Ups and Downs at the Mill - Sepia Saturday

Continuing  the Highs and Lows September theme, this week’s Sepia Saturday's prompt photograph shows an industrial scene,  including a factory, a tall chimney  and a goods train (see the end of this post).  So take a look here at the local history story of  Rhymer’s Mill  in the rural Scottish Borders.

 

 For over 200 years, textile production was an important part  of the local economy.  

We have one of the earliest descriptions of the village  in  t 1799 in  "The First Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-1799," edited by Sir John Sinclair, where  Parish Minister Rev.  Lawrence Johnston wrote:

 "The principal manufacture is linen cloth.  There are between 40 and 50 weaver looms mostly employed weaving linen........ We have only one woollen manufacturer,  though no place could be better  situated for carrying out that branch of trade.   The Leader Water runs along the west and there is plenty of wool to supply 20 manufacturers."

 In the late 18th century, RHYMER'S MILL was  a corn mill before being transformed by the Whale family into a textile mill where  the production of gingham was introduced by Thomas Whale, succeeded by his two enterprising  daughters Christian and Marion - two formidable women ahead of their time.  

A carved inscription on the old mill building, 

 with  the names C & M Whale clearly visible.

The 1851 Census identified Christian  Whale as a 64 year old manufacturer of gingham and cotton, employing 60 workers, mainly weavers and winders of cotton. Also in the business was her sister Marion aged 56.    Ten years on in 1861 Christian, now aged 74  and Marion 66, were both described as Gingham Manufacturers.

 

Rutherfurd’s 1866 Directory of the Southern Counties, commented

 “Earlston produces quantities of the Earlston ginghams. There is no other place in the country where the same class of gingham is made”.

Two surviving examples of the Earlston Gingham  in the collection of Auld Earlston

 

Rhymer's Mill later became a dye works run by and the path  alongside the Leader Water is still referred to as "The Tenters" where the dyed wool was hung out to dry.  In 1911 the premises were taken over by John Rutherford & Sons,  agricultural engineers, who operated at the mill until the business closed down in 2014. 

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 In the 1851 Census, at MID MILL Charles Wilson was owner:

""of the firm of Charles Wilson & Sons,  blankets and plaiding manufacturers employing 18 men 7 women and 19 girls".  Ten years on, the business had extended to making tweeds, and employed  "28 men and 44 women, boys and young women". 

Young workers listed in the censuses include:

• Piecer in a Woollen Factory   (a 13 year old boy)
• Machine Feeder in a Woollen Factory (15 year old girl - sounds dangerous! )
• Steam Loom Weaver of Wool (18 year old girl)

Subsequently Simpson and Fairbairn took over the business and greatly extended its operations. It appears that the firm later adopted the name of Rhymer's Mill. The local heritage group Auld Earlston is fortunate to have a collection of photographs of the mill dating from the early 1900's . 

 

 We often think that the role of women in the 19th century was one of all things domestic.  But for many of our female ancestors, life involved working long hours in the mill in   various aspects of textile production, whether it be knitwear, tweed, cotton, lace or carpet production.   

Down to the job in hand

Mill Road  where houses were built for the workers

Rhymers Mill  weathered the storm of global depression in the 1920's and 30's.  The Mill was fully employed on service and  utility clothing during the Second World War.   and the post war years saw  a boom time for the Borders as world wide stocks of clothes had to be replaced, with the firm employing more than 300 workers, making it  the  mainstay of the Earlston economy. 

But by the late 1950's and early '60's, the old problems of cheaper competitors and vulnerability to changing fashions had returned.  The decline could not be stemmed and tidal wave of workers along Mill Road turned to a trickle.  The mill finally closed in 1969 when a workforce of almost 100 was made redundant.  

Earlston's role in the  Borders textile industry  

came to an end.

 

 

Two photographs taken in 1974  

of the derelict Rhymer's Mill

  A current street sign in Earlston reminds us of the village's industrial past.  

 

 

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With grateful thanks to Auld Earlston for permission 
to feature photographs from its collection.  

 

 

Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers  to share their family history and memories through photographs

 

 

Click HERE to  see how other Sepia Saturday bloggers 

have been hard at work this week . 

Nessie Welcomes Visitors to Scotland - Sepia Saturday

 
This week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturday is of a cartoon postcard, and I have  just the one to make you smile when you read the message!

The Background:   In Scotland there is a well known story that Loch Ness, south of the Highland town of Inverness,   is inhabited by a mythical monster.  Popular interest and belief in the animal's existence have varied since it was first brought to the world's attention in 1933.  It is thought to be a large, long-necked serpentine water-beast with one or more humps rising from the water.

 

Loch Ness

 

 Castile Urquhart on the banks of Loch Ness.

The Facts:  Loch Ness  lies 23 miles south of Inverness and is Scotland's second largest loch  after Loch Lomond.  Its deepest point of  755 feet) makes  it the second deepest loch in Scotland and it holds more water than the lakes of England and Wales combined. 

