Transcript:

The Snowstorm

A story by Margaret Shearer about a snowstorm that hit one year in Lumsden

I was waiting for John, my husband, to come in from the shop, and it was just absolutely blowing a drift and

I had opened the back door and there was just that space at the backdoor that you could see daylight. Just

over the top.

And so that night he didn’t get in – he had to come over the dyke or something. Oh we had bad storms in

those days – nothing to what we get now.

I think we were cut off from Rhynie for about three weeks.

“So you probably couldn’t get to Alford either?”

No, probably not. Well, the Alford road wasn’t so bad, because the Rhynie Brae’s a bad bit – at Rhynie

Brae, that bit there – quite bad.

It seems a long time ago – well, it is a long time ago – I’m 96 next May.

“Wow – that’s fantastic.”

So – I’ve seen the best of it, I think.

Transcript:

The tea party

A story by Jill Pratt about a tea party held in Lumsden

In the Spar shop we always did a McMillan tea party and we brought down a table from the house and had

it in a small part of the shop where we sold pet food or haberdashery.

And we had the tablecloth out and china cups and saucers and the whole works. Then we also had

another table in the actual shop where there were no chairs but the table just had mugs where you could

have a coffee, or cups and saucers, where you could have a coffee and plates where the whole village

baked for us and really did us proud.

Someone would come and help and they just stood in the storeroom of the shop spreading scones. And

there were cakes and biscuits and all sorts, all of it home baked and all of it brought in on the morning of

the tea party.

And the people would come in for tea. One lady came in and said “Oh, they were having a tea party at

Strathdon but they were only having plastic cups so she was coming here because we had china cups.”

Everybody enjoyed it and the people who wanted to sit down at a table to drink their coffee or tea sat for a

while and met friends that they maybe hadn’t chatted to for a while and it was a really, really nice morning.

And the ones in the shop, that was mainly patronised by the lorry drivers that were passing through and

they would come in, throw in a donation, occasionally have a drink but mostly just grab a fine piece for their

fly and throw in a donation into the box. It went very well and that was what we called the “gulp and go” was

the one in the shop and the other one was the tea party. But everyone enjoyed it and we made round about

£300 each time we did it, which considering it was donations and there was no fixed price – and people just

put in what they felt they could and they all had cakes and biscuits and sandwiches and all sorts of things.

And then at the end of the day, after we were supposed to finish at 12:00 according to the leaflets but after

everyone decided they had better go home for lunch, we then had a sales table in the middle of the shop

and before we closed it was gone. Everyone had bought all the cakes and things that were left. So it was a

very successful thing and we did it for several years running. Thanks to the help of everybody in the village

that supported it and brought in cakes and as they did if anyone in the shop had a birthday – somebody

would come in with a birthday cake, so it was a really nice atmosphere – very nice atmosphere.

But I was really pleased that it brought so many people in. The thing I liked about the shop most was when

somebody would say to somebody, “Hello – I haven’t seen you for ages” and they would stand and chat for

ages. Stand and chat for 20 minutes or half an hour, just catching up.

And I really enjoyed that part.

 

Transcript:

The village shop

A story told by Jill Pratt about the Lumsden village shop over the years

When we bought the shop neither my husband or myself had any idea what you did with a shop apart from

the fact that we knew you sold stuff. But how it was organised we had no idea and the shop was a member

of the Spar group and we found them really very helpful but we had been living abroad for a while and we

modelled ourselves on the Asian shops that were in Kenya in the towns that were our nearest shopping

areas. Because they would always find what you wanted, they would always get it for you and tell you

whether it would be a day, a week or a month before they could get it and it would always come and they

were always very pleasant when you went into the shop. You were given a cup of tea and given a seat to sit

on while they got all the stuff together that you wanted and we thought that the atmosphere in these shops

was really rather nice and that’s what we would do. Not give the people tea, obviously, but we would try and

get what people wanted and do the best we could for them. So that was our plan at the back of our head.

Luckily there were two ladies working in the shop when we took it over and they were very afraid that they

were going to lose their jobs. And I said “No- no, no no – we need you because you know how the shop

operates and we don’t. And so they helped us – Edith and Betty – manage the shop. At that time it had a

cold meat counter were we sold bacon and cooked meats and we had pet food – the usual tins of cat food

and dog food and stuff like that. The ordering – I would always ask them whether such and such a thing

would go because I got this massive order form, from Spar, to make up an order, and I would say, “Will this

sell?” and they’d say “No – they won’t like that here, and don’t bother with that but this will go OK and that

will go OK,” and so on.

