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Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

22 Dec

🧵Apropos recent events, let's take a few minutes to spare a thought for Lepers in 16th century Edinburgh who lived an incredibly strict life of lockdown. 👇

There was a leper hospital in Edinburgh from medieval times, but there's no hard record as to where it may have been. The "Liberton" = "Leper town" thing is a myth as the place name predates the arrival of the word Leper into Scots language by centuries.

No, Edinburgh's 16th century leper hospital was in Greenside, outside the city boundary at the time (and actually in the barony of Restalrig). The approximate location was between the London Road roundabout and Greenside Church.

Read 30 tweets

Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

20 Dec

£2.8 million for a 2 bed flat? Quite possibly Scotland's most expensive bit of residential real estate per square foot?

It isn't even *that* big.

When I were a lad* this were all damp and draughty shared bedrooms. I forget which particular demographic of the student body made this place its home back in the day.
* (ok, a young adult).

Read 4 tweets

Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

1 Dec

🧵Today's Leith local history thread is brought to you by chance of a couple of typos in a book, which meant I couldn't find what I was looking for but instead found an altogether more interesting tale of late 18th century shipbuilding in Leith and naval affairs 👇

The typo referred to the building of the first "ship of the line" in Scotland in Leith in 1750, a ship named Fury. However none of this stacked up, as the first HMS Fury wasn't built until much later, and wasn't a ship of the line.

In the Royal Navy, a ship of the line meant a specific sort of ship - a 1st, 2nd or 3rd rate to be precise - and something much, much larger than I thought would have been getting built in Leith quite so early. Here is the 3rd rate HMS Melville in the early 19th c.

Read 60 tweets

Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

29 Nov

It's probably the *second* most instagrammable vista in Edinburgh (after *that* street), so what's this place actually called and why?

Dinnae be a dafty Andy. We all know that's the Dean Village. Ask anyone in town. No ifs. No buts. Away to bed with you.

But what about if for most of its very long recorded of history, but what if... What if it wasn't?

Read 44 tweets

Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

28 Nov

"She'll crumble like an oatcake in the rain". #DunDunDunbar

The landed classes have nothing better to do with their time than constantly plant heather if this film is accurate. And I've no reason to suspect that it isn't

What is less convincing than the accents is the Scottish hereditary landowner selling the family seat to keep a roof over his tenants heads

Read 8 tweets

Andy Arthur

@cocteautriplets

18 Nov

🧵It's late O' Clock, so what better time for a brief 600 year whirlwind tour of the boundaries of Edinburgh. By this I mean the civil boundaries (by various definitions), not church parish or electoral ones (although they may overlap and be one and the same). 👇

In the 15th century, the extent of Edinburgh is a small place, whose civil reach is defined by the "King's Walls". Immediately to its east is the 12th century Burgh of the Canongate (owned by Holyrood Abbey), and to its north the Burghs of Barony of Restalrig and Broughton.

After the national calamity at The Battle of Flodden, the town walls are "hurriedly" rebuilt (it takes about 45 years to complete!) due to the imminent threat of English retribution. This "Flodden Wall" expands the city boundaries significantly south

Read 44 tweets

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