The mystery of Nessie is a gift to tourism bosses  and it has continued for decades drawing visitors to the shores of Loch Ness.  

My role in the myth?    For I used to work for the Tourist Board in the Scottish Borders and we regularly gave visitors advice on routes to take in touring the country  - a favourite one was to  travel north up the east coast, visiting  Inverness and then heading back via Loch Ness and the Great Glen  to turn south down the west coast.

 Was I feeding tourists to the Monster?  

No - our  motto was "to wow the visitor" with a friendly, helpful welcome. 

 

My first role  in 1978 in Hawick Tourist Information Centre

Note  - no computer, an old fashioned telephone and no uniform - just a name badge.  I was working in the town's main car park, in  a portacabin with no electricity and you had to make use of the public toilets across the car park.   One year the season was extended  into October and I was given a calor gas light which terrified me.  I was so afraid I would knock it over and set the cabin alight.

 A promotion in 1985  to the largest and busiest centre in the Borders at Jedburgh -  purpose built as a gateway to Scotland centre,  just 14 miles north of the border with England. I was no longer working on my own there and I had a  company of colleagues who remain friends today.  Things had moved on a bit,  though we were not yet into the computer age.  We now had a stylish uniform - which echoed the fashion then for all things tartan.

It was never dull,  as we helped visitors get the most out of  of their holiday and the work was a source of many  humorous anecdotes. I loved this job - meeting people from all over the world, answering questions, preparing displays, promoting retail sales, and compiling fact sheets.  I was in my element!

I  hope my visitors returned safe from Nessie's clutches 

with happy memories of their holiday in Scotland.

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Sources:

• Pixabay  for the  free images of Loch Ness
• Wikipedia
  

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

               to share their family history through photographs

Click HERE to smile at more Cartoons  

From Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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June 15 - Hiring Fair Crowds- Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows a crowd of people gathering in a Market Square.  A cue for me to feature my home village of Earlston in the Scottish Borders and the Crowds that gathered there in the early 20th century for the twice annually held Hiring Fairs.

 

 Earlston Hirng Fair, 1909

 EEarlston Hiring Fairs, held in the Market Square twice a year, were important events where men and women farm workers, (Ag. Labs. Shepherds, *Hinds, Dairy Maids etc.) would gather to bargain with prospective farmers for work, and hopefully secure a position for the following 6-12 months.   

 *The Scottish National  Dictionary defines a "hind" in  Southern Scotland and Northumberland as  "a married skilled farm worker who occupies a cottage on the farm and is granted certain perquisites in addition to wages.

 

 The distinctive work costume of the Bondagers

 Bondagers were female farm workers  in south east Scotland and Northumberland. As part of their husband's contract (or bond) with the farmer, he would undertake to provide another worker (usually his wife) to help as and when required. The women wore a distinctive dress with bonnet, described as the "last remaining peasant costume" in Britain.  The custom of bondagers lasted well into the 20th century.

Hiring Fairs were also social occasions with a rare opportunity for friends and family to meet and enjoy side shows and stalls, with often a a chance to take teas in the Masonic Hall, or a dram in one of the public houses,  or even all-day dancing in the Corn Exchange -   some activities that earned the disapproving of the church.  

 

"The Southern Reporter"  of 1st March 1883  gave us this contemporary account of one such fair.

 

Earlston Hiring Fair, c.1930s

Special trains were laid on by L.N.E.R. (London & North East Railway) offering cheap days excursions to Earlston for the event.

 Seeking Farm Vacancies But  Times were changing, and increasingly during the 1930s farm vacancies were being advertised in the local press.  Workers were also showing a reluctance to move, especially if they were already living near a town or on a bus route and their farm cottages were being improved. 

 A typical listing of farming jobs advertised in "The Southern Reporter":  10th March 1936.  Note that no pay is quoted, and many posts stipulated, along,  with the man, a wife to look after cows and poultry and strong boy(s) to assist on the farm. 

 A report on Kelso Hiring Fair in "The Southern Reporter" 10 January 1938  was typical of the concern for the future. 

 

 

In the same year, an item in "The Berwickshire News" noted:  "There is reason to believe that in the not too distant future, farm hirings will fall into abeyance." 

 

With  the onset of war in 1939,  hiring fairs died out.  but  in Earlston, But the Shows" remained a tangible link with the past, and continued to come into the Square well into the 1960's drawing crowds for a fun time. 

 

Photographs courtesy of the Auld Earlston Group

 

 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.

 

 

 

Click  HERE to see how other bloggers have enjoyed the crowds

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Facing the Paperwork - Sepia Saturday

 This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph on the theme of work features a man working at his desk with a piles of paperwork at his side.     Immediately I saw this prompt, I knew  which photograph I would feature as a tribute to my father John Weston.   He began his working life as a 14 year old delivery boy and retired as sales director of a small drinks company in Scotland - very much a self made man.  

