NO 69. STRONG MEN.
I wrote of physical strength recently when remembering moving grain from the thrashing mill and lofting it. A mere mention of just one task in passing. But a long time ago men had to shift and lift all their working lives. Women too.
You will not see many stout men in old photos of horses and men lined up with their carts outside a cart shed. The classic photo of that in Caithness was and still is the one taken at West Murkle about 1920, but there are many other very good photos still around. There were not many men around then with soft hands either.
In Stronsay my memory is of strong men down in Whitehall Village with loose salt to shovel, quarter cran baskets of herring to lift onto a cart, swinging them off the pier if the carts were too slow to get down for them to load direct from the boats. No time to hang around waiting with perishable herring. The wicker baskets came out of the the drifters’ fish holds usually in singles though I seem to remember clutches of them at times, doubles or triples. It depended how many men on the rope on un-assisted hand pulled rope pulleys or if they had a steam winch. There were barrels of cured herring to lift and shift, salt to move, loose herring to shovel, endless physical hard work but it all got done. Ships to load with packed herring barrels for Hambuig or Danzig or Russia.
The men on the pier on Steamer days had to handle full egg boxes, crates of lobsters, bags of feed, sacks of grain, timber for the joiner, iron for the blacksmith. Caithness roofing slates, cement, farm machinery, all sorts of odds and ends.
Bags of fertiliser came ashore in bundles in rope slings. Basic Slag, a by-product of iron smelting, came in quite small bags not too easy to get a grip on or your hands around, difficult to handle as it very dense and heavy. Very dirty too when spreading it on the fields, not a job the men liked too much on a windy day.
North African Phosphate came in 2 cwt bags, I think some of it might have been 2¼ cwt. It came in thick and very good jute sacks which were much treasured on the farm when washed and later used for other purposes. Most other fertilisers were in 1 cwt jute bags. Paper or plastic bags had not yet been invented.
Some goods were loaded directly onto carts standing ready but perishable bagged feed from Bibbys for hens and pigs had to be taken out of the slings, loaded on hurleys and wheeled into the store on the pier to be stacked high until someone came to collect it. The stacking was a three man job, two to swing the bag between them and “Hup” to a man on top of the heap storing it tidily.
Davie Miller was storeman in charge of everything and every body down the pier. There was no time to waste when the steamer was at the pier, load and unload, sort out the goods when the ship had gone. Everything needed for the Island had to come in over the pier, all had to be man handled.
There were livestock to handle, cattle, pigs, a horse with a bag over its eyes, two men with ropes to the halter at the head, two men either side behind with a sack or a rope held between them behind the rear of the horse to urge it on. A horse could weigh a good ton. Cattle with halters already tied on their heads were comparably easy though now and again one jumped off the pier into the sea and had to be caught by men in a boat, lassoed and towed ashore. Down the pier again with strong men hanging on the rope and on board.
The men on the coal hulks had coal to shovel all day, every day save Sunday. The coal had first to be shovelled into coal skips and unloaded from the colliers from Newcastle into the coal hulks lying at anchor in the Bay of Franks, normally before the season began, then done all over again to fill the coal bunkers of the herring drifters. We used to watch the men going out from the pier to the coal hulks in their small motor boats if we were down in the Village. Or coming back at the end of the day covered in coal dust. All hard hand work.
On the farm lifting was normal. In autumn cattle had to be lassoed and pulled into their stalls in the byre for the winter. We still did that into my earlier days in Isauld though to a much lesser extent. One byre held 8 cattle, one held 16, the rest were in loose bedded courts.
Sheaves had to be pitched, straw had to be carried, dung had to be loaded onto barrows and wheeled out of the byre and onto the dung midden. Later the dung had to be dug out of the midden with graips and forked onto carts, then to the fields for spreading..
Grain in the lofts had to be lifted into sacks with wooden scoop boxes about a bushel in size, weighed, the bags tied and stored ready for the Mill or for shipping. Four bushel jute sacks from Dundee were standard, holding 1½ cwt for oats, 2 cwt for barley (bere) . Then onto carts and away. All hand work.
