A long time ago, but yesterday too. Rain On My Window (Tears in My Eyes) will be an ongoing tale of my early memories of life shared by my younger brother David on Whitehall Farm in Stronsay, Orkney, of our childhood on a working farm in the 1930s before we lost our innocence.
No 103. A Burden of Straw.
In my early days straw came loose from the threshing mill in the barn, no balers to make it into neat bundles, no bunchers to pack it into handy packages, no straw carriers or blowers. At Whitehall making windlins was a constant task, large windlins for the feeder and cow byres, medium for the yearalts, small windlins for the calfie byres. An early morning task before it got light enough to see outside in winter, the paraffin oil lanterns warm flickering glow making shadows dance on the barn wall.
Rats scurrying out of sight, mice too, rustling in the straw. A pigeon resting on the easwas, maybe a few. Easwas for the uninitiated is the flat ledge on the top of the stone walls on which the rafters sat, handy for storage of many things in a low building but too high in the straw barn.!!!] A nesting place for the pigeons later in the year, though they did nest over the long spread of summer. I do not remember sparrows resting there though we had hundreds around. More often sitting on the rafters among many other places.
Doors kept the gale outside, cosy. Oddly in William Tait’s Diaries he makes no mention of making windlins though making simmins was a frequent enough task for wet days. Usually the cattlemen who made their own windlins though on a bad day the other men could be found doing that task, storing the windlins in high stacks around the barn walls.
The stable at Whitehall was blessed by having a door directly through a wall into the back of the straw barn so carrying along a wind swept passage in a howling gale was not required. All the rest of the stock accomodation was fiercely exposed around the square.
Windlins were not just handy but took care of loose straw in the wind. The men could carry quite amazing burdens of windlins under each arm, how they did it I never did learn. Load up in the barn, ease sideways out of the door and off to whatever byre needed. Saturday was a day when straw windlins would be carried to the byre for the cattlemen, gave them a slightly easier Sunday. No half days then, though I do remember when they came in. “Id’ll never work, bhoy!!”
I do not remember any loose straw being carried at Whitehall except loading a cart for a crofter or “Building oot”. The cattle buildings were in a square around the central dung midden, out one door and in at another.
Later at Greenland Mains I was introduced to carrying a “burden” of straw. The steading was all enclosed, passages leading directly from one building to another. The only outdoor bit was a short step to the Back Court, out and in a few yards and sheltered. Much straw was carried there to bed the cows that usually went out during the day to the Flats beside Loch Heilen. Sometimes if we had a surplus to get rid off it went into that Back Court to be trampled under.
A “burden” was built up in the barn with a four-toed graip, layers of loose straw being carefully stacked pancake-style man-high just so. Then a shoving of the graip into the base of the burden, helped in by a tackety boot, making sure it was deeply embedded.
A careful lifting and tipping towards the man, carry some of the weight on his hip. It was a balancing act, if not done properly the whole heap would fall away to be redone.
In my days at Greenland Mains I worked with the cattle during the winter with Jock Coghill the cattleman, a expert and monstrous burden carrier. The only byres were the milking byre and the sucklers cum feeders byre, otherwise it was all loose courts. Straw was carried along the narrow passageways to fill the straw racks and also to throw over the racks into the courts for the cattle to half spread with a toss of their heads, and we would finish it off ourselves. The cattle did a pretty good job of head down into the loose straw, they had a Ball.
The other method of carrying a burden of straw was with a length of rope, enough to lay on the ground in an “off and back” loop. On that loop the cattleman built a burden of straw, then took the loose ends back over the top and through the loop, pulled tight and off we go. It took a bit longer to build than a graip burden but held more, and was more secure for the great outdoors. The amount of straw carried was unbelievable.
That same method was used for many tasks World wide. I once saw in 1979 some Chinese women carrying huge burdens of firewood over the Border from China into Hong Kong using the same technique. There is nothing new under the sun.
Friday 21 October 2011
Friday 7 October 2011
No 104. Water No 104. Water. A simple enough thing now to get water, turn on the tap and there it is. But to my first memory it was not so. At Wh
No 104. Water in the Well.
A simple enough thing now to get water, turn on the tap and there it is. But to my first memory it was not so.
At Whitehall we were privileged in the Big Hoos and had at least water in the Farmhouse pumped up from the Reservoir which served the Village. We had a bathroom with hot and cold taps, a back boiler in the kitchen stove which worked intermittently.
We also had an outdoor water tank filled with rain water from the roof gutters, softer water and better for the Washhouse. There was a largeish stone walled water tank I remember our father building at the steading, again filled with roof water. At Airy he built a similar but much larger watertank with quarried stone from the Hundy Quarry, rendered inside with layers of cement until water proof. That was built around 1939 I think. He sold Airy to the Spences of Millfield in May 1943. Sharon and I were back in Stronsay in July 2009 and the big stone tank is still there, still holding roof water for the steading after 70 years.
The men and their wives in the cottages at Whitehall had no tap water, a well just up the road at the back of the stackyard had to do them for buckets of drinking water. They all had water barrels at the corners of their house, again filled from the roofs. Clean enough for washing clothes but it was not used for drinking water. Too many sea gulls perched on the roofs!!
The byres had no water bowls or taps and all the cattle had buckets of water carried to their heads in the stalls. The feeders byre cattle were let off their asks - neck chains - and went to the horse pond for a drink, then back to the byre and up each into their own stall. There were feeding cattle that only got a big basket of turnips twice a day and no water, but there was enough water in the turnips. And as has been said many a time, “Gey good water!”
