The Suez crisis of 1956 created a petrol shortage, but as the number of private car users at that time was relatively small, the effects were not very significant.
Lottery money (about £1500) was given to the Youth Club in 2000; this was spent on equipment.
People
The Fletcher family played a dominant role in the life of the parish until the death of Captain Andrew Mansel Talbot Fletcher – JP, breeder of Shorthorn cattle, and sometime president of the United East Lothian Agricultural Society – on 16 February 1951 and of his wife on 25 June 1953. His funeral was a major local event, attended by large numbers of estate workers and tenants as well as family and many of the gentry of the county. His heir, John T.T. Fletcher, did not live permanently at Saltoun Hall, although housekeepers maintained the property.
Ruth Michaelis Jena lived in the Lang Hoose in Saltoun village. She is buried along with her husband in Saltoun churchyard. She was an author/writer/journalist famous for her work on the brothers Grimm, and an award is given annually in her name for contributions to the study of folklore or folklife in Great Britain and Ireland.
Professor Andrew Rutherford, Vice-Chancellor of London University, who lived in the drawing room flat in Saltoun Hall in the 1990s was a leading authority on Rudyard Kipling and wrote extensively about his work.
Jeannie Sandilands was awarded the MBE in 2001 in recognition of her work in the community.
THIS ACCOUNT OF SALTOUN PARISH WAS WRITTEN BY JULIE MURPHY. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WAS PROVIDED BY THE FOLLOWING:
- Kathy Fairweather: Saltoun Hall; Interviewer of Christina Gillies
- Julie Murphy: Interviews
- The Saltire Society: Fletcher of Saltoun Annual Lecture
- Alistair Scott & Walter Gordon: Saltoun Hall trees
- And residents and ex-residents of the parish, including
Christine Gillies (childcare); Nan Louden (church); Margaret McCormack (home life; church; leisure – dances); Jeannie Sandilands (education; leisure – play) who kindly shared their recollections.