Yeah, cheese!

Fans of Orkney Cheese, rejoice! There is now a project on its history and manufacture which you can read whilst munching on a wedge of said tasty product. (Other cheeses are also available.)

Today, a glittering awards ceremony took place at Kirkwall Grammar School to celebrate the best of this year's Fereday Prize Projects. There were cakes and there were certificates. The archives were represented by the same member of staff who had served as a judge and she wept quietly in a sequined gown as youngsters received their prizes of book tokens. Her late and drunken return in a taxi, tiara askew, will not go unpunished.

There was some controversy as one of the winners attempted to use their time on the stage to protest against the new traffic slowing measures in the Quoybanks area, ("Speed bumps are for Chumps!") but they were quickly clubbed over the head and wrestled off stage in a sack.

Lisa Alexander of Stromness Academy was the overall winner with her project on Orkney cheese.

The Stromness runners up are: Robert Mathershaw, who wrote about the Commercial Hotel and Gareth Johnston, whose project was called Wartime Scapa Flow.

The top three from KGS were: Evie Peace's A History of Orkney Cinema (a personal favourite), Joanne Pirie's An Orkney Wedding Past and Present and Hamish Auskerry's A Crash on Auskerry.

We should be getting copies of all the projects in soon.

Northern Lights

I misread a customer's email in which she wonders when Stromness town council stopped using gas from the gas works.

I had initially thought that the query regarded the change over from gas streetlights to electric.

It was surprising to discover that the street lights were gas until as late as 1947. This means that post WW2, the council was still employing lamp-lighters and lamp-extinguishers. Apparently, the lamps were left unlit on nights when there was a full moon.

Information from Stromness Town Council minutes reference S1/7 and History of Stromness by George S. Robertson.

War HUH! What is it GOOD for? Absolutely NUTHIN'.. (say it again wooooo)

If you have enjoyed watching Tony Blair squirm during the Iraq enquiry, or indeed, wish to have a break from him constantly referring to 911 in an attempt to link that event with Saddam Hussein in the public mind, then pop down to the Archive and read about all the other wars!

We have publications, personal documents, correspondence, diaries and photographs from World War 1 and World War 2. You can read newspapers clippings and telegrams which follow the process of the Spanish American war of 1898 and the Boer war (reference D47/2/11).

Why not come in and read the correspondence between Isabella Wilson and her brother Andrew who moved to America, ran up hideous debts and signed up for the American Civil War to escape them? (Reference D1/538)

We also hold a pair of medals from the Second Afghan War of 1878 - 1880 in collection D94.

And much, much more...

70 Years Ago Today

Reference D1/499: Work Family war papers

It is so cold today that heaters are ablaze and members of staff are swaddled in scarves. At least we are safe and can move about freely unlike the residents of 1939 Kirkwall.

And it is time to put up the Christmas decorations...

Black Building

The demolition of the 'Black Building', Orkney's war-time communications hub, has begun this week. It has been a controversial decision for some who view the old RAF building as an irreplaceable piece of Kirkwall's history.

For years, small efforts had been made by members of the public to prevent the deterioration of the objects and papers still left in the vacant rooms and we have a very small collection of official (blank) forms and jotters as well as an annotated OS map in the archive. Empty buildings do not take long to destroy themselves, however.

But does something still have to be physically present to serve as a reminder of the past?

Before demolition began, the entire building was laser scanned by Historic Scotland so that a 3-dimensional model can be made, even when the original no longer exists. The Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (or RCAHMS) hold plans, and photographs of exteriors, interiors, building details and aerial views:
HERE

Surely it is the information that counts, especially when any atmosphere of a bustling communications hub must have disappeared as soon as the damp infiltrated and mould, moss and mice took up residence?

New Aqusition

Yesterday, we received this great donation from Orkney Museum (pictured left).

The 'Island Times' was a newspaper made by the 296 Bty of the 66th (Leeds Rifles) A. A. Regt. R.A. for servicemen on Orkney.

It was launched just before the more professional 'Orkney Blast' which was edited by Eric Linklater and printed on an actual printing press.

The 'Island Times' has a more charming, homemade feel to it with hand lettered headlines and cut-and-paste typewritten articles.

Section headings include: 'Items from the Stations', 'Sport', 'Weddings', 'Gossip', 'Footlights' and 'About Birds.'

We have received two copies of the first issue, dated 24th December 1940, and a copy of the second issue, dated January 1941. We also hold copies of the 'Orkney Blast' on microfilm from January 1941 - November 1944.

Royal Oak

Tomorrow is the 70 year anniversary of the sinking of the Royal Oak (pictured c. 1927) in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The tragic loss of 833 men as well as a sturdy, seemingly indestructible battleship was a terrible shock for Britain so early on in the war.

The Royal Oak was torpedoed at 1.30am by a German submarine. U-47 was captained by Gunther Prien who went on to be awarded the Knight's Cross, Germany's highest honour.

When Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, heard the news he said 'Poor fellows, poor fellows, trapped in those black depths.'