A Very Tall Wall, Glebe Road

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 10 Jul 2021

The brick wall behind the new houses must be approaching 20 feet high and its presence is something of a mystery. A large-scale OS map from the late 1950s shows that there was a large building - large enough for it to have definitely not been a house anyway - situated mostly behind where the wall is located. It did, however, have the odd section that jutted out, probably to beyond where the wall is. A wall or fence is shown on the map, but due to the jutty-out bits it was not continuous. At the time of the map the road here had only a couple of buildings on it near its junction with Hartwood Road. It then led to Westmuir Farm. Since then Westmuir Road has been built, which must have about 50 or 60 houses on it. The three houses in the picture, along with another one on Hartwood Road, are built on the land formerly occupied by one house - maybe the new housing development plans so alarmed the owner at the time he deemed the wall necessary?! The houses must have only appeared in the last decade or so, as I do remember the original house still being here not too long ago. The house itself wasn't particularly remarkable - it was what surrounded it that was. The occupant(s) had a collection of strange vehicles parked in the garden and alongside the road - obscure military vehicles and sci-fi looking buggies and so on. On top of this there was a peacock that lived here too, who would often be found wandering round the vicinity with his fine tail on display.

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