Heirlooms; A Gold Pocket Watch from a Life on the Rails

George Ferguson Grosset was born in 1863, at 4 Bridge Street, Portobello, Edinburgh, to Helen Ferguson and Ebenezer Grosset. His father Ebenezer was a journeyman blacksmith, meaning that he was a trained smithy, and worker for an employer (not self employed).

Just 7 years later the renowned Scottish singer and entertainer Harry Lauder was born in the small cottage across the street from 4 Bridge Street.

George lived to the age of 71, and spent all but his last days in Portobello, Edinburgh. Portobello is now considered a sweet seaside neighbourhood of Edinburgh, but back in the late 1860s it was very much a hive of industry.

Portobello High Street in the 1800s

In 1881 George was 18 years old and still living at home, which was by then 59 High Street, Portobello. He was working as a pottery labourer. Portobello had a thriving pottery industry, with several potteries situated around the mouth of the Figgate Burn. I think it likely that he was working at the A W Buchan & Co Pottery, which specialised in utilitarian stoneware; the type of pottery used for bottling beer, canning marmalade, and for making bed pigs (an early sort of hot water bottle.) A W Buchan opened in 1878, and was the closest pottery to George's home on the High Street. It was probably hard work at the pottery, but  George was not to stay working there for long.

Four years later George married Margaret Bald, when he was working as a railway signalman, and living, still at 59 High Street Portobello. Portobello Station was not far from this address, and I think it's likely that he worked somewhere along the lines that served that station.

Portobello Station was opened in 1846 by the North British Railway Co, and rebuilt in 1887-90. By 1891 George was the head signalman. His family had grown and by the time of the census he had 3 sons;  Ebenezer (4yo), Robert (3yo), and George Ferguson (8mo). They had moved to 'Slight's Court', Ramsay Lane by this time, and we can find George in the Portobello Directory of 1894, of page 49. 

Click here to open the directory.

Whilst there is a Ramsay Place in Portobello today, this map suggests that it is not the same street as the Ramsay Lane at which George's family once lived. This postcard, however, gives us a glimpse of what it might have looked like during George's lifetime. (See top left corner for an image of Ramsay Lane.) Portobello does still have many historic buildings, but there has been significant redevelopment of the area in the last 60 odd years.

By 1895 George and Margaret had moved their growing family to 2 Livingstone Place (now renamed Adelphi Grove). They now had a 4th son, Robert Bald Grosset (born in 1893) and Helen Calder Grosset  (born in 1895). When the 1901 census was taken the family were still living at the same address, and there were 2 more daughters (Beatrice Goodall Grosset; 1897, and Margaret Bald Grosset; 1900). In between the birth of these girls the family had lost a son, James Grosset, who died on the day of his birth, from 'convulsions'. After consulting with a midwife friend of mine I believe that he probably suffered a birth injury which caused a lack of oxygen to the brain. This could have resulted in convulsions and death. Whilst infant death was fairly common at the time, grief was not lessened by the normalcy. I often wonder at how parents in those times, when mental health was not supported so well, managed to bear the loss of a child.

Livingstone Place, now known as Adelphi Grove

Six years later the 1901 census recorded the family living at 12 Livingstone Place, just down the road from #2, and next door to the volunteer drill ground (now a lawn bowling club). This building was a 3 floor tenement which housed at least 4 families. George and Margaret probably had no more than 3 rooms, in which they squeezed their entire family of 6 children ranging in age from 12 years to 9 months. George continued into his second decade of working as a railway signalman for the North British Railway Co.

We know that George worked for the North British Railway Co because the 1921 census gives the name of the employer; N. B. Railway Co. The North British Railway was established in 1844, was based in Edinburgh, and opened the line linking Scotland with England, in Berwick in 1846. Later in 1921, the British Railways Act caused the NBR to merge with various other railway companies to create the LNER (the London & North Eastern Railway).

The North British Railway Co coat of arms featuring the English rose and the Scottish thistle.

