David Leask's Maddiston Pages

My name is David Leask (contact me at  dl011g3179@blueyonder.co.uk)

I was born in Viewfield Cottage Maddiston, my grandmothers (Mary McNiven)  home, the youngest of three brothers. I went to Maddiston Primary School then Redding Junior Secondary School then Graham High for six months when the former school closed. I was a member of 1st Muiravonside Boys Brigade and the Life Boys before that. We all attended the Suday School at Maddiston Corp Salvation Army in the old hall that's long gone.

After leaving school I was apprenticed as a blacksmith in Grangemouth Dockyard.

I got married to a girl from Bo'ness (actually half way between Bo'ness and Linlithgow) in December 1969, we moved to Westquarter in 1970 and we have two boys who have in turn grown up, left home and got married too.

We still live in Westquarter, I have always been a keen local historian and have had one book published on the history of Westquarter (now out of print I think). I set up a group in Maddiston to look into the history of the village (and the village of Rumford) but the group came to an end after around 8 years or so and as well as gleaning a lot of information from the local people some great friendships were formed (and one marriage).

I'm now trying to form a career around one of my other great loves, Folk Music, and as a singer of the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland, with a little English and American thrown in for luck. I sing and play the Bodhran with a fiddle music group in Perthshire The Blackford Fiddlers  and from that group my own group Fridays Penny was born.

My wife Rona is the manager of  a local charity.