls into disuse and is swallowed up by the Caledonian Railway coal yard, By 1854 it is struck off the Post Office Directory but the name is commemorated with an entry for Rosebank Cottages (confusingly on the old Grove lands to the east.)

OS 1876 town plan showing location of former Rose Mount house. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

Rosebank Cottages were built between 1854 and 1857 and are a charming Colonies-style housing scheme (but not by the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company) modelled on Shaw’s Houses in Pilrig. The Rosebank Cottages were designed by Alexander MacGregor to provide “flatted cottages for the better class of mechanics“. Each house contained living room, two bedrooms, a scullery and a toilet.

Rosebank Cottages.

The interior layouts and construction were by a young James Gowans, later Sir James; architect, builder, quarrymaster, local politician and businessman extraordinaire. At Rosebank, Gowans strived to give the working man and his family a small, self-contained house with its own front door, this was one of the reasons for the “deck access” of the upper level flats, accessed by a common external staircase that Gowans designed the ironwork for.

Deck access to upper flats at Rosebank Cottages, with original Gowans ironwork on the staircases.

Inside there was the luxury of a hallway, meaning there were no rooms accessed by first passing through another. He also pioneered soil pipe vents at roof level for the water closets to vent the smells away from the properties (a standard feature of toilet plumbing that we now all take for granted) and an innovative passive ventilation system which was pre-heated by drawing air in past the kitchen range grate and extracting it through a flue in the roof ridge. As if to prove a point (or perhaps because of his financial circumstances), Gowans moved into the recently completed Rosebank Cottages, living at number 34 for 4 years.

At around the same time, John Taylor and Son of Princes Street, “Cabinet makers and Upholsterers to Her Majesty the Queen” opened a large cabinet works to the south, the Rosemount Cabinet Works.

OS 1876 Town Plan showing the Rosemount Works. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

I can’t find a good photo of the Rosemount Works, but it’s noted as being built in brick, and it can be seen in the corner of these dark and grainy Britain From Above aerial photos. Taylor and Son went into liquidation in 1946 although it was communicated in the local papers that the business was being continued by some of its management. By 1951, it was a saleroom for second-hand furniture being operated by Findlater Smith Ltd.

The Rosemount Works, from Britain From Above.

The year following the construction of the Rosemount Works, 1858, the Rosemount Buildings were built to the plans of William Lambie Moffatt, to provide “model industrial housing” comprising of 96 brick-built flats in a around a private quadrangle.

Rosemount Buildings, exterior view. CC-BY-SA 2.0 Kim Traynor

The styling was very industrial itself, making extensive use of cream brick details. Moffatt (who incidentally had spent some of the younger years of his life at 8 Morrison Street), made his name designing poorhouses in Scotland and North England. Most of Moffatt’s poorhouses (or workhouses as they were known in England). These buildings were in a traditional, stone-built style, but clearly something influenced him in the radically different, dare I say “English”, style of Rosemount Buildings.

Rosemount Buildings, interior view of the quadrangle. CC-BY-SA 2.0 Kim Traynor

Again, Rosemount Buildings used deck access, with corner stair wells rather than external staircases, to provide each house with a private entrance. There was a great concern around public health at this time and it was felt that such arrangements were more sanitary for workers housing than the traditional Scottish “close”. The traditional tenement drying green was turned on its head by this design, being a central feature of the quadrangle, rather than hidden away behind the block.

Rosemount Buildings, deck access stairwell, could easily be from a barracks or factory. CC-BY-SA 2.0 Kim Traynor

In later life, Moffatt designed schools for the Free Church and – after the 1872 Education Act – for the School Boards, but these generally seem to be again in the now traditional stone, gothic style, preferred by the clients, e.g. the Portobello Board School on Duddingston Park.

Former Portobello Board School by William Lambie Moffatt

Moffatt’s Gothic style in these schools is quite distinctive, they are more ecclesiastical looking than the style favoured by later School Board architects – e.g. “Lovers Loan Board School“, now Leith Walk Primary School.

