Aberdeen photos in May: Home guard, heatwave and Hilton School

From Home Guard exercises on the streets of Aberdeen, to saving Hilton School from closure and the burning of Aberdeen’s trams, May has been an eventful month in the city over the years.

They say ‘April showers bring May flowers’, so if April’s weather was anything to go by, Aberdeen should be blooming this month.

We can only hope for a hint of the fortnight-long heatwave enjoyed by Aberdonians in May 1959.

The north-east was bathed in sunshine for two glorious weeks, where temperatures reached an incredible 27C (80.6F).

1959: A packed Westburn Park was the place chosen by many to cool off during a 1959 heatwave when temperatures reached 27C. Image: DC Thomson

Office and shop workers took to the city’s parks to sunbathe during lunchbreaks, and the Evening Express headlines declared “Jackets off in Aberdeen’s hottest”.

You know it’s hot when you’re ditching your jacket in Aberdeen.

But by the end of the month, the heatwave was broken by drizzle and showers – much to the delight of north-east farmers whose crops were parched.

Aberdeen’s trams burned in May 1958

From one heatwave to another; the previous May saw one of the greatest tragedies to befall Aberdeen when its fleet of trams was burned.

The scenes of May Day weekend in 1958 are still recalled by many Aberdonians to this day.

It was a case of out with the old and in with the new – buses were replacing the historic tramway network in Aberdeen.

1958: A desperately sad day for Aberdeen as the final procession of trams travelled down Union Street in front of 70,000 people. May 3 saw the trams unceremoniously burned at Aberdeen Beach. Image: DC Thomson

In April, the city council’s links and parks committee agreed to a request from the purchaser of the city’s last 40 trams to burn them at the beach.

And on May 3 1958, “a sadly sentimental occasion” in Aberdeen, tens of thousands of people lined the streets to watch the trams’ final procession.

From Bridge of Dee to the King Street depot, people crowded the pavements to catch a glimpse of Aberdeen’s past trundling towards its funeral pyre.

Later that night the fleet was burned on the private tracks at Aberdeen with the remains sold for scrap.

However, our archive photos of May also show happier times including jubilation around the Dons’ cup success, and delight as pupils and teachers saved Hilton School from closure.

Join us on our monthly trip down memory lane…