The Home Guard

Tammie was looking very smart in his uniform, boots shining, cap at a jaunty angle. He just had to collect his rifle from its place beside the stove and he was ready. He hooked the rifle over his shoulder and set off down the path to the hill grind. He was very proud of the fact that he was a First World War veteran, having served with the renowned Gordon Highlanders and so he felt that he could teach these young whipper-snappers a thing or two.

He reached the gate, opened it and stepped through. But as he turned to close it again something large and soft blew across his face obliterating all vision. He snatched the offending object away and saw that it was a pair of voluminous bloomers belonging to his wife Betty. He angrily stuffed them into a hole in the dyke and continued on his way. He knew that the folk in the neighbouring croft house would have been watching him and having a good laugh. To think that he, Tammie, had been marching smartly along with a huge pair of knickers hanging from the barrel of his rifle!
Oh how his cheeks burned with the ignominy of it all. It took him all his time to regain his composure before meeting up with his companions.

The regular army decided to stage a mock invasion, and the Home Guard were to defend their territory. And so our local heroes set up a road block about two miles out the road and kept watch. But alas for their obstruction! The soldiers just came round the sides with their Bren-gun carriers and were advancing rapidly towards the defenders. Tammie thought this was just too bad. He who had had experience fighting the Turks in Mesopotamia was not going to be outdone so easily. He found a small pile of blue clods (very hard peats) with which he began pelting the invaders. He caught one of them on the cheek-bone, inflicting an injury which required medical attention. This meant calling an ambulance, which had not been in their plan at all. Any "casualties" were to be of the make-believe kind, but what could you expect of this undisciplined lot. Why, one of them turned up so late for the exercise that he was immediately taken prisoner, a fate which he thought was "ower weel".

Buffy

Mary's aunt Robina Anderson (Beenie) married Edmund Fraser, an Edinburgh advocate, who had come to stay at Vementry. Many happy times were had there. Edmund was a keen photographer and we are indebted to him for some very fine family photographs. Beenie organised a group of knitters and helped them to sell their work. Knitting was an important part of the crofting economy, for although the women did not get much for their efforts, every little helped. Beenie would arrange picnics now and then for her knitters and they were welcome breaks from the busy needles.

One morning in October 1904, the 21st to be precise, Edmund and his brother-in-law John from Aithness and Thomas Fraser, aged 14 years from Uphouse, Aith, set sail from Vementry to go to Papa Little to take in hogs for mutton for the winter. It was a quiet, misty day with just enough wind to be useful for sailing.

All was serene until they reached the open sea and began to change course for Papa Little. Then all of a sudden a squall hit them and the boat was swamped. Edmund had a dog called Buffy, who was with them in the boat.

The first that anyone knew about the tragedy was when a bedraggled Buffy returned home. He apparently swam from the Holms of Uyeasound, or Calf Holms as they are known locally, to the headland of Braganess.

The alarm was raised and Mitchell Nicolson and Laura Robertson rowed right around the Holms looking for the boat, but to no avail. People scanned the sea from every vantage point, but it was still pretty misty in places and nothing could be seen.

It was not until three days later that the boat was sighted stuck fast on a reef with her sails still set. Then came the sad business of recovering three drowned bodies from the sea.

Things were not the same on the Westside for a very long time.

Mary Part 2

Some crofts might be situated on a steep incline and in this case delling was started at the top end one year and at the bottom end the next year. Sometimes earth was carried in kishies from the bottom where it had accumulated and deposited at the top, which had got pretty sparse. One great advantage of the spade over the plough was that not one inch of precious soil was wasted. They could dig right up to the hill dyke and they were very particular about keeping the edges straight. The modoo girse (meadow grass) had to be cut with a scythe and then the long swathes were quarved (a turning and lifting movement) with wide wooden rakes maybe two or three times, depending on the weather. When it was dry enough the hay was built into small coles and then bigger ones and finally into a rectangular dess in the yard, ready for winter feeding.

After a while Christina became aware of a young man called William Nicolson from the nearby croft of Mark. They began seeing each other as often as their onerous duties would allow and a few years later they were married and Christina went to stay at Mark. They lived there for a number of years and then moved to Setter in Clousta. They had a family of eleven, six boys and five lasses. Mary was the seventh child.

There was great excitement among the younger ones of the family. There was going to be a big picnic celebrating Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee, sixty years on the throne. There would also be bonfires on some of the hilltops. Mary and Lizzie had plenty to discuss. Where would the picnic be held? Vementry was a popular choice. What would they wear? Would the tinkers come with some new ribbon for their hats and maybe a bit of lace for their blouses? The crofting folk had so little in the way of personal belongings and yet, as we can judge from photographs, for occasions such as a picnic they were very smartly turned out. Nothing was thrown out, but kept carefully and re-trimmed when necessary and passed on when outgrown.

