Wednesday 6 May 2009

ARBROATH HOLIDAY 1965

ARBROATH HOLIDAY 1965


I have just found a video clip on YouTube entitled Arbroath Holiday 1965. It’s fascinating, most people know Arbroath is where I live, I’ve shown loads of photos of this town and surrounding area over the last year or so and now I’ve found a film of the town as it was 45 years ago. I’ve been here 20 years now, some things have remained much the same and some things have changed. The real reason this film fascinates me so much is because it shows what the outdoor swimming pool was like. I have always wanted to see the outdoor pool. It was closed by the time I came to live here and now all that remains is part of the outside wall. The area behind that scruffy exterior wall is a night club now, the pool itself was filled in many years ago. I’m a great fan of the old fashioned outdoor swimming pool and find it very sad that so many of them are lost.
This was taken last yeatr so it's good to see some things don't change.


The things that have remained the same (with a little upgrading) are the paddling pool next to the outdoor swimming pool and Kerr’s Miniature railway. This is the little fire engine from Kerrs Miniature railway taken last year..............nice that it's still there.
This is the web site for Kerr's Miniature Railway
http://www.kmr.talktalk.net/

So………….have a look at my photos and then compare them to the same places on the video taken 45 years ago.
The paddling pool hasn't changed that much.


Film courtesy of Ian Mathewson YouTube.

This wall is all that remains of the outdoor pool of arbroath, watch the video to see what it used to be like. Another big difference between then and now is the number of fishing boats in the Harbour, it feels very sad to sit here looking at a harbour full of working fishing boats knowing they are almost all gone now.



8 comments:

  1. Interesting film there. It is always sad to lose a piece of the past. Perhaps it is because the memories are linked to childhood and are in that perspective, I don't know. We had many outdoor pools, still do but they cost to belong and are associated with a housing area. We also had our drive in movie theaters, mostly gone now. There were restaurants where they would bring the food to the automobile, on trays, sometimes the waiters were on roller skates. All of that gone.

    Most interesting to me is that your wading pool is the identical design to the one in Philadelphia where we went as children.

    I can imagine the sadness about the disappearing working fishing boats. We did enjoy watching them come and go. Today there are so many 'fish farms' there is hardly a profit in that type of fishing any longer. The Maryland crabbing and oyster industries are now 1/10th of the size from 10 years ago. Between technology and pollution, so much has gone.

    I'm pleased for you that you found the video. Thank you for sharing it.

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  2. Looks like this family had a lovely holiday. Thanks for posting this.

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  3. Progress sometimes isn't really very nice or fair is it-lovely video and great that you found it.

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  4. So some people's old home movies can become historical documents.

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  5. Yes, it's strange isn't it? Seeing something of one's earlier life in a state of decay. I'm not able to see videos with my dinoputer, but I noted the condition of the facility. When once it was brightly painted and maintained. How times march on.

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  6. Hi Donna don't know if this will help but here is the direct link for the video. Not sure if you can't see videos here on multiply or if you just don't see them at all, does this help??

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snVcKUi4IIU

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  7. oh thanks, Loretta. But no, dinoputer doesn't play any videos anymore. A computer violation notice comes up and shuts my browsers down! Sometimes I go up to the library and catch up on videos. This works ok. Do you watch the comedy show, 'Little Britain' ..well dinoputer says 'no'. haha..I can (sort of) live with it.

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  8. Thanks for sharing..very interesting trip from present to past and then back

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