Archive in a Pandemic A-Z: N is for...

 NEW YEAR

Happy New Year lovely readers! Some of you will be going through your third lockdown and are probably sick of the sight of your own home/spouse/fridge. We do hope that you are all managing and send you our good wishes and virtual embraces. (For those of you who are not huggers, we send you a firm and hearty handshake through the ether. No virtual air kisses though... we don't like those... )

Orkney is currently on level 3 restrictions which means that we cannot enter private homes to socialise but non-essential shops and the library and archive are permitted to remain open. We are very thankful to be able to continue working but, as the schools are currently closed, this makes life tricky for those of us with tiny little archivers. Some of us may be attempting to work from home again but, fear not, no precious documents shall be taken back to our pits of jam covered mayhem. 

We are also losing a member of staff to retirement so the archives will be a rather depleted place for the next few weeks. Sob! 

Still, the days are slowly getting longer and the sun now sets at a thrilling 3.43pm. Soon the wonderful day when we leave work at a bright and perhaps sunny 5pm will arrive. Always a day of great jubilation.

We leave you with some delightful images of lupins and puffins in anticipation of Spring. It's fun to say isn't it? Lupins and puffins, lupins and puffins, lupins and puffins... this may well be my mantra from now when things seem grim... lupins and puffins , lupins and puffins, can't wait to see some lupins and puffins...

Taken by Tom Kent. Negative no. TK 1067

Also by Tom Kent. Negative no. TK 1079

'the path through the wild lupins' - negative no. L150/2

Puffins (Tammie Nories) on the rocks at the back of Rousay. Negative L2367/1

..and why not look at this photo of a Dunlin taken at Scapa on the 2nd of September 1930 while you're at it??

Negative no. L10,293/3

All images are part of the Orkney Photographic Archive.

20 Days of Orkney Trees # 20

Merry Christmas Eve dear readers! Surely, there are few sights more Christmassy than trees heavily-laden with snow. Today we bring you some extremely lovely snow-scenes from the Orkney Photographic Archive..


First of all, here are some pictures taken by Ian Tulloch after a snow storm in 1955:

Negative reference L 9479/3

Negative Reference L 9480/3

Negative reference L 9479/4

And these delights were taken by Tom Kent c.1900:

Tom Kent reference 3423



Tom Kent reference 3403 (detail)



Tom Kent reference 3436



Tom Kent reference 3446

We hope you have enjoyed our Christmassy, yet stubborn refusal to accept the myth that 'Orkney has no trees.' We may not have many, but we cherish the ones we have and will surely be adding to their number as time goes on.

Ah trees! God bless them every one!

Merry Christmas!



20 Days of Orkney Trees #4

Our last post showed an image of trees being planted for St Magnus Cathedral's Octocentenary. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed some trees already in the background of the photos.

We found these earlier, rather fabulous, images of Provost Slater and other dignitaries planting trees in their full Council regalia and we thoroughly approve.

Any captions for these photos will be heartily welcolmed and added to this post and we may even send a sweetie (possibly pre-licked) to the reader who makes us laugh the most.

We do not have a definitive date for these photographs but they must pre-date 1936 as they were taken by Tom Kent and they probably date post 1925 as that is when John M. Slater became Provost of Kirkwall.

But what about the trees in the background of these images???? We have also found some articles from the Orkney Herald newspaper discussing trees in the Willows in 1922:

20 Days of Orkney Trees #1

Oh we love advent readers!
We love it!
We LOVE it!


This year, we bring you 20 Days of Orkney Trees. Every day until Christmas (except Sundays), we shall prove that, contrary to popular belief, Orkney DOES have trees. Like, at least 5 or so?


The Orkney Isles (with the exception of hilly Hoy), are relatively flat with both wind and rabbits proving a challenge to hopeful tree-planters but, as you shall see, there are many wonderful sylvan corners; some ancient, some Victorian and a great many newer additions.


We just have to start with one tree. THE tree of Kirkwall, known by all as 'The Big Tree'.