Lover’s Loan, now Leith Walk Primary. Note the ecclesiastical gothic style, similar to Portobello

Those unnecessarily grand buttresses at Lover’s Loan could easily have come off a cathedral, and were repeated by him on the visually similar Bristo (later Marshall Street) Board School, and the corner tower could have been lifted directly off of the plans for Lover’s Loan with only a few small adjustments.

Bristo Board School, another Lambie Moffat design for the Edinburgh School Board.

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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret

#gowans #haymarket #lambiemoffatt #modelhousing #rosemount

yung gribble @[email protected] · 2026-02-09 · 22:41 UTC

@andyandy grateful #thankful bob bobo dunkirkbobo

#thankful

Mark Gardner @[email protected] · 2024-06-25 · 18:30 UTC

@demiguise @nixCraft It had always been discouraged since #Perl 5.000’s release in 1994: https://github.com/Perl/perl5/blob/a0d0e21ea6ea90a22318550944fe6cb09ae10cda/pod/perlvar.pod#user-content-pod27

As to “why”—you’d have to ask either #LarryWall or #AndyDougherty.

#andydougherty #larrywall #perl

Carsten O. 📯 💚🌻 @[email protected] · 2026-02-01 · 20:01 UTC

@Andy_Scheuert der soll erst mal seine Bezüge als #ministerprasident von #Bayern zurückzahlen.
Er hat weder an Sitzungen noch Ausschüssen in nennenswerter Zahl teilgenommen, der wurstfressende #Sozialschmarotzer.

#ministerprasident #bayern #sozialschmarotzer

Carsten O. 📯 💚🌻 @[email protected] · 2026-02-01 · 20:01 UTC

@Andy_Scheuert der soll erst mal seine Bezüge als #ministerprasident von #Bayern zurückzahlen.
Er hat weder an Sitzungen noch Ausschüssen in nennenswerter Zahl teilgenommen, der wurstfressende #Sozialschmarotzer.

#ministerprasident #bayern #sozialschmarotzer

Carsten O. 📯 💚🌻 @[email protected] · 2026-02-01 · 20:01 UTC

@Andy_Scheuert der soll erst mal seine Bezüge als #ministerprasident von #Bayern zurückzahlen.
Er hat weder an Sitzungen noch Ausschüssen in nennenswerter Zahl teilgenommen, der wurstfressende #Sozialschmarotzer.

#sozialschmarotzer #bayern #ministerprasident

Carsten O. 📯 💚🌻 @[email protected] · 2026-02-01 · 20:01 UTC

@Andy_Scheuert der soll erst mal seine Bezüge als #ministerprasident von #Bayern zurückzahlen.
Er hat weder an Sitzungen noch Ausschüssen in nennenswerter Zahl teilgenommen, der wurstfressende #Sozialschmarotzer.

#ministerprasident #bayern #sozialschmarotzer

Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-09-19 · 11:40 UTC

The “Battle of South Clerk Street”: the thread about the brief war between the city’s students and its trams

This thread was originally written and published in January 2018.

I got a book out of the library. It’s a very interesting book, packed full of interesting tales and knowledge, related by a genuine expert on the subject. For instance, I’m only 1 paragraph in and I just found out that when Edinburgh Corporation took over the tramway system in 1919 it was used as a pretext to relieve all female clippies (“conductresses“) of their employment! Male employees were all kept on.

Edinburgh’s Transport. The Corporation Years, by D. L. G. Hunter

When the Corporation took over the network they made the decision to switch from the cable-hauled system to electric traction. Leith already used a modern, overhead wire electric system, but Edinburgh had persisted with the cable system. There were 4 winding houses around the city – at Portobello, Shrubhill, Tollcross and Henderson Row – and these powered endless loops of cables in conduits underneath the streets. The trams attached to these cables for motive power with a releasable gripper. The system was devoid of overhead poles and wires, but was slow, noisy, inefficient and unreliable. It was also very expensive on account of the endless repairs and maintenance required.

