• Bessie Coventry, Tealing Hallkeeper

Bessie Coventry, Tealing Hallkeeper

BESSIE COVENTRY, PRESIDENT TEALING WOMAN'S GUILD, HALLKEEPER, PRESIDENT OF THE WEDNESDAY CLUB AND TEALING COMMUNITY COUNCILLOR

Although it will be 50 years in December since I came to stay in Tealing from a neighbouring Parish, it is only during the past 15 years that I have taken a keen interest in what goes on in the community. When I came here we lived in the old RAF huts that were converted into houses until they built the present council houses, four years later, in 1954.

At that time there were 2 mobile grocer vans and 2 bakers and 2 butchers used to come around 2-3 times a week. Plus there was a Bank of Scotland van once a week. There also used to be 3 small shops on the Forfar Road. Then a shop was built in Inveraldie -it had a License and a Post Office, until it was sold. The new owners turned it into the Inveraldie Inn with the shop made smaller at the back, until it changed hands a few times, then sadly we had no more local shops. Supermarkets going up in Dundee made it difficult for small shops to stay open. I think the biggest change was when the Forfar Road was made into a dual carriageway.

As President of the Guild and the Wednesday Club and being involved with the Tealing Hall and the Community Council, I would like to see more people in the community come along to some of the activities that go on. They don't know what they are missing out on.

(Written in Spring 2000)