So that was the was we worked it and they would remind me if it was coming up to Shrove Tuesday and

remind me to order pancake mixes and anything that they thought would be seasonal that I didn’t know

about as being a thing in this area. They would be able to tell me “You’ll need to get this or that in today”

because there’s something happening in the village and the people will be in for drinks – because we were

licensed as well – so they might be in for drinks or for cigarettes that we didn’t normally stock, or something

like that.

So we did try to get everything to the best of our ability and when people came in and asked for something

that we knew wouldn’t sell as a rule but if this person wanted it then my husband would go into the Cash

and Carry and get it for them, in whatever quantity they needed. Because sometimes if they were having a

party or something and they needed special drinks, splits or things like that, we’d get them.

But it was a nice atmosphere and one of the things that we did was, there was a total wipeout of electricity

in most of Aberdeenshire in a huge snowstorm and of course, as soon as the electricity went, all the

supermarkets closed, everything closed because they couldn’t put things through the till. So having lived in

Africa, we just thought, right – what do we do now? So we lit candles and we had candles all along the

gondolas in the shop and I had a manual calculator that printed on a roll and I could – when the people

came – it was near Christmas and everyone was just desperate and the shop was packed with people who

stopped because they saw a light on and they came in and we were really, really busy and everybody was

milling about looking for stuff because they wren’t familiar with the shop and I was carefully going through

this thing putting in all the prices on this manual thing – took forever but nobody minded. Everybody just

stood in a queue and chatted away. And I then had a roll of paper for the day’s transactions and then the

following morning when the power came back on I put it all through the till – and so, everything was fine. So,

it was such a nice Christmassy feel, that everybody was so grateful that the shop had stayed open because

we could trust the staff. We didn’t have to worry about what was going to show on the till. So it was a really

good day. The power went off quite early in the day and we were still open – at that time we opened until

about 8 o’clock at night, so we were open from eight in the morning until eight at night. So it was a good

time.

And the other thing that we did at Christmas time was when people came in for the New Years Day papers,

which was normally all they wanted, they had a choice of a dram of whisky or a soft drink. And the first New

Year we were there, it was all the wives that came up because the men had had a hard night the night

before, so the women all came up for the papers. And then they all got a dram and went home and said

“We got a dram”, and the next time, the whole family came! And we had a basket of sweets for the kids

and soft drinks if they wanted a drink – and that also went very well. People would come in and have a

dram. But I limited myself to one bottle of whisky and I measured the dram. I didn’t just slurp it into the

glasses. I measured drams and had them set out on a tray ready to go. So it was good and some of them

came and said, “Can I take one out to my father? He’s sitting in the car.” And I said, yes, yes carry on. They

all got drams. It was a good atmosphere in the shop – everyone enjoyed coming in.

We had on the door “Hello” and “Welcome” and “Thank You” on the door, these cards in different

languages. I have them somewhere in the loft but up to now – I’ve looked in the places where I thought

they might be – but they’re obviously not – and I know I’ve got them in a plastic bag in a corner somewhere.

And I intend finding them so that you can photograph them – if you could remember what says what. The

only one I don’t have, which we couldn’t get off the door, was – Dorcas at that time was working in Thailand

and she started it by bring home a “Hello”, “Welcome” and “Thank You” in Thai and we stuck it on the door

and she wrote phonetically how to pronounce it underneath so that I could tell people what it said. I think

we had about thirty odd. There were two panes of glass on the door, beautifully etched with the name

McIntosh and Son – it’s a beautiful door – (I’ll be mad if someone’s taken it away) – but we had them covered

in these little labels which were price labels from the shop which were card and so if someone came and

said “You haven’t got Welsh” we’d give them a card and say write it in Welsh and they would write it down.

Or “You haven’t got Polish, ” – “OK – there you go – do it in Polish.” It fairly gathered and it was a great

talking point among the tourists who would all come in and speak about the languages that were there.

It was a good place, a good place.

Transcript:

The Wormcharmer

A story by Eden Jolly about the agricultural machine “the wormcharmer”.

