Later this week, the Association will celebrate 25 years of becoming Abertay Housing Association. To mark the occasion, some of our longstanding tenants have kindly shared their memories of being an AHA tenant during this period.

In the run up to our actual anniversary on Thursday 27th October, we will feature a tenant story each day.

Today, Mr and Mrs Burne-Jones from Kirkton share their memories with us…

Mr and Mrs Burne-Jones’ home has been in the family since Mr Burne-Jones was a child, living in the property since 1952 then, succeeding to the tenancy in 1972.

Over 70 years as tenants means Mr and Mrs Burne-Jones have seen HUGE changes over this period of time including the transition from Scottish Homes to Abertay Housing Association.
One of the major differences being the general landscape, the houses they currently see from their living room window were once tomato and berry fields where many a day was spent playing endless games of football. There were no fences, everything was open plan.

There were fewer cars on the roads back then, so very little traffic which in turn meant there were only a couple of cars parked outside properties.

The heating was a coal fire and the remains of the coal cellar remain to this day, even on the hottest of days the coal fire would need to be on, in order to fuel the back boiler for hot water. This was upgraded to an immersion heater and more recently to full gas central heating…a big difference to days gone by.

No washing machine in the house back then, so off to the ‘wash house’ every week to do the laundry and take a bath!

The rent was collected weekly (every Friday). This would be collected at the door and Mr Burne-Jones recalls this was approximately ’18 bob’ a week which roughly equates to 90p per week in today’s money, a very big difference than that of today!

Mrs Burne-Jones recalls there was a strong sense of community spirit, back in the day. Having 3 children meant all families would meet up regularly to spend time together and neighbours looked out for one another and you knew everyone who lived in the street.

Mr and Mrs Burne-Jones still enjoy living in their property to this day, despite the changes they’ve witnessed over the years, there’s no place like home!

A big thank you for sharing your memories with the Association!