The photo above was taken by Tom Kent and shows that the large Sycamore stands right in the middle of the shopping street. It had originally been part of a walled garden as can be seen below...

...and when the wall was removed, the tree stayed.

The Big Tree protected by a cage.

Over the years, there has been much discussion of this hardy plant and it has been threatened with destruction many times. Indeed, its obituary has already been written by Ernest Walker Marwick:




Click to enlarge

 In 1875, T. H. Slater demanded that the council prune the branches on his premises' side 'to avoid litigation and by way of compromise'. The council agreed:

As recently as 1987, there was a council meeting held to discuss its removal but a decision was reached to pollard it instead. The Big Tree still stands in Albert Street, Kirkwall, having outlived the author of its obituary by over 40 years. There is a large metal pole through its trunk, but it still stands tall and surely contributed to the High Street winning the 'most beautiful in Scotland' accolade last month: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-50521432

Information taken from Kirkwall Town Council minutes dated 3/2/1875,

Orkney Archive reference D31/73/1and

Orkney County Council minutes dated 6/10/1987.

Land of the Midnight Dim...

We have a long, dark Winter in Orkney but are rewarded in abundance come Summer time. Our Northerly skies are bright from 4am until 10.30pm and the hours in between are never fully dark.


This long twilight is known as the simmer dim. The sun merely dims and never truly disappears.


The photograph of Kirkwall Harbour below was taken by Tom Kent on the 25th of June at Midnight:

The ability to garden until 10 and go for long evening walks well past tea-time makes up for the fact that, six months from now.. but no. Let us just enjoy the lovely, long nights whilst they last.




UPDATE: Apparently simmer dim is the term used in Shetland. A suggestion of grimleens has been offered, deriving from the Norwegian grimla, - to gleam, shimmer.

Holiday Nightmares in the 17th Century part 2

Watch out for those whirlinge tides!

This isn't as bad as Thomas Kirk's experience, but it is an interesting early description of Orkney and its dangerous seas.

Richard James, 1620, Account of Poland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, Scotland, Greenland, Etc - Transcript by Evan MacGillivray, Orkney Miscellany, 1953

"Orkneney are manie Ilands on ye [blank] of Scotland. ye biggest of which is not in length 16 mile in which the chief Towne is calld Kircwawe; these islands are plaine for the most part whereas Schetland is highe and mounteinous. they have store of cattle and of sheepe baringe good wool. they have plovers and partridge and hares but no wood."   

TK1503 North Ronaldsay sheep on the shore. Date unknown.

Sadly we have no photos of plovers, partridge or hares. TK1530 Geese. Date unknown.

"The chiefe fisshinge place is the island of North ronnelsea. on ye other side is South-ronnelsea, betwixt which and Catenesse on the maine of Scotland runs a sea of 12 mile calld Penthland Frith, dangerous with manie whirlinge tides and currents which will sucke in sheepes and botes in the passadge"

 

TK1548 Fishing boats in Hoy Sound, 1902

 

 

Photos by Tom Kent, 1863-1936

Description of Shetland, Orkney and the Highlands of Scotland  Edited, with introduction and notes, by Evan MacGillivray, Orkney Miscellany, Volume 1, 1953, p48-56. , Our reference: 941 Y Orkney Room



Egg-streme Egg Collecting!

We were looking for some Eastery photos for the weekend but the photographic archive was not playing ball.




We did, however, find these fabulous egg-themed images of sea-bird egg collections which were carried out on the islands of Rousay and Copinsay.

Bird cliffs on Copinsay, 1932 - Tom Kent Collection

Men who 'ran the lee' on Copinsay for eggs.

Egg collecting, Rousay.

Egg hunting in the Orkney Islands

Copinsay - Tom Kent Collection

A letter containing an explanation of how dangerous the practise was (as if we couldn't guess from the terrifying photos) can be found in the Halcro-Johnson Collection:

'In Orkney we call each other boys until we become old men.