Hen houses often had a water barrel and a gutter to collect the roof water when it rained. If not, and with dry weather, it had to be labouriously carried in buckets, sometimes quite a distance.
Much more pressing was water for the cattle when out in the fields in summer. The horse drawn water-cart was much used to carry water to a field trough, again hard repetitive work for two men filling it with buckets from the water tank at the steading.
One of the fields with no water, Blackha, suggested a well might find some. Our father decided to dig at the bottom of the field near the shore. Jamie Moad from Airy, a master hand of almost everything, came over to supervise the task. They dug down into the rock with simple hand tools, sledge hammer, pick, pinchbar, heavy punch crowbar drill. It was all hard work which went on as other farm work allowed in summer. Eventually the well was deep enough to find water seeping in from the surrounding rock.
Then they build a stone wall around it, covered it with large flagstones and mounted a pump at the top of a long iron pipe which went down to the bottom of the well. It had a long curved iron handle, a piston with a thick rubber washer to fit the pipe. Operating it was a simple up and down pumping movement but a bucket or two of water had to be first poured into the pipe to prime it and create suction. Got the priming water out of the well with a pail on a rope, though dropping it face down just so in order to fill it was an art to be learned.
A water trough was also built beside the well cast in concrete and the pump emptied into it. Pumping water was a daily task in summer when cattle were in the field and we kept hen houses near that well for the water supply which saved a lot of carrying of pails.
The well is now disused as time has moved on and water is piped by our successors from a County Water Supply to all the fields and all the houses.
Digging wells was a constant task in Stronsay in William Tait’s Diary at Rousam with our grandfather on 27th June 1899 he writes “ Master and Peter Stevenson digging a well in Doonatoon.” On 28th July 1899 they quarried & carted 11 loads of stones for the well at Doonatoon.
On 22nd June 1900 he refers to digging a well in the field called Geogar. So digging wells was a steady job when time allowed from other farm work.
Wells were everywhere, some near a house, others quite a bit to go. Carrying buckets of water with two buckets and a square wooden frame to keep the pails off your legs was a constant task for the women of the house. I do not remember ever seeing a man carrying water.!!!.
A simple enough thing now to get water, turn on the tap and there it is. But to my first memory it was not so.
At Whitehall we were privileged in the Big Hoos and had at least water in the Farmhouse pumped up from the Reservoir which served the Village. We had a bathroom with hot and cold taps, a back boiler in the kitchen stove which worked intermittently.
We also had an outdoor water tank filled with rain water from the roof gutters, softer water and better for the Washhouse. There was a largeish stone walled water tank I remember our father building at the steading, again filled with roof water. At Airy he built a similar but much larger watertank with quarried stone from the Hundy Quarry, rendered inside with layers of cement until water proof. That was built around 1939 I think. He sold Airy to the Spences of Millfield in May 1943. Sharon and I were back in Stronsay in July 2009 and the big stone tank is still there, still holding roof water for the steading after 70 years.
The men and their wives in the cottages at Whitehall had no tap water, a well just up the road at the back of the stackyard had to do them for buckets of drinking water. They all had water barrels at the corners of their house, again filled from the roofs. Clean enough for washing clothes but it was not used for drinking water. Too many sea gulls perched on the roofs!!
The byres had no water bowls or taps and all the cattle had buckets of water carried to their heads in the stalls. The feeders byre cattle were let off their asks - neck chains - and went to the horse pond for a drink, then back to the byre and up each into their own stall. There were feeding cattle that only got a big basket of turnips twice a day and no water, but there was enough water in the turnips. And as has been said many a time, “Gey good water!”
Hen houses often had a water barrel and a gutter to collect the roof water when it rained. If not, and with dry weather, it had to be labouriously carried in buckets, sometimes quite a distance.
Much more pressing was water for the cattle when out in the fields in summer. The horse drawn water-cart was much used to carry water to a field trough, again hard repetitive work for two men filling it with buckets from the water tank at the steading.
One of the fields with no water, Blackha, suggested a well might find some. Our father decided to dig at the bottom of the field near the shore. Jamie Moad from Airy, a master hand of almost everything, came over to supervise the task. They dug down into the rock with simple hand tools, sledge hammer, pick, pinchbar, heavy punch crowbar drill. It was all hard work which went on as other farm work allowed in summer. Eventually the well was deep enough to find water seeping in from the surrounding rock.
Then they build a stone wall around it, covered it with large flagstones and mounted a pump at the top of a long iron pipe which went down to the bottom of the well. It had a long curved iron handle, a piston with a thick rubber washer to fit the pipe. Operating it was a simple up and down pumping movement but a bucket or two of water had to be first poured into the pipe to prime it and create suction. Got the priming water out of the well with a pail on a rope, though dropping it face down just so in order to fill it was an art to be learned.
A water trough was also built beside the well cast in concrete and the pump emptied into it. Pumping water was a daily task in summer when cattle were in the field and we kept hen houses near that well for the water supply which saved a lot of carrying of pails.
The well is now disused as time has moved on and water is piped by our successors from a County Water Supply to all the fields and all the houses.
Digging wells was a constant task in Stronsay in William Tait’s Diary at Rousam with our grandfather on 27th June 1899 he writes “ Master and Peter Stevenson digging a well in Doonatoon.” On 28th July 1899 they quarried & carted 11 loads of stones for the well at Doonatoon.
On 22nd June 1900 he refers to digging a well in the field called Geogar. So digging wells was a steady job when time allowed from other farm work.
Wells were everywhere, some near a house, others quite a bit to go. Carrying buckets of water with two buckets and a square wooden frame to keep the pails off your legs was a constant task for the women of the house. I do not remember ever seeing a man carrying water.!!!.
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