Strength at times was recreational. A level space in the stackyard at Whitehall just outside the barn door was clear for putting the iron shot, throwing a 56 lb weight over a bar or just for distance. Johnny Peace practiced his long jump into a home made sand pit before the Stronsay Show. There was a large round boulder to lift and see how far you could carry it before dropping. . We could not even lift it !! Sometimes a wee game of football with jackets for goal posts. Everyone was a referee!!
The loft had its indoor entertainment. “Skin-the-cat” was one. Jump for the rafters, grip two adjoining couple backs and turn your legs through the intervening space until upside down, then turn back again. Jump two handed for one rafter back, feet off the floor, chin the rafter cross back and see how many times you could do it. See who could do the greatest number. No cheating allowed.
One miracle man whom our father told us of was at the Bu’ of Rousam in his
early days. Such was his strength of hand that he could grip the couple back
from underneath between thumb and fingers and lift himself up to chin it.
He had been a whaler in his younger days !!!
Friday 21 January 2011
Friday 7 January 2011
No 68. RABBITS pb 07.01.2011
No 68 RABBITS.
There was a famous song going the rounds during the War of 1939/45. . “ Run, rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.” The song had a long ago provenance but was adapted in memory of a Shetland rabbit alleged to have been killed by German bombing early in the War. Or so they said.!!! .
The song was sung at every Concert I remember during the War anyway, the chorus rising to the rafters. .
Rabbits were big business for some people. Wm Tait’s Dairies1880 to 1941caused me some surprise when I came across the entry for the Bu of Rousam in 1898/99 for rabbits shipped out of Stronsay for my grandfather David Pottinger.
The Bu’ of Rousam was connected to the rest of Stronsay by a narrow sandy neck of land, the Links. That area was grossly overrun by rabbits. Still is but to a much lesser extent. Our father told us that the Links was where he and his elder by 2 years brother David as boys caught rabbits and made their pocket money by selling the skins.
There was a down side to rabbits, and the Diaries make m,ention of it. On October 7th 1897, William records “Carting sheaves all day - finished Cupa field & a few loads from Brecks - took in most of the Murtle Oats from Big Park - all the rabbit cuttings put in sheaf loft.”
Rabbit cuttings were the parts of the grain fields next the Links and savaged by rabbits to the extent the straw was too short to be cut other than by the scythe and salvaged as fodder.
That damage to crops went on into my day at Greenland Mains. The Links end of adjoining fields was often severely damaged, both grain crops and, even more expensive, the crops of turnips. Rabbits preferred swede turnips, sweeter than yellows, and would come past the yellow turnips to get to the sweeter swedes farther up the field. We could not fool them by sowing yellows in the lower parts of the fields.
Rabbits fed on a broad front but hares would come up the field along a line of swedes taking a skinning bite here and there as they went, leaving a lot of damaged swede turnips that would then be further ruined by frost. We did not have too many hares, today they are pretty scarce.
Lower Dounreay was not a rabbit problem but at Isauld we had a well populated Links with some rabbits coming over the Isauld Burn from Sandside Estate Links Golf Course in a very hungry winter to add to the damage in adjacent Isauld fields. Water in the Burn did not deter them.
According to the Diaries, the trapping season at the Bu’ began in November.
And the entry for Nov 06 1899 makes reference to the rabbit hunters starting that day.
It looks as if the rabbit hunters might have come from another of the North Isles as the Orcadia went in to Kirkwall from Westray on Mondays, calling en route at Papa Westray, Eday, Sanday and Stronsay.
Their first shipment of 76 pairs was Monday 13th Nov. Winter cold kept them fresh enough without refrigeration on the S.S. Orcadia in to Kirkwall. During the week they would be hung high in pairs on wires in an airy shed in the steading until crating for shipping. Then they were hung in pairs in open lath- sided crates with plenty of air circulation. Whole rabbits were perishable and I found only in the colder months of December through to early March were rabbits shipped to Kirkwall. These months were also the months when the rabbits favourite pastime of breeding even more rabbits was temporarily halted. So all rabbits caught were marketable.