Cable Cars turning from Princes Street onto Lothian Road in 1903. Note the lack of overhead wires and poles, and the slot between the rails in which the cable ran. Moving between lines at junctions was a slow and elaborate process as the car had to swap between cables. © Edinburgh City Libraries

However, the prospect of overhead lines and poles on Princes Street caused something of an outcry in certain quarter. It would, they said, “result in a hedge of scrollwork“. Concerned voters formed themselves into a “Citizens Protection Committee” was formed to resist this outrage. Questions were raised in The House of Commons and a public enquiry was held. In the end a compromise was reached, a suitably stately centre pole was designed specifically for Princes Street to appease the critics. The Corporation didn’t hang about any further and forged ahead with impressive speed. The conversion of Princes Street from cable to electric was done in a single overnight shift, including erecting the entire pole and wire system and removing the cable apparatus. It took only 2 weeks to re-lay the entire north-side track 2 feet further out to allow the centre poles to fit in. Service was maintained throughout on a temporary track laid on top of the road surface

Leith Corporation – absorbed reluctantly into Edinburgh in 1920 – had taken matters into its own hands in 1904 and totally rebuilt its tram network into a modern, electric one. This had resulted in the Pilrig Muddle, where through passengers between Leith and Edinburgh had to swap from an Leith (electric) car onto an Edinburgh (cable) car at the municipal boundary at Pilrig Street. The opportunity therefore presented itself to unmuddle the muddle. There was a similar experience at Joppa, where onwards trips to Musselburgh moved onto the electric system of that district, but traffic here was less intense.

Work proceeded quickly to integrate the two networks, and the date of the first through tram was set for June 20th 1922. It would run from Leith to Liberton and a Leith councillor remarked that he was “proud the first up-to-date tramcar in Edinburgh [was to start] from Leith” (it started just within the old Leith boundary on Leith Walk, just north of Pilrig Street).

Edinburgh Evening News – Thursday 15 June 1922

The Musselburgh News reported that “there was a natural curiosity and expectancy amongst thousands of citizens to see the public start of the new cars.” The first tramcar, displaying a plate of route No. 7, was to be driven out of Shrubhill Works by Lord Provost Hutchison, followed by a further 2 cars, “all gaily decorated“, containing the official party.

The assembled dignitaries at Shrubhill depot before departure. The Lord and Lady Provost are to the left of centre, he in the top hat and she being the only woman invited for the occasion. © Edinburgh City Libraries

A blue ribbon was stretched across the road at the Edinburgh – Leith boundary at Pilrig to be cut. The Lord Provost handed over control of the tram to the driver at the G.P.O. at the top of Leith Street.

The first through electric tramcar, is waved off at Pilrig by an enthusiastic crowd

The car proceeded onwards into Edinburgh without event. However, on passing the Bridges and reaching the University at Old College it found that the way was blocked by the students who had formed a barrier across the road. This was an organised “rag“, a pretext for disorder and high-jinks. The student body was apparently feeling aggrieved at having been excluded form the official proceedings. “Progress was impossible, and it was soon noticed that the young ” intellectuals ” were bent on sharing in the first trip”. When the car came to a halt it was pelted with flour bombs by the throng and hundreds of students surged forward in an attempt to board it.

A flour “bomb” exploding outside the Empire Theatre on Nicolson Street.

Although the doors of the tram were closed, the students simply boosted eachother up the outside to the open veranda decks on the top. Many of them managing to cling on to the outside and the sole police constable on escort duty could do nothing to prevent this. The cars began to proceed again, intruders and all. Some of the students managed to climb onto the roof, helping themselves to the decorative flags and bunting for their own adornment. When the trams attempted to move on again, the students dislodged the current collection pole on the lead vehicle and the tram had to proceed to South Clerk Street under gravity alone, where it ground to a halt, powerless. The following crowd of students renewed their assault on the vehicles, having been able to summon fresh supplies of flour, meal and paper bags.

Student boarding party on the roof of one of the cars at South Clerk Street

Restarting, the trams slowly began to outpace the following throng and an uneasy peace ensued between the official party and the intruders until Church Hill was reached, where the police under Chief Constable Ross were waiting. They managed to instil some discipline on the students but found they could not remove them, despite a direct appeal to them from the Lord Provost; “Now that you men have had what you were pleased to call your fun, which, I may tell you, has caused considerable discomfort and annoyance to this party, among whom is a lady, I would ask you now to leave the cars and enable us to proceed on our return journey in peace”. The Lord Provost was particularly aggrieved because his wife the Lady Provost had been hit in the face with a bag of flour. The Chief Constable telephoned headquarters for assistance.

