Curing the Herring

When the British herring fishing industry was at it’s height it was reckoned that for every drifter that went to sea about a hundred jobs were provided on shore. We do not know how accurate that statement was but certainly the herring fishing provided a lot of jobs ashore, not least the thousands of herring gutters in every fishing port round the coast ever since large scale gutting began in Scotland early in the 19th century.
It was the Dutch that originally devised the technique of removing the gill and long gut from the herring before curing them in barrels with layers of salt between each tier of fish. That secret enabled them to monopolise the whole European herring trade throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
The main market for Scottish herring before the 19th century was in the West Indies where fish was in great demand as a cheap food to feed the Negro slaves on the plantations and the quality of the cure for that market was not important. When slavery was abolished by the acts of 1807 and 1833 the West Indian market for herring declined and eventually ceased altogether, hence the necessity to seek new outlets for Scottish herring.

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Calum Nicolson (Calum Beag)

AIG AN OBAIR – From an article in Tional April 1994
When I left school in Lemreway in 1934, I got a job as a postman, delivering letters to thirty-two crofts in Lemreway, thirteen crofts in Orinsay and four crofts in Stiomreway.  This was a departure from the accepted custom as boys usually took a job in a fishing boat on leaving school.  There were plenty of opportunities, as there were nine boats fishing our of Lemreway at the time, all requiring a crew of five adults and a boy.  The boats left Lemreway on a Monday and were based in Stornoway until they returned the following Saturday morning.
Delivering the mail to Stiomreway was quite an arduous task.  It was over two miles from Orinsay over rough moorland and around lochs.  In those days, most of the mail comprised of catalogues and parcels from J. D. Williams and similar mail order firms.  The catalogues were often ordered for the girls in the Village by boys under pet names and I became quite expert at spotting the fakes and most of them found a resting place at the bottom of the loch about a mile out of Orinsay.  Stiomreway was eventually abandoned in 1941.
This occupation was only available when the regular postman was on holiday or ill.  Between times, I found work at one of the road building projects going on at the time and soon felt I was well on the way to becoming a millionaire.  With our newly earned wealth, five of us ordered brand new bicycles from – wait for it – J. D. Williams, of course.  They cost £5 each and we paid them up at ten shillings per week or 50p in to-day’s currency.  They were called ‘Flights’ and we were very proud of them.  We collected a few cuts and bruises before we mastered them, but we soon got the hang of them and felt very proud of ourselves riding to Church at Gravir on Sunday, scattering the rest of the congregation as we sped by on the four-mile journey.  I suppose we were as popular as the Red Arrows are to-day.

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Garyvard Village Shops in the Early 1900's

In these days when village shops are all but gone it is hard to imagine that even a small village could have half a dozen shops in the early 1900’s

Buth Dhomhnull a Gharraidh (Donald Macleod) 1 Garyvard.

After the first world war Domhnull a Gharaidh set up a shoemaking business in an extension to Seoc a Gharraidh’s old black house on croft 1 next to where Roddy and Barabells house is sited today.  Donald had served his time as a shoemaker in Stornoway. This soon became a gathering place (taigh ceilidh) for the local youth as well as those not so young.  Card games were a common part of the evenings entertainment with ‘Catch the Ten’ being a favourite with matches as stakes.  Donald soon expanded and started to trade in other commodities and eventually built a shop to sell general stores.
In 1934 he became the Postman for the area serving the villages of Habost, Kershader, Garyvard and Caversta, a service which he undertook for 28 years until he retired in the early 60’s.
By the thirties demand for handmade  footwear had fallen off, but he still did shoe repairs up until the fifties. The shop was at its busiest in the forties when people came for their weekly rations and although the shop was only a 12 X 8 shed it included a butchery section. Environmental and Health & Safety standards were not an issue in those days with meat, flour, cheese, salt herring, kippers, boots, shoes, oilcake and fluke pills all being dispensed from this small shed and especially as it wasn’t unknown for the assistant to cast aside his manure creel to go and serve a customer in the shop.

Seada Thorcuill (Torcuill Macleod) 3 Garyvard

Torcuill Shiomon as he was known was a shoemaker who worked from a shed which still stands beside the steading at croft No 3. His business was confined to shoemaking mostly in the thirties. Torcuill himself died in 1944 at the age of 60.
The family had been visited by tragedy nine years earlier when two days before Christmas 1935 the three brothers, Alasdair, Calum and Calum Alasdair were out on the Caversta river which was covered with ice. Their dog slipped through a hole in the ice and whilst attempting to rescue the dog, Calum Alasdair went in under the ice and was tragically drowned aged 10 years. Alasdair tried to save his brother and was nearly drowned himself. He later received the Royal Humane Society Bravery Scroll. The scene of the tragedy is adjacent to the present cattle grid on the main road near Lake House.

Buth Mhurchaidh Buachaile, Murdo Macleod 3 Garyvard

Murchadh Buachaile who was Murdag Shiomon’s grandfather operated a shop from the family home around the turn of the century.  Murdag Shiomon (Murdina Macleod) revived the family tradition in the late twenties and continued till the early sixties. Murdag was a true entrepreneur of her time.  She bought and sold Harris Tweed, cattle and chickens as well as the normal provisions.  She even bought a van and operated a mini mobile shop travelling throughout the local villages.  Later on she branched into drapery, hardware and crockery and bought a larger van and she built a fairly large shop cum garage on the site of the present Council houses.

Torcuil Dhomhuill Thorcuil

Torcuil ran a shoemakers shop from a steading at 6 Garyvard before marrying and moving to Crossbost where he carried on his trade and also served as a postman.

An Buidhe

In earlier times another merchant used to go round the villages selling from his boat. An Buidhe lived on his boat with a deck referred to as a ‘smack’. Very little is known of his genealogy but the older generation remember him mooring his fishing smack in the bay and selling items of grocery.  Local people still remember his boxes of Cochranes tea which must have been the popular blend of the time.

Buth Dhonnachaidh an Mhoir, Duncan Mackay 3 Caversta.

Duncan’s shop was by the river on the Caversta side on the croft at number 3 where the site of the shop and a wall can still be identified. Duncan was the father of the councillor Donald John Mackay who served the area for a good number of years.

Buth Alasdair Rhuaraidh, Alasdair Mackinnon

The shop was attached to his house, Sea Haven on croft number 1.  Like most merchants he owned a number of boats over the years to bring goods from Stornoway.  One of those was the Try Again.

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