Every Monday for the time of the rabbit hunting a cart went from Rousam to the pier
with a load of rabbits, sometimes two carts. he last shipment in 1899 was March 6th.
That would be the end of the season as the rabbits would begin breeding by then,
and therefore no longer saleable.
There were no money entries in the Diaries for Sales so I cannot tell if the rabbits were sold for my grandfather or if the hunters worked on their own account. Nor can I tell what price they made. I suspect they may have had a sharing system, the Diary does not tell
William’s Diaries show that hundreds of rabbits would be caught each season .
In 1898 going into early months of 1899 the figure was 1155. For 1899 into 1900 the total was 1625. The numbers were incredible, and that in thye days before refrigeration or “sell by” dates. .
. The skins could be dried and kept much longer and in slightly warmer weather. The entries for 1895 / 96 tell of skins sold as well and the total comes to over 900.
At Greenland Mains, with a very well populated Links, we sometimes ran a rabbit net right across the bottom of a field and then chased the rabbits into it. On a good night the haul was staggering. Had to be a dry windy night to mask our noise, calm nights were a waste of time.
The trappers in my early days at Greenland were Pindi and Dink, more properly James Mackenzie from Barrock and Donald Suitherland from Culag, Castetown, I think. They were hardy souls who came on their bikes and carted the rabbits to Castletown hung over the crossbars. Then it was in to the Railway Station in Thurso by Sutherland’s Horse Lorry.
The most memorable occasion I had with them was one winter’s day when I was working in the Long Feeders Byre at Greenland Mains. I was thankful to be indoors as the day was one of indescribably smoory snow. Fine to the extent it sifted in through the slates of the Welsh Slate roof and filtered down like a fog in the byre. It got everywhere, settling like sifting sugar on the backs of the cattle.
The bottom door, upper and lower halves, burst open. Two absolutely white from head to toe apparitions staggered in, Pindi and Dink. They had been caught out on the Links by the sudden onset of the Blizzard. Experienced outdoor men though they were, Nature had caught them out.
They set out towards the farm steading with the wind behind them. Smoory snow swirls around you so even with the wind on your back you cannot see. Once going to School in Stronsay David and I were similarly caught.
The snow swirled around them to the extent they could not see the road at all between the hedges. They went over the fence to the middle of the Lea Tack field and could see better where they were going. Up the field, over one dike and on to the next, working South towards the buildings with the blizzard on their backs.
I took them in to the warm Kitchen and mugs of hot tea revived them.
But the Barrock Road through Greenland Mains could be unforgiving
Years later Franker Bain lost his life trying to walk home to Barrock in a similar blizzard. We found him 3 weeks later when the drifts melted.
There was a famous song going the rounds during the War of 1939/45. . “ Run, rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.” The song had a long ago provenance but was adapted in memory of a Shetland rabbit alleged to have been killed by German bombing early in the War. Or so they said.!!! .
The song was sung at every Concert I remember during the War anyway, the chorus rising to the rafters. .
Rabbits were big business for some people. Wm Tait’s Dairies1880 to 1941caused me some surprise when I came across the entry for the Bu of Rousam in 1898/99 for rabbits shipped out of Stronsay for my grandfather David Pottinger.
The Bu’ of Rousam was connected to the rest of Stronsay by a narrow sandy neck of land, the Links. That area was grossly overrun by rabbits. Still is but to a much lesser extent. Our father told us that the Links was where he and his elder by 2 years brother David as boys caught rabbits and made their pocket money by selling the skins.
There was a down side to rabbits, and the Diaries make m,ention of it. On October 7th 1897, William records “Carting sheaves all day - finished Cupa field & a few loads from Brecks - took in most of the Murtle Oats from Big Park - all the rabbit cuttings put in sheaf loft.”
Rabbit cuttings were the parts of the grain fields next the Links and savaged by rabbits to the extent the straw was too short to be cut other than by the scythe and salvaged as fodder.
That damage to crops went on into my day at Greenland Mains. The Links end of adjoining fields was often severely damaged, both grain crops and, even more expensive, the crops of turnips. Rabbits preferred swede turnips, sweeter than yellows, and would come past the yellow turnips to get to the sweeter swedes farther up the field. We could not fool them by sowing yellows in the lower parts of the fields.
