Crossroads and Characters

25. TWO EPOCHS MEET AT A DUNNING CROSSROADS.

In this 1907 postcard of Tron Square looking west, the age of the motorcar is just beginning, and the age of the horse and cart is ending. In the foreground is the ground-level scale called a tron, or steelyard, on which horse-drawn carts were pulled up for their loads to be weighed. In the background is what was likely the first motorcar in the village. The Rover company had started manufacturing automobiles in 1904, and this model had just been bought by the Rollo family. Of course the arrival of the motorcar in the village caused the great excitement it caused everywhere else. One old lady who lived in Newton of Pitcairns is said to have exclaimed, on seeing her first automobile, 'Oh michty me, what noo...they'll be fleeing in the air next!'