I, too, used to walk up Piggies Lonnen (Letters, 13 June) with my sisters on our way from Lemington to Walbottle, to see my Grandpa, Johnny McSwine. We were allowed to help feed his pigs and clean out their pigsties. Though the lonnen was near the “piggery”, it had nothing to do with Grandpa’s pigs, who never left their sties. On a memorable visit he took us to see the sow and her piglets cosseted under a heat lamp in the biggest of the three sties. The pigs were fed on scraps and meal which was weighed out in the “flower house”, – so called because that was where mounds of freshly cut blue scabious would be bunched and boxed ready for market. Around the tea table at his house, I would hear about the Bull family who lived in the village, but I don’t think had bulls. My grandfather died in 1963 but his name, or his father’s, lives on – “Johnny’s Bank” is the road that ran past the market garden up to Walbottle Stores. The market garden continued until my Uncle Fred retired.
Judith McSwaine
Newcastle upon Tyne
• The street names of south-west Scotland are evidence of a culture shared with north-east England, at least in their alleyways. For example, Jenny’s Loaning in Castle Douglas clearly matches the lonnens of Northumberland, while Friars Vennel in Dumfries would fit in well in Durham.
Steven Edgar
Bristol
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