Food for Thought

We're very excited! An Orkney Archive recipe book is currently featuring on the Scottish Council on Archives: Archives Awareness Campaign for 2011: the Edible Archive. Here are the lovely posters to prove it:

The recipe book reference number is D14/7/1. Other recipes featured in the book include: "To make Wafars"; "To Colour a Pigg"; and the delightful sounding, "A Half a Calves Head". Enjoy!

Orkney Remembering

 

Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced on 11 November 1918 that an armistice had been signed with Germany at five o’clock that morning. All hostilities were to cease at eleven o’clock that same morning. The Great War was over.


The first indication of this momentous news in Kirkwall was made public at around half past nine in the morning. At that time naval vessels in Kirkwall Harbour, who had been alerted by a wireless message from their headquarters, began to sound their sirens. The townspeople must have realised that something was afoot and, even though it was to be some hours before it was announced to the press, the streets of Kirkwall were soon the scene of mass celebrations. The bells of St. Magnus Cathedral rang out in accompaniment to the ship’s sirens, and flags and bunting were soon to be seen displayed on many of the buildings. The Town Council, probably recognising that there was not going to be much work done that day, announced that it was declaring a half day holiday.

In Scapa Flow, word soon spread from the British ships to Flotta. In an echo of the Kirkwall celebrations sirens were sounded, flags were unfurled and the minister himself rang the parish church bells.

In the evening of the first day of peace a hastily arranged service of thanksgiving was held in the cathedral, at which every minister in the town took part.

Following the armistice agreement there was a welcome relaxation of some of the restrictions placed upon the public during the war years. Among them, masking on street lights could now be removed, as could the shading of lights in houses and shops, except those visible from the sea. People were reminded, however, that there was still a shortage of coal throughout the country.

It would indeed have been a time of great joy and relief to people the world over. A great number of Orkney’s young men, nearly 600 in total, had lost their lives in the trenches and battlefields of Europe, but now the survivors would be coming home to their families.

Here are a few concert programmes from the Cromarty Hall, St Margaret's Hope, South Ronaldsay from 1922, 1923 and 1924.

And here is a photograph showing the people of Kirkwall observing Armistice Day in 1926.

Archive References: D1/155, TK730, TK731

 

Blowing our own trumpet

I would think that if you're taking the time to visit this blog and read our posts then you probably have some interest in archives. But maybe not, perhaps you were actually searching for the Orkney Archery blog and your fingers got a bit confused, or maybe Orkney Hives, the local beekeepers blog. If so we are still happy to welcome you and take the opportunity to tell you what wonderful places archives are.

The Scottish Council On Archives has produced a very nice shiny brochure called Scotland's Archives Matter which explains lots of different ways that archives can help to enrich your life, understand where you come from and how you got to where you are, and lots of other things as well. It's available from their website and is well worth a read.

The great smell of fish guts in the morning

Herring gutters at work in Stromness, photographed by W. Hourston

The plans for the regeneration of Stromness Pier Head are moving slowly ahead so I thought it might be a good time to look at how the area was used in the past in case they need any ideas.

Stromness had a relatively brief spell as a base for the herring fishing fleet, from the mid 1880s. At the height of the industry there were 38 fishing stations spread along the Stromness shoreline with as many as 2000 gutters and packers hard at work. The arrival of the fishing fleet gutters and curers every year must have been a considerable boon to the economy of the whole town. The population of Stromness at that time was approximately 1700 but, for that few weeks of the year, this would be increased by up to 5000 fishermen and fish workers.

Unfortunately nobody told the herring when they were expected in Stromness and they had the annoying habit of not turning up when they should. The total catch for one year could be disastrously low, then the next year an all time high. This unreliability was to prove too much of a risk for those involved, and the fishermen and curers began to desert Stromness. By 1908 it was all over.

But wait, maybe not! In 1927 three curers were rented space by the Harbour Commissioners at the pier head. The venture caused much excitement in the town and the Orkney Herald newspaper included regular reports on its progress. The curers arrived in early May and set to work. By the start of June it was reported that the herring fishing was successful and that more curers had been attracted to the town, but by the end of the month this optimism proved unfounded as boats left for more profitable areas and the curers troughs remained empty. Herring fishing at Stromness was no more.

Friday Thought for the Day

No. 534 – Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as the blazing meteor when it descends to earth is only  a stone. – Longfellow

Taken from The Book of Wise Sayings by W A Clouston, 1893

Here comes the rain again

D51/3/7: Weather chart for October 1917

It's another day of cloud, rain and wind in Orkney today. So to cheer everyone up I thought I'd look back at the weather of the past when summers were long and skies were always blue. The chart above records the weather for October 1917 so that we can compare.