Rabbits fed on a broad front but hares would come up the field along a line of swedes taking a skinning bite here and there as they went, leaving a lot of damaged swede turnips that would then be further ruined by frost. We did not have too many hares, today they are pretty scarce.
Lower Dounreay was not a rabbit problem but at Isauld we had a well populated Links with some rabbits coming over the Isauld Burn from Sandside Estate Links Golf Course in a very hungry winter to add to the damage in adjacent Isauld fields. Water in the Burn did not deter them.
According to the Diaries, the trapping season at the Bu’ began in November.
And the entry for Nov 06 1899 makes reference to the rabbit hunters starting that day.
It looks as if the rabbit hunters might have come from another of the North Isles as the Orcadia went in to Kirkwall from Westray on Mondays, calling en route at Papa Westray, Eday, Sanday and Stronsay.
Their first shipment of 76 pairs was Monday 13th Nov. Winter cold kept them fresh enough without refrigeration on the S.S. Orcadia in to Kirkwall. During the week they would be hung high in pairs on wires in an airy shed in the steading until crating for shipping. Then they were hung in pairs in open lath- sided crates with plenty of air circulation. Whole rabbits were perishable and I found only in the colder months of December through to early March were rabbits shipped to Kirkwall. These months were also the months when the rabbits favourite pastime of breeding even more rabbits was temporarily halted. So all rabbits caught were marketable.
Every Monday for the time of the rabbit hunting a cart went from Rousam to the pier
with a load of rabbits, sometimes two carts. he last shipment in 1899 was March 6th.
That would be the end of the season as the rabbits would begin breeding by then,
and therefore no longer saleable.
There were no money entries in the Diaries for Sales so I cannot tell if the rabbits were sold for my grandfather or if the hunters worked on their own account. Nor can I tell what price they made. I suspect they may have had a sharing system, the Diary does not tell
William’s Diaries show that hundreds of rabbits would be caught each season .
In 1898 going into early months of 1899 the figure was 1155. For 1899 into 1900 the total was 1625. The numbers were incredible, and that in thye days before refrigeration or “sell by” dates. .
. The skins could be dried and kept much longer and in slightly warmer weather. The entries for 1895 / 96 tell of skins sold as well and the total comes to over 900.
At Greenland Mains, with a very well populated Links, we sometimes ran a rabbit net right across the bottom of a field and then chased the rabbits into it. On a good night the haul was staggering. Had to be a dry windy night to mask our noise, calm nights were a waste of time.
The trappers in my early days at Greenland were Pindi and Dink, more properly James Mackenzie from Barrock and Donald Suitherland from Culag, Castetown, I think. They were hardy souls who came on their bikes and carted the rabbits to Castletown hung over the crossbars. Then it was in to the Railway Station in Thurso by Sutherland’s Horse Lorry.
The most memorable occasion I had with them was one winter’s day when I was working in the Long Feeders Byre at Greenland Mains. I was thankful to be indoors as the day was one of indescribably smoory snow. Fine to the extent it sifted in through the slates of the Welsh Slate roof and filtered down like a fog in the byre. It got everywhere, settling like sifting sugar on the backs of the cattle.
The bottom door, upper and lower halves, burst open. Two absolutely white from head to toe apparitions staggered in, Pindi and Dink. They had been caught out on the Links by the sudden onset of the Blizzard. Experienced outdoor men though they were, Nature had caught them out.
They set out towards the farm steading with the wind behind them. Smoory snow swirls around you so even with the wind on your back you cannot see. Once going to School in Stronsay David and I were similarly caught.
The snow swirled around them to the extent they could not see the road at all between the hedges. They went over the fence to the middle of the Lea Tack field and could see better where they were going. Up the field, over one dike and on to the next, working South towards the buildings with the blizzard on their backs.
I took them in to the warm Kitchen and mugs of hot tea revived them.
But the Barrock Road through Greenland Mains could be unforgiving
Years later Franker Bain lost his life trying to walk home to Barrock in a similar blizzard. We found him 3 weeks later when the drifts melted.
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