At the destination in Liberton, a Corporation bus full of police reinforcements – driven by Councillor Thomson – had been sent ahead to ensure no repeat would happen on the return journey. The trams were met by the police, with batons drawn, and the students were forcibly ejected and sent packing. The return journey was undertaken with heavy police escort and at a speed sufficient to outpace the students who tried to follow by running.

Police guard the return tram from the roof. Note the motor bus in the background, probably the one which had delivered the police reinforcements

The official party then returned to the City Chambers for a celebratory luncheon and speeches. The convenor of the Tramway Committee – Councillor Mancor – used his speech to make a thinly veiled attack on the “Citizens Protective Committee” who “seemed to think they were better informed of the wishes and desires of the constituents than the Town Council.” Mancor described the objectors to “Rip Van Winkles“. The day ended on a down note when a car on Leith Street fouled the overhead wires and snapped them, bringing the network temporarily to a halt in this area, followed by a snap near Salisbury Place, again creating a temporary halt of service. These were the result of teething troubles, the overhead lines being strung too taut. The Students Representative Council that evening issued a “manifesto” calling for restraint on the part of the student body but without actually apologising;

The unfortunate incident which occurred this morning , when a student was seriously injured , is being inquired into by the police authorities, who have expressed their regret , at the occurrence . The case of the students concerned is being adequately represented by a number of students who were eye-witnesses .
It will obviously damage the case and prejudice the general body of students if any further demonstrations are made . Unpleasantness between the police and students is to be deprecated at any time, particularly as the former have always treated student “rags” sympathetically .
It is now a long time since anything , like this has occurred and both students and policemen are apt to get excited with very little provocation . All students are therefore earnestly requested to refrain from any rash act which would bring the name of the University into disgrace
The rag this morning was on the whole quite a creditable performance and it would be a pity that it should be marred by subsequent thoughtlessness on the part of a few”
The Scotsman – 21 June 1922

A procession of over two-hundred students marched to the Empire Theatre in the evening where they applauded the performers before marching off in the direction of Princes Street before dispersing. The cable and electric systems operated in parallel for a period, but the Corporation proceeded with full electrification at a breakneck speed. Princes Street was completed by 21st October 1922. The Comely Bank and Mound section was the last to be converted from cable haulage, “much to the disgust” of the polite classes of the New Town and Stockbridge. The system was fully electrified by the 8th June 1924, a remarkable achievement in almost exactly 2 years.

Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.

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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret

#june20 #police #riot #tram #trams #tramways

Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2022-09-25 · 01:48 UTC

The thread about Asa Wass & Son; the rags-to-riches rag-and-bone men of Victorian Edinburgh

This thread was originally written and published in January 2020.

There was for many years a Steptoe-like institution in Fountainbridge by the name of Asa Wass & Son Ltd. Asa is a biblical Hebrew name and Wass an ancient Anglo-Norman surname, most common in Asa’s time in the Midlands of England. According to my Dad, who grew up in nearby Dalry in the 1950s, the correct local pronunciation is “Azzy Woz“. There is an old Edinburgh tongue-twister which goes;

Izzy Azzy A’ways Iz, or Izzy Azzy Woz?
Asa Wass tongue-twister, source, (Is He as He Always is, or is He As He Was / Asa Wass?)

ASA WASS & SON Ltd. Licensed. Registered.

Asa Wass was born in Morley, Yorkshire in 1833 to Judith and Stephen Wass, a carpenter and moulder. According to the 1851 census, when he was 18, he was trained in his father’s trade. He married Hannah Hirst in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, in 1858 when he was 25 and she 24. They moved to Edinburgh and their first daughter, Elizabeth, was born here in 1859 within the year. More children followed; Judith Ann (Judith was the name of both Asa and Hannah’s mothers) in 1861; Clara in 1866; Thomas Henry in 1868; John Arthur in 1871; Sarah Hannah in 1874.