When Mary was five years old a young doctor came to set up practice in Clousta. You may think that Clousta was a rather remote area for such a venture, but the doctor had connections there. His mother was Bessie Brown Tait from Bonhus, a descendant of the celebrated Christopher Brown.

The doctor practised in Clousta for about fifteen years, steadily gaining an excellent reputation. During this time, Mary's family moved to a much better croft in Twatt. Mary always remembered that the very first thing her father did when they moved in was to dig the earth away from the back of the house.

The family's ties with Clousta were not severed however, since at least some of them walked the three miles to attend the kirk there twice every Sunday. They thoroughly enjoyed singing the old Sankey hymns. The doctor enjoyed singing too.

At some stage throughout these years it became apparent that the doctor had his eye on Mary. There were plenty more lasses nearer his age that he could have had. But no, it was Mary whom he wanted. And so it came to be that they married in 1908 and set up house at Parkhall, which the doctor had arranged to be built at the head of the Effirth road. He fetched his mother and father from Mossbank to spend their remaining years at Parkhall. The doctor and Mary had a family of ten. They survived the tragedy of losing their first two boys to the scourge of diptheria and went on to have six more sons and two daughters.

There are now grandchildren and great-grandchildren throughout the length and breadth of Britain.

Mary - Part 1

Mary and Lizzie were great pals. They met up each morning to walk to the Clousta school together, each carrying her slate, and if it was fine they dawdled a bit on the way home. But not for long because they were always needed to help with something at the house. Growing up in a crofting family there was no time to be bored.

Many crofters were born and lived their lives out in the same house, but others moved about quite a bit in search of better land and yet others were forced out of their homes in the infamous Highland clearances. Mary's grandparents and their family of seven had been evicted from their croft at Kergord in 1871.

A man called David Black form Brechin in Scotland bought the land with the intention of improving it and making bigger holdings. This meant getting rid of the tenants. He was able to do this because they did not have security of tenure. Some went to Gonfirth, Tumblin, Aith, Hestinsetter and Nesting. Some eventually went overseas to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

James Anderson of Kergord looked at the big white clouds and the clear blue behind them and thought, Yes it seemed settled enough. They would make a push tomorrow. It had to be done whatever the difficulties.

"Foo ir we gyan ta kerry aa dis proil sae far?" said Christina, who at sixteen was the eldest of the seven children.

"We'll manage," replied her father. "We'll aa hae to kerry as muckle as we can, and Magnie and Ertie ir coming back fae Eid ta help wi da heavy stuff, since I helpit dem ta flit."

And so they were all up bright and early the next morning. They filled kishies with household articles, some of the bairns having small ones and maybe carrying a bucket of odds and ends. They were all laden. They were not very familiar with the Skelly hills but they had been told to watch out for deep riviks in the peat and also bogs.

They set off in single file, James leading and his wife Janet bringing up the rear. They had a good two miles to go before they reached East Burrafirth. Picking their way carefully they managed without mishap and made their way to Slyde which was just about directly opposite the Bicht o' Breiwick and Aithsness, their destination.

The folk at East Burrafirth were only too willing to help them across the voe with their belongings, several men coming forward with boats. After many trips back and fore, because we must remember they had to flit their livestock and crops as well as their household effects, they eventually got settled at Aithsness. It had been some undertaking manhandling everything and was only achieved through the strong sense of co-operation present in the crofting community. They were all financially poor together, but rich in strength of character and fortitude in the face of adversity. Besides which most had a good measure of "midder wit" (common sense).

And so the Andersons got used to being at Aithsness. It didn't matter where the croft was, the routine was the same. All the voar work; mucking, delling, sowing and planting and then the hoeing. Peats had to be cut and cured, brought home and a stack built, which was a real work of art. All the time of course the animals had to be tended, kye milked, butter made and some salted by for the winter. Sheep were clipped and dipped, hens fed and kept out of the crops. Then there was all the hairst work; stocking corn, lifting neeps and tatties and storing them for the winter.

The rigs had to be delled, ie dug with a Shetland spade, because the land that was left for the crofters was too shallow to be ploughed. But both men and women were expert with the spade and a team of three or four or more working in unison soon made a difference on a rig. It was hard work but enjoyable too with the camaraderie and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Part 2 of "Mary" is in Shetland Story No.10