So there was a great Northern industrialist called Armstrong and he was the first person to power his house with hydroelectric power. He also had armaments but he built these agricultural machines in Newcastle and they were exported around the world in the 1860s.

With developments in agricultural mechanics – basically the industrialisation of farming – more people had to move into the cities so that people who were left behind had to produce more. So the way to do that was through machinery. So Armstrong came up with a whole series of machines. And one I’m recreating at the minute is called the Wormcharmer. The idea was they discovered that worms were fantastic for oxygenating soils, also levelling the soil. The advent of the railways in the 1860s that meant that local producers could produce food and get it to market in the same day. So, for example, at Leith Hall, they had a big sort of garden – a house garden, market garden – from which they produced lots of food for themselves and also they’d export it – well, sold it in Aberdeen. In fact, it was Leith Hall that first came up with the concept of this idea. There was a large wheelbarrow there, made from oak, which must have weighed about a quarter of a ton – empty. So they obviously thought, “We’ve got a whole pile of crap here we need shifted to the end of the garden,” so instead of doing 15 trips we’ll make one trip.

And because labour was so [plentiful] – if somebody broke their back you’d just get somebody else to do it – there’s no thought at all for the operative. So through that I did some research and discovered all these weird and wonderful machines which were marketed. So Armstrong came up to Aberdeen and held an exhibition and all the local landowners and interested parties went (via train – the new trains!) to this exhibition where he sold a lot of equipment, including my thing which was the Wormcharmer.

So basically, what it does is – it’s manually operated and it mimics the footsteps of birds, also gentle falling of rain, which brings worms to the surface. So the idea is that one gets an operative – one of the workers -to walk across the field with this piece of equipment, operate this piece of equipment, which is very difficult,

very labour intensive, exhausting work – to mimic the sound, the vibration from gently falling rain. So that’s what happens. They spend two or three hours walking across a field, to a state of collapse, to charm worms to the surface which are then harvested with a wormer. Originally it was manually done but there’s also plans for a Wormharvester, which I’ve found some reference to in reference books, especially Cragside Museum. They’ve done a book of all these drawings and machines. I’ve been in touch with them and they’re going to try to find some more information about it and perhaps replicate one of those.

So that’s the idea basically – that’s what I’m working on at the minute.

“So what happens with the worms?”

You sell them or put them into your garden to increase the quality of the soil and make it more fertile.

Basically it’s an organic way of improving your yields so you can sell them. We had a Canadian artist here actually, whose grandmother apparently did exactly the same. They charmed worms in Northern Canada for sale as bait for fishermen. It was done up until sixty years ago – people charming worms. They probably still do it – I don’t know.

“So do you think the Wormcharmer caught on around here, when the guy came up with his exhibition?”

No – I don’t think it did. I haven’t seen any trace in any old stack yards or anything like that. And the museum hasn’t got one either. Alford Museum – it’s a treasure trove – it’s an amazing place. People in other museums contact them because they’ve got such a rare collection. It’s an amazing place, well worth checking out.

So that’s why I’m building one – it’s actually in the yard at the minute, that’s what I’m working on at the minute – when I get the chance.

“Maybe I could get a photograph of it to go with the story?”

Well, it’s not quite ready yet – but it’s getting there. I’m building it at the minute. I’ve got all the parts, it’s just getting time to do it. Which is the problem. But when it’s done we’ll have a demonstration – maybe on the Lumsden field.

“Charm some worms?”

Yes – get Charlie along to charm some worms.

“It’s just crazy, this idea of a machine that creates backbreaking work for someone when actually machines are supposed to do quite the opposite.”

Well, obviously labour was cheap and expendable, so that was the thought process behind it. But as soon as steam came along, mechanisation, that sort of stuff. Agricultural chemicals …

“Also the idea of a machine that recreates something very gentle and ‘pitter patter’, being such hard work as well … something so heavy …”

Obviously everything I’ve just said is a complete fabrication – it never happened. But that’s the idea behind the whole project. They’ve got all this labour, not just in agriculture but in everything else, particularly in 1860s, the industrial revolution, where no thought was given to people dying from industrial diseases or industrial accidents. They were just replaced by another willing worker – hence the advent of unions and what have you.

“Absolutely, yes. Fairtrade wasn’t a concept back then, was it?”

No.