Lexie's weaved her way through 100 happy years

Published on Friday 20 February 2009 08:55

Alexandra "Lexie" Scott, a retired weaver, has celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends.

Mrs Scott was born Alexandra Pringle in Duncan Street, Leith, on February 19, 1909, and was the youngest of 14 children born to the family.

She was baptised at South Leith Parish Church, where she would later become a committed member of the congregation.

Her father worked as a joiner, and Lexie initially attended the now demolished Yardheads School in Leith.

She left school at 14, however, and went to work for Duncan's Chocolate Factory in Beaverhall Road, Powderhall, where she helped to manufacture the once popular chocolate creams.

When she left the chocolate factory, she went to work at the Munrospun Knitwear factory in Restalrig.

Her daughter Roberta Robertson recalls that her mother had a vital job to do for the company.

"They were very much like Pringle as they produced designer clothes and patterned fabrics, and as a weaver it was my mother's job to get a pattern from the designers and get it into production," she said. "There were, I think, about six women at the company who worked at the job until the looms were moved to Galashiels, at which point my mother started working in the hosiery section."

Mrs Robertson admitted she did not know quite how her mother had met her father, James Stewart Scott, but the pair were married on October 31, 1936, in South Leith Parish Church.

Two years later, Roberta, who was the couple's only child, was born, and in 1939 they moved from the house on East Claremont Street in Leith to Restalrig Road South.

Mr Scott worked as an engineer at the shipyards in Leith, and during the Second World War Mrs Robertson said the family had managed to remain together.

"We really just hunkered down and got on with it," she said. "Beyond saying that it was quite a difficult time, my parents never spoke about it much, although I can remember the bombs falling not too far from our house.

"My mother did briefly move to Newhaven, where we had some family, but she and my father didn't like to be apart so we weren't there very long."

After the war, the couple continued to work, before Mrs Scott retired from Munrospun in 1967.

Her daughter said, outside of work, her great passion was cookery, particularly baking, and she also devoted a lot of her time to South Leith Parish Church.

Mr Scott passed away in 1992 and, two years ago, due to failing mobility, Mrs Scott moved into the Milford House Nursing Home in Duddingston.

It was here that she celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday, in the company of her daughter, as well as her grandson Philip, his wife Sofia, and Mrs Scott's great-grandson Alexander, all of whom had travelled over from their home in Holland to attend the celebrations.

Mrs Robertson said her mother had outlived all of her siblings, and admitted she was constantly surprised by the changes taking place.

"It is amazing what she has seen, and she is always surprised by how many of the old buildings that were part of her life are no longer here," she said.