Monday 29 April 2013

Week 4: Creetown Flags

William Blake: Ancient of Days (1794)
Listen to the Granite - the stone talks

“Our history makes us what we are. Our geology makes us what we are”
                                                                                             (Creetown Resident: April 2013)

‘In the parish of Kirkmabreck very extensive operations in granite working have been carried on for a long series of years. Adjoining the public road leading to Gatehouse, about two miles from Creetown, is an extensive quarry, leased by the Liverpool Dock Trustees. All the stones procured there are used for dock purposes only. There are four vessels constantly employed by the Liverpool Company in transporting the stones to their docks, and other vessels are often engaged in the same service. On one occasion, when the quay at this place was transferred from one proprietor's land to that of another, there were nineteen vessels constantly occupied for six months in the removal to the banks of the Mersey of the material that had accumulated at the abandoned wharf. About two miles east from these works, on the farm of Bagbie, on the estate of Kirkdale, belonging to Major Rainford Hannay, a quarry was opened in February 1864 by Messrs Forrest, Wise, & Templeton. The stone of this quarry is of first-class quality, and, like that at Kirkmabreck, can be worked without blasting. In connection with their works the firm have a commodious quay erected for the shipment of such portions of their prepared materials as are transported by sea, and between it and the quarry they have constructed a tramway. There is still another quarry in this neighbourhood deserving notice. It is situated near the apex of the hill at whose base are the Kirkmabreck quarries, and almost in a straight line from these works. It is within the farm of Fell, and hence called Fell Quarry. It is worked by the Scottish Granite Company. Messrs Newall have an extensive polishing establishment. The process of polishing is of recent introduction into Galloway, the first experiments in it having been made by the late Mr Andrew Newall a few years ago. By Messrs D. H. & J. Newall the art has been brought to a state of great perfection, and is extensively carried on by them with a constantly increasing business. From their quarries on Craignair the firm are supplied with part of their material for polished work’

The Industries of Scotland, their Rise, Progress and Present Condition
 - By David Bremner (1869)


“Our history makes us what we are. Our geology makes us what we are”
                                                                                             (Creetown Resident: April 2013)

Creetown is built on and from granite - its houses made from stone quarried from the surrounding hills. This granite, formed around 400 million years ago - was derived from the partial melting of rocks lower within the earth’s crust, where the heat and deformation caused by continental collision was most intense. A course grained igneous rock composed of quartz, feldspar and mica - the whiteness of Creetown granite is due to its high levels of quartz - which...

“sparkles in the sunlight”
                                    (Creetown Resident: March 2013)


Quarry men have said that the stone talked, that you had to wait and listen to the stone. On a still and quiet day you could hear the granite clicking as the plug and feathers were tapped in....as the pressure on the stone gradually built up to splitting point.

With harder materials, such as granite, before the introduction of pneumatic drills stone was traditionally split manually, with quarry workers using the ‘plug and feather’ method. This involved boring lines of holes along the stone’s grain using iron rods. Iron plugs and wedges were then inserted into the holes and struck with a maul, in order to gradually split the stone apart.


The word "granite" comes from the Latin word "granum", a grain.

 “Creetown granite is hard to work” (Creetown Resident: March 2013)

‘......due to it’s tangled reed’...........’The ‘reed’ is the local word for the granite’s grain - and is equivalent to the grain in wood’
(In Context: Hideo Furuta and Adamson Square)
  

How did quarrying granite (‘one of the hardest materials on earth’) shape the character of the Creetown men who worked it? – How did this in turn, shape the lives and character of their children and their children’s children?


‘Stones have their natural tendencies, as well as mortal men.....’


‘The block of granite, which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong’
                                           Thomas Carlyle
                                                                       

‘The unforgiving nature of granite demanded of him very long hours, patience and the skill of a mason’..........Former Quarrymen... ‘recognised in him a straightforwardness, honesty and dedication..' (In Context: Hideo Furuta and Adamson Square)


“Creetown is not a pretentious place, people here have a strong work ethic – this is a working village” (Creetown Resident: April 2013)



Resin block with suspended spheres and black specks ('micas'?) made by Creetown resident Gemma in 2006
Hideo Furuta: Sphere on Adamson Square - keystone/locking stone
Creetown Granite at Liverpool Docks (1/4/13) - keystones/locking stones




Sunday 14 April 2013

Week 3: Creetown Flags (part 2)

Accident at the Bar Quarry, Creetown



THREE CREETONIAN LADIES & “the days when there wasn’t much light”

The big boys used tae jump over the mill-lade.
An’ we used tae race the burn up tae the mill – trying tae outrun the water. Dae ye remember that?
(laughter). Aye
– An’ a remember being tied tae the flour bag hoist and no being able to get doon again
(laughter)  
We play’d in the burn a lot. It’s aw changed noo...
An’ the ‘bug hole’ was where we used tae swim... At the confluence of the burns.

An’ down at The Inks
The sea pinks – bright, bright pink flowers.
There’s a picture of me in the museum – from years ago - down thare with the swans....

...an’ we used to bike to Ravenshall rocks (The Judge’s Head Rock) six miles up shore........

