No 67. COUNTRY VANS . pb 2.10.2010

COUNTRY VANS, DOOR TO DOOR SERVICE.

Among so very many changes to Country Life in my time nothing has more changed than Country Vans. We lived with them. So many in Stronsay.
Jim Maxwell o’ Daisybank had one, Norman Burr in the Village had one, Swanneys had one. Maxwell o’ Dale had one, though he could have been the successor to Daisybank. Had a small shop there too.

Often the Van was used as a delivery service, perhaps a roll of linoleum tied on the side or on the roof. Perhaps a plank or two of wood. Or even just to take a message or something along the road if they were passing that way.

The first horse drawn Van I dimly remember was like an old long cart, perhaps it had been one on its time. Some had a cranked axle which allowed the body of the Cart/Van to be that much lower for convenience. Two small wheels at the front with the horse shafts on a turn-table, two large wheels at the back.
The old Conestoga Wagon of the Prairies, 1750 onwards, had a provenance in the old Country, see Constables Haywain, but were hugely improved and totally re-designed to withstand the rigours of trekking West though Indian Country, through the Rockies and on to California. Some of them! .



Vans often stopped at a road end rather than going down a rough track.
Some houses were a bit down a farm road, some had gates to open and shut, some were just barely walkable. Customers came the short distance with an egg basket over their arm, still. wearing their apron. No need to dress up for shopping.!! Van times were pretty accurate, and sometimes one would see two women patiently waiting at a road end and having a blether while doing so. Mustn’t miss the van.

There were plenty Vans in our early days in Caithness too. Jimmy Smith’s of the Barrock Shop was memorable among others. At least two of them, I think three at his best. Jack Shearer and Wm Mackay & Sons in Thurso, both butchers The Castletown butcher, I think it was run by the Co-op Society for a while. Mackenzie’s fish van. Davie Adamson’s van from Adamsons in Castletown. Christy Mackay, butcher in Keiss. And these were just the ones I saw around Greenland Mains where I spent my early days in Caithness before going to Lower Dounreay in Nov 1953. There were plenty in other parts of Caithness. And there are still a few keeping up the old tradition.


I have an old unprintable photo of a horse drawn Long Cart van with zinc pails and tin or enamel basins or kettles or other utensils hanging on the outside, some held in old herring nets. All sorts of other magical things. The patient horse stands slip-hipped between the shafts. There was no such thing as springs to soften the constant shoogling on the rough farm toads that they had to use, potholes and all. So whatever was on the shelves was retained by quite high upstands of wood at the edges.
The main road in Stronsay, practically the only road, had its very adequate share of potholes too. It was a water-bound road to my first memory and tar sealed roads did not come to Stronsay until I was at the North School, just prior to the 1939 War by a year or so.
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There were also little shops all round the Island. Peace o’ Holin had one. The Grind in Rousam had one. Boondatoon had a shop. So too in Caithness, no superstores at all Many a house had an end room or a lean to outside shed devoted to a shop or a small Post Office. I can think of one still operating at Buldoo next door to Dounreay.
But the “Van” was an adventure for us. We just might get a small coin to spend, not too much to spoil us I may say!! Often earned by polishing boots and shoes or feeding the hens and getting the eggs home. Nothing for nothing in those days, we never heard of such a thing as pocket money though a visiting Uncle might help us out a bit!! I can still hear the admonition of “Mind on, dinna spoil the bairns !! “ Made me pretty tight I guess !!!
.I just remember the horse drawn van but very dimly. Most were motorised by my day and took many shapes and adaptions. Some were home made at first until vans appeared with custom-built fitted shelves and ledges outside for hanging odourous paraffin lamp oil and sticky treacle and salt cod and all the other runny or smelly things.
Inside the cramped space with the narrowest of central corridors were shelves on either side stacked miraculously with packets of this or tins of that. You name it, they had it. The aroma was delightful, an essence of tropical spices and salt cod and red Lifeboy soap. The old adage of sugar and spice and all things nice springs to mind.
Liptons Tea. Lyles Golden Syrup. Beechams Pills. Camp Coffee Essence or small tins of Bantam Coffee Granules which I liked better. A tiny spoonful went a long way. Cremola Foam for fizzy drinks. Lemonade in real glass bottles with heavy screw tops. Sometimes a snap spring top, hard to open at times. I think the lemonade was made in Kirkwall.
Castor Oil. Camphor Moth Balls. Fags. Capstan in two strengths with a sturdy sailor on the packet. Woodbines in green packs. Gold Flake on gold packs. Cigarette cards to collect from the men, to be assiduously traded at school. Collections to be completed. One card for two if lucky enough to corner the market. Some pretty hard bargainers too. Did well in later life!!! Fag card training at its best, and I really mean that !!
A coiled rolled length of sweet smelling totally black Bogie Roll Pipe Tobacco, just cut off a length. So much a foot, roughly measured. !! Balls of white cotton string. Or so much for a roughly measured fathom.(6 feet) Clothes pegs.
A shelf with new baked bread from Swanneys or from Jock Stout in the Village, great aroma. Currant cookies or plain. Sugared buns. Fancies. Half loaves, don’t see them now. Tins of sweet biscuits suitable for visitors, usually half sized.
A big egg box lay on the floor next the door ready for the few dozen eggs with which many a housewife paid for her groceries. Or a pound or two of home made butter if the cow was milking well. Or a farm made cheese.
Equally these delicacies or necessaries were for sale as the van progressed to other houses without such, certainly a door to door service.
Often the Van was used as a delivery service, perhaps a roll of linoleum tied on the side or on the roof. Perhaps a plank or two of wood. Or even just to take a message or something along the road if they were passing that way.

The first horse drawn Van I dimly remember was like an old long cart, perhaps it had been one on its time. Some had a cranked axle which allowed the body of the Cart/Van to be that much lower for convenience. Two small wheels at the front with the shafts on a turn-table, two large wheels at the back.
The old Conestoga Wagon of the Prairies, 1750 onwards, had a provenance in the old Country, like Constables Hay Wain paintings, but were hugely improved and totally re-designed to withstand the rigours of trekking West though Indian Country, through the Rockies and on to California. Some of them! .
The Van did not come every day, so there was such a thing as Van Day, even if they were different Vans. In Stronsay with horse drawn vans, any one van could only do perhaps the North End one day, Rousam one day, the South End one day. So they varied even when motorised. .
One lasting memory. No man could slip off from work to go to the Van. So Wullie Peace would give us a shilling to catch the Van for his packet of twenty Gold Flake. In return we would perhaps get a puff or two !!!. Or a fag end !!!. .
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