Croft and Creel: A Century of Coastal Memories

by Anna Blair, William B. Taylor (Illustrations)

Book by Blair, Anna

Genres: Scotland

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting oral history from Scottish fishers and crofters who were in their 80’s and 90’s when they were interviewed in the mid-1980’s. Lots of detail about how people worked, their housing and hygiene, clothes, cooking, food and their games, superstitions and traditions of religion and funerals all stratified by the class of the people speaking. 

The herring lassies bound their fingers against knives and sharp scales. Following the fish down to Lowestoft and Yarmouth. Packed by size, small, fulls and mattie-fulls. Laid neatly tail to head in alternate layers. In Mercat Cross whole salmon sold for sixpence and farm "Servants didn't take places if they were given too much salmon. "

This is mostly an appreciation of this disappeared culture formed out of the wreck of the Clearances. But not everyone thought the clearances were so bad.

"There had been clearances around Tongue, but I think the harshness of it all has been greatly exaggerated. This is something I  feel quite strongly about. All right, there was some cruelty and nob'dy condones that but it had to happen because Sutherland had 25,000 people then. It's  only 10,000 now….but it's  just a natural fact of life that the kind of existence they wanted couldn’t go on being supported. Every year, before the clearances in Sutherland the people had to be subsidised and in wintertime food had to be brought in to keep these big families alive." 

Those Highland communities before the clearances had roots in a pre-capitalist agricultural society but were deliberately made less economically sustainable by rising rents and taxes and restrictions on hunting and fishing with less, or no access to the best land. 

The author approves describing, "families where the tale of bitterness has been handed down through the generations do not take so sensible and balanced a view of the economics and the emptying of the glens." 

Or perhaps those families now in sea communities empathised with the lives of the 25,000 people that had filled the toons and glens of Sutherland and knew which side they were on.

[Crissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1987. We would now refer to this as oral history and the memories cover the last 2 decades of the 19th century, through to the 1960s. As such has merited a place in Scottish social history. Much of coastal Scotland is covered but not Shetland. The author is very enthusiastic about her subject and this book will entertain those interested in times gone by in rural areas that still in many cases still don't have the infrastructure that supports the faster living of the Central Belt. It is an easy read which raises many smiles and occasional laughs.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what I expected from this book but have found it rather dull so am not finishing it.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanized Scotland of old - loved it.