Signalmen, in the early years of the 19th century, had to check that each train had passed his signal box in its entirety, looking for the red tail light hanging from the back of the last vehicle. Once the red lamp was spotted, suggesting that the train was complete, the section of line could be declared clear. Signalmen then would have to log the trains movement past the box in the Train Register Book. Communications with other signalmen in adjacent boxes would also be logged in this gigantic tome. By the time George started working as a signalman technological advances had made things a little easier. The invention of the electrical telegraph allowed signalmen to send and receive messages to confirm that a train had moved through a section of line. Signalmen would pull a lever in the signal box, to mark a section of track as 'danger' when a train entered the block, and then 'all clear' would be called by pulling another lever, when the train had left the block of track. This system formed the basis of today's modern signalling system.

Due to the need for decent clerking abilities in the job, signalmen were well known for their literacy skills. Despite this, however, wages were generally low. As a head signalman I imagine George received extra compensation, which perhaps explains the ability to afford 3 rooms, rather than 2. It also perhaps explains how this wonderful photograph of George Ferguson Grosset came to be.

George Ferguson Grosset, 1863-1935

This beautiful photograph is rather large; almost double letter size, and we think taken around 1920. When we found it, it was not in good shape, and needed a lot of care and attention. An expert photograph restorer looked after it for us, and carefully removed a large water mark on it. A fabulous framer has put it behind museum quality glass to protect it from further damage, and it sits, pride of place, over the 100 year old piano in our home. Whilst he looks rather stern, I like to think he has a sort of twinkle in his eye, and the beginning of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Whilst wages would have been low, railway companies were often pretty good at offering benefits such as pensions, sick pay, convalescent homes and such like. Days were often slow paced for staff, and this allowed for a better work/life balance than perhaps we would be used to today. So whilst living day to day might have been a little tight, George was perhaps better cared for than people working in other industries and services of the time. Certainly he was in a better position than a pottery labourer.

George must have worked for the the North British Railway Co for about 40 years or so, probably retiring at the age of 60 or 65. We have this beautiful gold pocket watch, which we've been told belonged to George. It is our understanding that this watch was given to him, on the occasion of his retirement from the railway service, however there are no markings at all on the watch, so we cannot be sure if this is fact or wistful conjecture. 

In 1928 Margaret, his wife, died, and his two of his daughters, Helen and Jessie, moved back into the family home, perhaps to take care of him. They later, all three, moved to 28 Henderson Row (now renamed Adelphi Place). These houses are low, little cottages which look like they could have originally been built as fisherman's cottages, or almshouses. It was the ideal place for an older gentleman of pensionable age, and according to electoral records for 1933-34, Robert, his second son, and wife Mary were living next door at #30.

George died in 1935, not in Portobello, the town that he had called home for the 71 years of his life, but in Uphall, West Lothian. 

Bangour Village Hospital was opened in 1906 under the official name of Edinburgh District Asylum. It was the psychiatric hospital for the Edinburgh area, which included Portobello. During the First and Second World Wars it was requisitioned by the war office, but in the years between each war it reverted to serving the population with in-patient mental health care. 

Soldiers being cared for by nurses, in the gardens at Bangour Village Hospital, 1915.

Considering this, George's age, and that we know that he was carefully looked after by his daughters and son in the years following his wife's death, it seems likely that George was suffering from dementia. His actual cause of death was related to a heart condition, and no mention of dementia is made on the death certificate. At his passing his 8 living children, with the exception of his eldest son Ebenezer, who had emigrated to San Diego, California in 1910, were living in, or near Portobello. 

Sadly I have not been able to ascertain where he was buried or interred, but I have learned that his wife Margaret was buried at Piershill Cemetery. I think that it is likely that George was buried with his wife of 50 years. It made me smile to discover that the railway line runs down the side of Pierhsill Cemetery.

#Grosset

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https://www.portobelloheritagetrust.co.uk/pottery%20manufacture.htm

https://lifeandtherailway.yolasite.com/signalling-changes.php#:~:text=It%20was%20a%20signalman's%20duty,thus%20the%20section%20was%20clear.

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https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/England_Occupations_Railway_Employees_-_International_Institute

https://ellenandjim.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/dickenss-signalman-the-trauma-of-technology/

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/iha-signal-boxes/heag137-signal-boxes-iha/

https://maps.nls.uk/transcriptions/edinburgh/viewer/#zoom=18&lat=55.95573&lon=-3.11658

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangour_Village_Hospital

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15915745.bangour-village-hospital-next-abandoned-psychiatric-site/#gallery15