Isabelle Somerville, Grandmother of Christine Powell standing at the door of No. 10 Holding in the 1930s.
Most people on this site won’t know that the small holdings at Wester Hailes were built in 1930 for WW1 veterans. They were given the chance of renting around 7 acres each that they could use for agriculture. My grandad, George Jackson Somerville was one. When WW2 broke out and Italy sided with Germany, all the innocent Italians were imprisoned in POW camps, one of these being on Calder Road. The prisoners were sent out on work parties and one of those consisted of electricians who put electricity in all the small holdings on Dumbryden Road. My grandad was also allocated a couple who worked on the land. At the end of the war my grandad and a few of the Edinburgh Italians became lifelong pals.
The Smallholdings were all bought by Compulsory Purchase in 1967 and the land used for Housing.

Thanks to Christine Powell for the Photo and info.