Shops in old Addiewell
Watt Street is the double-storey row at right angles to the right-hand end of Livingstone Street.
West Lothian Local History Library.
By Sybil Cavanagh
Was the first shop this one...?
The first shop or store in the village was run by the Oil Co., and was the part of Muirhall Cottage, at Addiewell Station which is now used as a wash-house or store room. Later a store was erected on the site of the present Co-operative Society, but was at one time burned out, and then rebuilt as it stands at present.
The School was first held in Watt Street Hall, which will be well remembered by the older residents. It consisted of two downstairs houses with the dividing walls removed. The School was afterwards held in the Institute, and some of the teachers, such as Mr Hislop who was later in West Calder and Mr Watson who was later headmaster of Broughton School, Edinburgh, will be remembered.
"Breich Mill”
Excerpt from a longer article, 'Old Days at Addiewell Recalled', in the Midlothian Advertiser , 6 January 1950, page 6. The whole article can be opened as a PDF attachment on the Histories page.
Or this one...?
The first recorded store in Addiewell was known as "Fleming’s Stores". It was a single-storey building. On the site now stands a car repair works and a joiner’s yard. Between times it was the Co-operative and before that, the Oil Company added a storey and it became the village’s first school.
West Lothian Courier, 23 June 1978, pages 18-19