<< The Braid Burn at Mid LibertonMid Liberton and the Flood of 2000
<< The Braid Burn at Mid Liberton
The land upon which the Mid Liberton estate was built at the beginning of the 1980s is shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1896 as serving as nurseries for market gardens which provided fresh produce for transporting into the growing city.
Along with the nearby dairies of Blackford Glen and Nether Liberton, these were helping to improve the diet and health of a city whose first environmental health protection was put in place by Sir Duncan Littlejohn around 1870. (He had actually demanded the removal of dairies, with their associated dangers of tuberculosis and other cattle-related diseases, from the city proper, to the suburbs, hence the number of dairies in the area.)
<< Good's Corner around 1901
The nurseries eventually passed into the hands of the Edinburgh University School of Agriculture, who continued their use for produce, and even up until recently, residents of the estate would find strawberry runners popping up in unexpected places as a legacy of the land's former owners !
An apocryphal story of the building of Mid Liberton relates that the company who built the northern end of the development went into liquidation before finishing the whole undertaking, and the southern end was completed by a different company, but to the original
design.
The Mid Liberton Flood, 26 April 2000
On the evening of Wednesday 26 April 2000, at about 6.30pm, following three days of heavy rain, the Braid Burn burst its banks and flooded over the roadway and into the homes between 8 and 20 Mid Liberton. The Edinburgh Council, who had been told of the threat at 8.30am in the morning, had not delivered any sandbags until it was already too late.
<The Braid Burn around 3.00pm on Wednesday April 26 2000
The Braid Burn, Mid Liberton about 6.00pm on 26 April 2000
Neighbours and council workers strove to shore up houses as the waters rose quickly, until reaching a high-water level at about 8.45pm.
<The scene about 7.30pm 26/4/2000
As a result of the flooding, several families had to vacate their properties for full repairs to be made. Others had to take remedial action to dry out voids below floorboards, etc.
Whilst being a severe emergency for many of the residents, it was also an occasion to come together and help in a way not normally seen except in such need. It certainly will be remembered for a long time to come as the day the normally tranquil Braid Burn made its presence felt !