Systematic weather observations were begun in Orkney in 1827, by Rev Charles Clouston, minister in Sandwick. Although reputedly the second oldest complete set of weather records in Scotland, the records held by the Archives begin in 1890. The first recorder of these was Magnus Spence F.E.I.S. in Stenness who carried on until 1919.

So let's take a look...

This part of the chart gives a brief description of the weather on each day. Day 1 is overcast and foggy, day 2 is overcast and cloudy, day 3 is overcast and cloudy, day 4 is overcast and cloudy. I think we can detect a pattern here!

So there it is readers, the startling news that the weather was just as rubbish 94 years ago as it is today. Oh well, time to unpack the long johns.

Boom, bang a bang

American minesweeper clearing a mine, from the Tom Kent Collection

On this day in 1919 Kirkwall was officially closed as a British Naval Base after the First World War. The day after also saw the last of the American minesweeping fleet leave Orkney.

Massive quantities of mines were laid, by both sides, during the First World War with the Americans concentrating on the seas between Orkney and Norway. In 1918 alone they laid more than 56,000 mines in this area. As a result, after hostilities had ceased, the big clean up began in 1919 with a large fleet of American minesweepers operating from Kirkwall Bay.

The ships would leave Kirkwall Bay for three or four weeks at a time, with the working day commencing at sunrise and continuing until sunset. The fleet also celebrated Independence Day in Kirkwall. This was actually not the first time the 4th of July had been celebrated in Orkney. In 1918 thousands of american sailors, stationed in Scapa Flow, got leave to celebrate.

In 1919 the minesweepers had been at sea for three weeks and were looking forward to a well earned rest. Friday the 4th of July was declared a holiday for the Flotilla and the ships were all decorated with flags. The celebrations started in the morning with a regatta for rowing boats, and continued in the afternoon with sports at the Bignold Park. In the evening a banquet was held, at which the Freemasons of Kirkwall were entertained by the Freemasons from the Flotilla. Elsewhere, an evening of entertainment was enjoyed at the YMCA hut by a large crowd of crewmen. The entertainment provided included one Mademoiselle Peter, female impersonator, who danced the Salome Dance and the Dance of Death.

The minesweepers and their crews began to leave Orkney around the middle of September 1919. They had been popular visitors and many a local would have been sorry to see them leave. As the local newspaper rather quaintly put it, “more than one american had found his affinity in some fair Orkney maid”!

Friday Thought for the Day

No. 374
"The man who cannot blush, and who has no feelings of fear, has reached the acme of impudence." Menander

Taken from The Book of Wise Sayings by W A Clouston, 1893

Rescue Me

On this day in 1909 a new lifeboat was named in Kirkwall Harbour. The John Ryburn, as she was to be called, was one of the first specially designed and built motor driven lifeboats to be used in the country and was to be stationed at Stronsay. And now for all you engineers out there; she was designed by renowned boat designer G.L. Watson, measured 43 feet by 12 feet 6 inches and was powered by a 4 cylinder Blake internal combustion engine capable of 40 bhp.

The Orcadian Newspaper reported that the ceremony attracted a large crowd but, judging by the photograph by Tom Kent, by the time it was taken they'd mostly got bored and wandered off.

The John Ryburn was stationed in Stronsay for a relatively short period of time. In 1915, due to a wartime shortage of able-bodied men to crew her, she was moved to Peterhead. It would be another 37 years before another lifeboat was stationed at Stronsay.

I Want Candy

D1/882/3/2 - Notebook belonging to Thomas Moar, 1912

The sad news that McCowans Ltd., the makers of such confectionary delights as Highland Toffee and Wham Bars, has gone into administration has left us all shocked and dismayed. Such is our dismay that we've turned to the archive to help us in our hour of need. The above notebook contains many helpful hints, such as how to extract a splinter from the hand. The method described involves filling a wide mouthed bottle nearly full with water "as hot as the glass will stand" then placing the injured part over the mouth of the bottle. This will apparently subdue the inflammation and withdraw the splinter. It seems to have ommited the next stage which I imagine would be to attend your local Burns Unit.

Anyway, I digress. The notebook also contains a recipe for making caramel toffee. If anyone would like to whip up a batch here it is:

"Half a pound of fresh butter melted in a stewpan, add a sixpenny tin of condensed milk, stirring well together. Then add one pound of castor sugar and boil for ten minutes, stirring all the time. Pour into a buttered dish and, when cool, cut into squares"

What could be easier!

The notebook contains some other useful information that we may look at in the future, such as how to make nettle beer, french polish and even rat poison.

Can't beat a bit of Khachaturian

Where am I? And whose clothes are these?!