 Cue for images of my father and myself at our respective desks - or work stations  - to use more up to date parlance! 

 Dad's Bureau - A Wedding Present for Life

  

This week's  prompt immediately brought back memories of my father, sitting at his bureau - a wedding present from my mother in 1938.  It remained with them through all their many house moves  and  became an important part of the furniture. This is not a great quality photograph (taken off a slide) but it is the only one I have of Dad at his bureau, c.196

 

 Dad - John P. Weston (1912-2003) was born in Bilston, Staffordshire,  in the heart of the industrial Midlands,  the third child of Albert Ernert Weston and Mary Barbara Matthews.  The family later moved to Broseley, Shropshire, across the river from the famous Ironbridge, known as the seat of Britain's Industrial Revolution.

 

Dad left school at the age of 14.  He wrote in his memoir:

"I went to work at the grocers, where still at school I had been an errand boy and also worked on Saturdays with time off for soccer.  The main assistant was 19 and one morning as I passed the shop,  he asked me if I would help him move some bags of corn, I did and he gave me a bag of biscuits,  so that was my introduction.  I then went out with him delivering orders (we sold bags of corn 80 plus pounds).  The pony, a Welsh cob named Tommy, was inclined to be lazy.  After time,  I did the deliveries with Tommy and the trap.  At night time I rode him bareback to a field!     

 

 This was  a surprising memory as Dad never gave any indication later in life of having the slightest interest or affinity with horses!    Kelly' Directory of Broseley for 1926 listed the shop at 84 High Street  where Dad worked until the family left the town in 1929.  

 

 

 A page from Dad's typing of his early life.

 

Like many of his generation, Dad continued his education in a "self taught" manner.  He also  had an interest in journalism and it was a familiar sight to see him seated at the small typewriter on his bureau.  He was either ploughing through the paperwork of his job (now a commercial traveller)  or keeping in touch with his widowed mother, sister and brothers  by letter.   

 

Wherever  we lived, Dad threw himself into the local community - he was a people person, a "joiner" and  an organizer of fetes and festivities in the church and village - so out came the typewriter again for "to do" lists and press releases.   

In later life Dad was a regular contributor of  letters to local newspapers - my mother was not too happy about this,  as he could get,  in return,  political brickbats from people of divergent views.   He also prepared talks on a variety of topics  to present  to local societies and I have the originals of his typed scripts

 

  Dad often talked not only about his boyhood and also of  his war-time  experiences and I am afraid it did provoke the reaction “Not the war again, Dad”. We also used to joke about him being in the Intelligence Branch.  It was only later that we came to realise what a life-defining period it was and  I persuaded him to write (type) his memoirs. 

 

  A memory of entering France shortly after D Day  in 1944.  

"On the Monday morning we zig-zagged our way across the Channel  (to avoid enemy submarines)  and arrived off the beach at around 11pm, some distance off our landing point.  Sporadic  bombing went on during the night from high level German bombers. We slept where we could on the craft.  Just as dawn was breaking,  at 04.00am the captain started up the engines (there was quite a roar) and we moved in  fast to the beach.  The ramp was dropped, we drove off  - and we were in France!"   

 

 

 A letter to my mother dated 10th September  [1944]

 Dad - dated on the reverse of the photo - Paris - Sept. 12th 1944

 

 

I am so pleased I have these now, as they, with the correspondence between my parents (discovered after their deaths),   formed the basis of two narratives I have written  based on Dad's memories.

 

 

 

 

My parents - a photograph taken 1965 on the day of my graduation from university.  I was the first member of the family to go to university, followed later by my brother - and they were so proud of us. 

 

Like father - like daughter

 

Growing up I was always told I was like my mother,  but much later I came to realise how much my working life reflected my father's  interests. I worked for 22 years in the  Scottish Borders network of tourist information centres - first in front line positions helping visitors get the most of holidaying  in the region, and later as visitor services manager  for the Scottish Borders Tourist Board.  

 

 

 Surrounded by paper work at  Jedburgh Tourist Information Centre,  a large purpose built building acting as a Gateway Centre for Scotland,  as we were only 14 miles north of the English border.  I loved the job!

My professional look in the staff uniform of Douglas tartan kilt. c.1990

 

A move to Head Office, where I did miss the contact with visitors and dealing with enquiries - I do not like to be beaten!  But I benefited from an excellent staff training programme.   And what was I doing?  Writing mini guides for visitors on the local towns, writing press releasers delivering presentations and training courses - and handling loads of paperwork!  

 

My final work position was with the Scottish Borders Archive, Family History and Local History Service  where I was doing much the same -- presenting workshops on family history, writing information sheets on resources.  It was there I was introduced to the world of blogging - and have never looked back since.   My father would have loved blogging!  

 

 Like my father I enjoy playing a part in my local community and I am still using all my work experience in my activities in retirement.

 

So for Dad and I, the world of work suited us very well!   

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers   to share their family history and memories through photograph

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