 Once in Orkney, two old men went to the cliffs at the sea shore to collect sea birds' eggs. One of them remained at the top of the cliff and held a rope attached to a basket, while the other man climbed along the ledges on the cliff and put the eggs into the basket.

When the latter came to a corner of the cliff, he found that he could not proceed farther, as he had the wrong foot foremost and he had not sufficient room to change the position of his foot. He made several attempts but failed. He then stopped, took out his snuff-box and took a big pinch of snuff, after which he gave a jump in the air changing his feet at the same time, and by this means he got round the corner and reached the top of the cliff in safety.

His companion who had been watching him all the time and who had observed the great danger he was in of falling over the edge into the sea when changing his feet, said to him,

"Boy, why did thee tak a snuff before changing thee feet?"

To which the other replied,

"Boy, I thought I was needin' it" '

Images from the Orkney Photographic Archive

Letter: Orkney Archive reference D15/25/8/6

Fancy a Friday Foto Fling?

"What a handsome hill!" I hear you cry.

"I should like to climb it immediately. Where is it?"

The answer readers is we do not know. Upon looking for an elusive Tom Kent copy, I stumbled upon a folder of his photographs entitled simply '?'.

Within is a few photos, like the one above, for which we have no information. Some have guesses on the back such as 'meteorite?' for a photo of a crumbly old stone or 'Egilsay? Octocentenary?' for this one:

Again, there is a guess of Egilsay for this photo of an escapee from some manner of procession:

Other images include what looks like an open-air church meeting, the skeleton of what may be an otter still in the grip of a steel trap, and this:

What is this.


WHAT IS THIS? Best answer receives a Unison stress pig and an item of Orkney Library and Archive merchandise.

Don't You Sometimes Wish That Shops Still Looked Like This?

Interior of D. M. Wright, Chemist, Albert Street, Kirkwall.

As above.

Interior of Flett and Sons, Bridge Street, Kirkwall.

But I am glad that they no longer look like this:

Eeeewwwwwww...

G. Graham's, Bridge Street, Kirkwall.

All photos by Tom Kent.

We Are Never Happy...

The snow does seem to be thawing in Kirkwall, but this has only served to reveal the treacherous layer of trampled ice that was lurking beneath the crunchy, powdery snow which was easier to walk on.

Perhaps you are all feeling a little nostalgic for the irritating, yet safer fluffy snow of earlier in the week? Perhaps not..

High Street, 1918

High Street, 1918

High Street, 1918

The West End Hotel on Main Street, undated.

Old Scapa Road, 1918

Palace Road, undated

These photos were all taken by Tom Kent and therefore the undated ones must predate 1936.

Ging gang goolie goolie goolie goolie goolie goolie goolie woggle

Uniforms, rituals, nonsense words sung in the round, initiation ceremonies, tasks, woggles, toggles, pixies, kelpies, vows and bobble hats. Is this post about a terrifying new cult hoping to entice Orcadians? No, it's about an old one, Girl Guiding, which is celebrating an 100 years history in the UK.



Surely there are many women who wonder how on earth they would have coped with life without their lessons in semaphore, flower pressing and knot recognition. Camping certainly taught many valuable life-lessons such as balancing all your possessions on top of two logs in a tent, saturating all meals with heart-healthy lard and sticking chocolate digestives together using only melted marshmallows.





Orkney Museum is marking this anniversary with an exhibition running from the 3rd until the 24th of April.

Girl Guides gathering sphagnum moss in Orkney, 1917. Sphagnum moss, or bog moss, is famed for its ability to evenly absorb enormous amounts of moisture. Consequently, it was in great demand during the First World War for use as dressings for wounds. (Ewwwwwwww)

This Holm Brownie troup appear to have made some useful shell-encrusted wells.

A Kirkwall troup of Brownies and Guides photographed by Tom Kent in 1922.
Nice hats, ladies.


A grooovy American Girl Guide catalogue from the seventies which looks like an ace 1970s album cover but contains the travesties of fashion that are pictured below.

Photos from the Orkney Photographic Archive.

Catalogue of polyester woe from the D95 collection (uncatalogued.)