The “Mapping Jewish life in Edinburgh” publication by the The Research Network in Jewish Studies at Edinburgh University lists the Wasses as Jewish, and indeed Asa and Hannah are names from Hebrew. However, Asa’s mother was baptised into the Wesleyan Methodist Church; he and his siblings were baptised into the Church of England and Asa and Hannah were married in a civil ceremony, so I am not sure on the basis for this assertion. The Wass family are buried under a Celtic cross but I suppose that might just be fashion!

In 1861, the family was resident in the humble surroundings of the Old Town at 235 Cowgate (at the foot of Blair Street), with Asa’s occupation being rag merchant. They are first advertised in Edinburgh in the 1863 Post Office Directory as being at 4 St. Leonard Street, which was the family home, and the shop and yard were now at 260 Cowgate. so we can make an assumption that they are not living and trading in the same place. The entry in the PO Directory is also a symbol of success as it means that they can afford to pay for the listing.

Cowgate by James Skene, 1817. 235 Canongate was in this range of buildings, about in the middle of the illustration. Little would have changed between the time this sketch was made and the Wass family living here. © Edinburgh City Libraries

In 1871 the Wass family residence and the business itself are moved to 63 Fountainbridge, where they are listing themselves as “woollen rag merchants“. This was on the corner of Lothian Road and Early Grey Street, so a prime position to trade from. In 1878, Asa Wass (“Broker, Fountainbridge“) his wife and his manager James Erskine were found guilty at the Burgh Court of contravening the Brokers Act for purchasing “three small quantities of old hair without being in possession of the necessary licence“. Each was fined £1 with the option of 3 days imprisonment instead. Despite this curious brush with the law they obviously prosper, as within ten years the business has moved to a much larger premises in a yard at 161 Fountainbridge and the family are at Spyfield Cottage in Colinton. They have a shop unit that occupies 153-159 and 163 Fountainbridge and at number 161 is the pend given access to their yard.

1944 OS Town Plan showing 161 Fountainbridge through the pend. WM = Weighing Machine. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

The same census that places them here also records only 12 Wasses in Scotland, all in Midlothian and 9 of them being Asa, his wife and his children. They are still living in Colinton in the 1891 in the census, by which time there are an entire 16 Wasses in Scotland. Asa’s occupation is still recorded as being the humble-sounding “Rag, Rope, Paper and Metal Merchant“. However we begin to get a real sense of his success in business; the family had a live-in servant, Margaret Catcher, with them in Colinton and the PO Directory lists a house in town at 17 Leamington Terrace, as good a neighbourhood then as it is now. In 1893, Asa Wass was given permission by the Dean of Guild Court to erect stores at his yard at 161 Fountainbridge.

The photograph that I have found of Asa Wass shows a dignified, respectable-looking Victorian gentleman, clearly somebody who was doing well in life. Edinburgh had a big glue & gelatine manufactory near Fountainbride at Cox’s in Gorgie which demanded bones and skins and both the rivers of the Esk and Water of Leith supported a paper industry who made use of copious quantities of linen rags in their process. A central clearing house, the General Rag Warehouse, had been established in the city as early as 1793 to act as a middle-man between the paper makers and the individual collectors of rags. Rags would be sorted into one of five different categories; Superfine, Fine, Blue, Second and Grey, before being sold, and there was a big premium for the better quality. There was a ready demand in the city for Asa’s skins, bones and rags and he obviously made a lot out of these.

Asa Wass, from Ancestry.com

He passed away aged 66 in on November 10th 1898 at the family home at 11 Morningside Park, a very respectable address. His funeral was held on Monday 14th at 3PM at the Dean Cemetery – not where you neccesarily expect to find a rag-and-bone man buried. Asa left an estate worth about £160,000 in today’s money. All the evidence points to him having done very well out of his trade. Hannah Wass continued to live at Morningside Park and died there in 1911.

