Family treasure find for canvassing MSP

Chapping doors on the referendum trail can sometimes be a lot of work for little reward.

Not so for Labour MSP Neil Findlay, who bagged a family treasure during a canvassing session in Pumpherston, West Lothian.

The party’s health spokesman knocked on the door of what had once been his grandparents’ home.

Chatting to owner April Edwards, the Lothians MSP was stunned when she revealed that when they were redecorating they had found a lot of poems and stories written on the walls by his late grandfather Jock.

April then produced a piece of panelling which had been removed from the house’s old bathtub where, on the reverse, Findlay’s late granddad had written out his life story.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “When we were canvassing I said I’d do my granny’s house and obviously when I got there I explained to the owner why I was so keen to chap on her door.

“I was amazed when she produced this piece of wood. It is very detailed, goes into his life and the village and says how they finally finished refurbishing the house in 1978, ‘Bloody hard work”, he describes it as.”

Jock and his wife Lena were well known in the village and Jock also wrote a 50-page memoir about life growing up in West Lothian.

Findlay continued: “I had a real lump in my throat at all this and I was trying to give them my email address so I could get a photo of this board, when they said I could have it, which was really great.”