In 1978 Orkney's seal population became the centre of a battle between public opinion and the government of the day. The drop in salmon catches around the coast of Scotland at the time was blamed on the number of grey seals in the seas around Orkney, with the result that Scottish Secretary Bruce Millan announced that there would be a cull of the adult and young seal population when around a third of the total population would be killed.

But Mr. Millan had made a huge mistake in underestimating the people's love of the seal, and what's not to love? Okay I imagine their breath's not great but apart from that they're pretty loveable. Anyway, opposition grew very quickly in the islands, petitions were signed and newspapers reported that volunteers were flocking to throw themselves bodily in front of the hunters.

A touch of glamour and star quality was added with the arrival of popular actress Jessica Benton, seen above looking a bit dazed and confused. "Jessica who?" I can hear all you youngsters asking but let me tell you that back in the olden days Sunday nights were not complete without the latest episode of The Onedin Line, an everyday tale of seafaring folk in which Jessica played Elizabeth Onedin. Relive the tremendously stirring opening titles at http://youtu.be/Vx7RWW36wes.

Anyway, back to the seals. On 30 September Greenpeace arrived in their new boat Rainbow Warrior, at around the same time the hunters arrived in a boat of their own. A game of cat and mouse then ensued with the hunters setting off in dinghies hotly pursued by Greenpeace members in their own dinghies, only for the hunters to return to their boat. And then, as tension was mounting by the day, the Secretary of State for Scotland succumbed to the pressure. He announced that, due to “widespread public concern” he was dispensing with the services of the Norwegian hunters. The cull of adult grey seals was to be abandoned and the number of pups would be reduced to the levels already existing locally. And everybody lived happily ever after. The end.

Swimming not drowning

Aquatic Sports in Kirkwall Basin, photographed by Tom Kent

Kirkwall Swimming Club was inaugurated in 1888 and they held their first "aquatic sports" event in September of that year. The event was held in Kirkwall Basin, which cannot have been the most hygienic venue, with the raw sewage outlet not being all that far away.

One of the events involved twelve white saucers being thrown into the water and allowed to sink twenty feet to the bottom. Contestants then had to dive in and recover as many as they could without surfacing. Surprisingly nobody drowned!

The first gala proved popular and the event was repeated annually for the next fifteen years, even managing to survive a bout of Victorian prudery. In 1891 the Harbour Commissioners received complaints about public bathing taking place from the pier. The problem was that not all the young men involved bothered with swimming costumes and this was causing "an inconvenience" to the ladies of the town. Amidst protests that learning to swim was a good thing, especially when surrounded by water, the Commissioners decided to ban swimming after 8.00 in the morning.

There is a light that never goes out

Tonight the Science Festival includes a talk titled Around Scotland's Lighthouses by Virginia Mayes-Wright, Director of the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses. Orkney has many fine lighthouses which we're sure will feature.

This very lovely photograph of Hoy High Lighthouse was taken by Wilfred Marr. Don't be fooled by the name, it's not on Hoy but on the island of Graemsay. Together with its neighbour Hoy Low Lighthouse, also on Graemsay, they act as "leading" lights; when a ship entering Hoy Sound lines up the two lights they are on the correct bearing to stay in deep water. The two lights were designed by Alan Stevenson and were lit up for the first time in April 1851.

Hoy High lighthouse is the grander looking structure of the two lights on Graemsay. Its tall white tower, rising to 108 feet (32.9 metres) is still a much-loved landmark for travellers to and from Orkney. Hoy Low was automated in 1966 and Hoy High in 1978.

21 Today!!

Today is the opening of the 21st Orkney International Science Festival. For the next week Orkney will become the place to be for those with enquiring minds.

One event that caught our eye takes place in the Pier Arts Centre on Saturday morning when they will be talking about and showing several short films by Orcadian film maker Margaret Tait. We hold Margaret Tait's written archive (Ref. D97) which contains a wealth of material, including film scripts, letters, business records and much more.

Margaret Tait, 1992. Photographed by Gunnie Moberg

One of Britain's most individual artist film makers, Margaret produced over 30 films in 46 years, including one feature length film, Blue Black Permanent, in 1992. In addition she wrote and published 3 books of poetry.

We are officially brilliant!!

Yes, at long last we have been recognised as being great by someone else other than ourselves.

The lovely people at Iglu Cruise have just sent us the following message: "I am pleased to inform you that ORKNEY ARCHIVE - GET DUSTY has been chosen to receive an Iglu 2011 Blog Award. This year our specialist panel of judges has reviewed hundreds of different sites from across the internet before hand picking the best for each travel category. ORKNEY ARCHIVE - GET DUSTY is among the elite selection of awardees that can be seen here.

On viewing their website I couldn't help noticing that they've given an award to just about every website in Orkney but that does not in any way diminish our joy!