Wass family gravestone in the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh

On the death of Asa, his eldest son Thomas Henry takes over the running of the business, although the properties are is in his mother’s name and it remains known as Asa Wass & Son. However the following year the entire business is listed for sale, and the year after a shop that they used in Rose Street is also sold. By the 1915 valuation rolls the business and proprietor of 161 Fountainbridge are Asa Wass & Son Ltd, but with Thomas Henry in charge. He lived in a pleasant house at 6 Merchiston Grove and died in 1922 at an even larger and more pleasant one at 3 Midmar Avenue, leaving an estate worth at least £400k in today’s money. His son was also Thomas Henry, known as Harry, but I am not clear if he took over from his father. There is a photo of the Wass nag and cart in 1925, by which point Asa has not been around for nearly a quarter of a century, his son too has died, but it still trades under their name and reputation.

Wass Horse & Cart in 1925. CC-By-NC Edinburgh Collected

In 1941, Asa Wass & Son Ltd. occupies 161, 169 and 177 Fountainbridge, telephone number 21544. By this time, they are the only bone merchants listed “in the book” in Edinburgh. The are also listed under rag merchants and metal merchants and have taken out a not insubstantial advert. Business is clearly still prosperous and the local paper and glue industries still have a use for the wares of Asa Wass & Son Ltd. and of course wartime Britain could not get enough scrap metal.

Asa Wass & Son advert in the 1940-41 PO Directory

The business ceased trading and was abandoned in the early 1960s, by this time it had traded for longer under the Asa Wass & Son name for longer than either Asa himself was involved. The yard became a haunt for local children to play in and there are some photos from this period here; http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_B/0_buildings_-_asa_wass_yard.htm. The whole area was very run down and was swept away in the early 1970s when Scottish & Newcastle relocated the Fountain Brewery there (from over the road) .

Asa and Hannah’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, moved to Devonshire on her marriage and when she died in 1934 was recorded as living at a house called Dunedin Crediton, one wonders if this was some sort of family joke about the source of the family’s wealth. Her younger brother, John Arthur Wass, was confined to the Crichton Institution for Lunatics in Dumfries in June 1890 around the age of 19, far from home. This is another indication of the family’s wealth; this was the best sort of place money could afford to send somebody with a mental health condition at this time. He was discharged around a year later, but is admitted to the Aberdeen Royal Asylum in 1895. In 1899 he is transferred to the Dundee Asylum, from where he escapes in November of that year.

John Arthur Wass’s admission to Dundee Asylum in 1899. NRS MC2/478

John Arthur was a private patient (i.e. he or his family were wealthy enough to pay), and was suffering from moral insanity (“madness consisting in a morbid perversion of the natural feelings, affections, inclinations, temper, habits, moral dispositions, and natural impulses, without any remarkable disorder or defect of the interest or knowing and reasoning faculties, and particularly without any insane illusion or hallucinations“) according to his Notice of Admission to Dundee in 1899. After his escape he emigrates to the US in 1901 (I am not clear if he was ever “recaptured”) and here he settles down, marries and becomes a poultryman, in Monmouth, New Jersey. By 1915 he was living in New York as a landscape gardener and by 1920 was a sculptor. I sincerely hope he found peace here after the torment of his years in Victorian asylums.

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Manchester Evening News: Number one for news, opinion, sport & celebrity news [Unofficial] @[email protected] · 2026-03-04 · 16:43 UTC

Everything you need to know as Andy Burnham breaks silence following Labour loss at Gorton and Denton by-election

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/everything-you-need-know-andy-33532016

#andyburnham #gortonanddentonbyelection2026 #uknews

Manchester Evening News: Number one for news, opinion, sport & celebrity news [Unofficial] @[email protected] · 2026-02-28 · 16:33 UTC

Andy Burnham would 'probably' have won Gorton and Denton by-election, says Labour deputy leader

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/andy-burnham-would-probably-won-33508877

#greatermanchesternews #gortonanddentonbyelection2026 #andyburnham #politics #lucypowellmp

Manchester Evening News: Number one for news, opinion, sport & celebrity news [Unofficial] @[email protected] · 2026-02-28 · 16:33 UTC

Andy Burnham would 'probably' have won Gorton and Denton by-election, says Labour deputy leader

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/andy-burnham-would-probably-won-33508877

#lucypowellmp #politics #andyburnham #gortonanddentonbyelection2026 #greatermanchesternews

Andy Hort @[email protected] · 2025-10-27 · 08:42 UTC