There has been little change in housing location. Six single-storey council homes – Orlits -were built in Bolton village in the early 1950s, and development of the steading at Ewingston was started. The schoolteacher, Mrs Fraser, was allocated the Orlit next to the school.
The main change in the parish has been the change in family accommodation. Most cottages in 1945 outwith Bolton were tied to agricultural workers and their families. By 2000 there remained only three tied cottages. Cottages were either sold or let, most were considerably upgraded and many joined to one unit. The significance of this was the development of an entirely different type of population. Most commuted to their work outwith the parish and did not have the ties to the land in the same way. This population also was more affluent and in most cases owned cars.
1930s thatched cottage, Bolton Muir, designed by Philip D Hepworth
Utilities
The whole parish is on the public water supply. There is no mains sewerage, and no mains gas. At Howden, there is a mobile phone mast. Bolton village has street lighting.
Shops & Services
There were no shops in Bolton during this period, unless the cigarettes and sweeties sold from a corner of Tom Whitecross’s living room in one of the Under Bolton farm cottages c1951-56 counted as a shop.
However, a wide range of mobile shops served the area. The Co-operative groceries and fleshing van called up to the mid 1980s, and a milk round survived until 1998. Fruiterers and fish vans were regular visitors. Deliveries were made readily from Haddington and Edinburgh (John Lewis etc), and Tesco started online shopping in 1999.
The mobile library was popular.
The small play area beside Bolton hall dates from 1990; there were swings and climbing bars in the playground to the rear of the hall when it was a school. There is a public telephone in the village.