Plus the weekly Beatcrofting radio show

Another chunk of enamel disappears, courtesy of Marks and Spencer’s all-too granular granary bread, and my tongue restlessly probes the fissures, tunnels and caverns of my West of Scotland teeth. A dental speleology.

My dentist dad’s mercury amalgam fillings are mostly still intact. It’s the natural white chewing implements that are deteriorating. Despite the religious brushing and flossing. The fluoride. I blame The Sourdough Years, which fortunately appear to be passing. And of course the full-fat Irn Bru decades.

Back in Shetland next Tuesday, and desperate attempts will be made to arrange an appointment with the isles’ struggling dental service. Meanwhile, no pain. And that granary bread? Never again. this is a punishment for last week’s meditation on gas days and full clearances. the tip of my tongue’s rid-raw. Better sterilise it with some whisky. (Amid all the fuss about the new Harris distillery, may I point out that you can get a bottle of pretty good Ardmore Legacy malt for £21 in Morrisons?

Where the Barony dwarfs the King’s estate

The latest of many trips to King Charles’s Ayrshire outpost, Dumfries House (it’s all about the gardens) was followed by a first visit to the great structure that towers above that royal sprawl, and indeed the entire Cumnock/Auchinleck/Ochiltree triangle.

The Barony A-Frame is all that’s left of what was once a colliery complex employing 1600 people. I’ve written before about how the Auchinleck Community Centre was a vibrant gig venue during the mining years, famously hosting The Who, then at the peak of their fame, in 1969.

I used to pass the huge, heavily polluted Barony site when it was still functioning, driving regularly from Troon to Kirkcudbright to worship at the tiny gospel hall there. (the upstairs hall in Kirkcudbright High Street was run and indeed owned by pioneer Scottish craft potter Thomas Lochhead; more about all that in a later newsletter).

But I was unprepared for the emotional power of what remains of the Barony. The gigantic pithead winding gear frame sits in landscaped grounds with displays telling the story of the pit, along with a playpark and a mountain bike trail. The dereliction I remember from the demolition of the pit and power station has been forested and greenswarded. But the melancholy of the “Barony A-Frame Token Board” (the name a reference to the double-token system miners used on going on shift) comes from its role as a memorial to deep mining in Scotland as a whole.

My lost grandfather

And as I stood under the colossal structure, I remembered my grandfather, also Thomas or Tommy Morton, killed 85 years ago in a pithead accident at Rosehall No 5 pit in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire. He had been an NCO pilot in the RAF, then a mining engineer. Born in Africa, his father, George, had died of ‘blackwater fever’ in 1917 in Gogoryo, in what was then British East Africa, now Uganda. But that’s another story. The Bellshill Speaker carried the following story:

My grandfather left a widow with three young children. “Little George Morton” was my late dad. I didn’t see this story until he showed me it in 2017. “Typical journalists, sensationalising everything,” he said.

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A conversation at the supermarket café

“Naw, son, I cannae dae you a flat white. Instant only. See they machines?” (Indicates not one but two espresso monsters) “They plumbed them in months ago, replaced the old ones. Then they say there’s nae enough water pressure to make them work. Never been back since tae fix them. Ah ken! So instant only, black or white, powder, no granules. But you’ll get a flat white from the Costa machine at the garage.”

Overheard at the checkout

“Jar of Sharwoods Tikka sauce! Did I ever give you that recipé?”

“Aye, the bairn loves it.”

“Tikka sauce, pasta, smoked sausage. Cannae beat it.”

Here’s this week’s Beatcrofting show

As heard on 60 North Radio. It’s on Mixcloud here:

https://www.mixcloud.com/tom-morton2/beatcrofting-with-tom-morton-friday-29-september-2023/

Torres — Don’t go Puttin’ Wishes in my Head

Al Stewart — On the Border

Chic — Good Times

Joe Cocker — Many Rivers to Cross

The National — Smoke Detector

Robyn — Dancing on my Own

Martin Stephenson — Spoke in the Wheel

Roxy Music — Prairie Rose

Richard and Linda Thompson — Calvary Cross

Beth Orton — Couldn’t Cause Me Harm

Plimsouls — A Million Miles Away

Peter Case — Entella Hotel

Buy some of my books, if you so desire:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Morton/e/B001K8DS8M%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share