Memories of Kinlochard - Bill Davidson

My name is William Davidson, known as Bill. My connection with Kinlochard is through my late mother, Margaret Cuthill Baird Davidson. My great aunt was Lilias Black who married John Black, the Waterman who controlled the water supply flow from Loch Katrine to Glasgow.

I remember my mother telling me of the good times they had as young people in the 1920's and 1930's at aunt Lilias' at the Teapot and the Post Office. Auntie Lil as we called her, led a busy life. She was postmistress in Kinlochard and she was also the very first Youth Hostel Warden in the U.K. when the hostel was in a big black barn at the rear of the old post office.

My uncle Bobby used to have a motorbike with a sidecar and on Friday night take at least six of his brothers and sisters to stay in tents camping at the back of the Teapot, then going to the dances and local get-togethers having great times. It was rough washing in the freezing cold fresh water in the burn that ran down at the back of The Teapot, but very healthy.

I remember the Black family clearly. As a child we used to visit them in the old Post Office at Kinlochard in the late 1940's, every May Bank Holiday and the September weekend holiday. From the age of four I remember we as a family - the Davidsons - would walk the road from Aberfoyle up to Kinlochard as there was no transport going up the road at that time of day, then catch Duncan's Bus back down the road leaving at 4.30 in the afternoon to meet up with the bus for Stirling for the next leg of our return journey home to Grangemouth.