................................................

Harbour Street was called the ‘al’ street an’ one of the houses on it was called ‘The Granite’.....................

Creetown granite is hard tae work...
A remember a neighbour lost his leg in a dynamite accident up at the quarry.......thair were a fair few accidents.......

...an often the men would head off to the quarry in the morning and be sent home again if it was raining – they didnae get paid if they didnae work.

Do y know about Adamson’s Square? An’ the sphere... Hideo lived at the quarry– we took him furniture... an’ invited him for Christmas dinner.

................................

I was away from Creetown fur a while, but now I live in the same house I was born in......
Beside my house is a garage, which used to be own’d by the Carson family - who were in the building trade.....they were a well-off family in Creetown...

I remember the night Jean Carson’s house went on fire - on what’s now Silver Street.....

..It makes me laugh tae hear it called Silver Street.....because it wasnae always call’d that, it was the ‘Back Green Road’ and it was just three houses.

... I was paperin’ my house at the time – and there was a problem with the fire hose outside an’ all you could hear was a voice shouting in the darkness ‘Pump it up Bill!!!’ over an over again - as they tried to put the flames out (laughter).
I made ham n’ eggs for the boys once the fire was oot.........

.................................................

I remember... in the days when thare wasnae much light  - Bill was walkin’ past the doctors one night an heard a voice coming from the big hedge..... Jonny had fallen in tae it an couldnae get oot again an’ had tae be rescued. (laughter).......

.............................

...Len Harvie had a turf business, he took over some fields (near the factory) and tended the grass for a while – he cut it ...... kill’d off the weeds – an’ the turf was used for bowling greens in Edinburgh (Holyrood) an Glasgow. Some Creetown turf was laid for the queen when she open’d one o’ the bridges in Edinburgh.........

.........................................
The Silver Band – Barr?

My Great, Great...(I think that’s it...) Grandfather on my mother’s side (James Barr). Well, his mother (a ‘Carson’) - and father ran away to Liverpool to get married. Jane Carson said she wouldnae raise a family in Liverpool......so they returned to Creetown where they went on to have 12 children. .... She was only a small woman tae......

There’s always been a ‘Barr’ in the Silver Band - Jill Barr plays in it now.

.................................

We used tae play oot all day an never locked the doors.
My neighbour used to take my washin in....she even ironed it, including Mickey’s socks! ..........a remember that day he put on a pair o’ trousers and felt a draught at the back, (name) had managed to iron a hole in tae the back o’ them (laughter).


What are your hopes for the future of Creetown?

That we keep fit........

We can’t hope for any more than we have.....
Our children won’t come back

“Mare visitors”............
An’ things for them to do........
Thare used to be a pool on the back green...........
.......................................
We used to have a train station here tae....an lots o’ tourists would arrive that way - the public transport isnae very good now.

The bottom shop is good, .....
an’ we drive to Dumfries, Glasgow and Carlisle to buy clothes

....(Discussion about outfit choices for a forthcoming wedding)....

“Ye cannae buy a pair o pants here” (laughter).

We’ve lost the police station, the doctors, the nurse......
There was a house for the school headmaster.
There was a post office,
Dozens of shops.
Annie Erskines – sweetie shop....
and Bessie McMaster would give us a ‘poke’ of sweeties in paper cones she made from white greaseproof paper.
She would stand for hours while we a work’d oot what we wanted tae buy..................
I can still remember the smell o’ sweeties an’ parrafin oil.......me too

Bessie McMaster had an Orcadian boyfriend who would come and visit every year “between the high an’ the harvest”each year he would ask her tae marry him an’ she would say no......
Her mother passed away when she was 60 – and it was only then that she married him an’ moved to Orkney....
She’d lived in Creetown all her life an’ took the change hard..............

Thare are no tradesmen leftthere was Jim Owen (who was in the Silver Band).....his brothers and sisters went to university and he stayed in Creetown tae carry on the family trade. Rather than give you what you ask’d fur – he would give you what he though was best (laughter). He eventually agreed tae dae the work a’ needed done on the extension.

Alan Blane (his family owned the mill) was a joiner, painter and decorator.

Whit aboot themes, are ye going tae come up with themes for the flags? Ye could think aboot the shore, granite, flora an fauna, smuggling.....what else?....




The Inks

Creetown Railway Station






Monday 1 April 2013

Week 3: Creetown Flags



Creetown Communications

‘Creetoun’s demographics ur changing as young fowk lea fur th' cities 'n' retirees flit tae th' area. Its population is aboot 640 fowk’

I met with a group of Creetown residents (aged 12-15) last week and asked them to tell me about Creetown - they said “IT’S BORIN’ AN THAIR’S NUTHIN TAE DAE!!” - some used stonger words.

Then they told me about the film they made (see link below) - the one that helped secure funding for the new play park – which is being built in the playing fields at the moment.


They’re currently making plans for the opening event – which will take place in July 2013. One of the girls suggested it should have a colour theme and another said – “mibbie burgundy”, to match the Creetown primary school uniform (they’re all at high school now in Kirkudbright and Newton Stewart), they think a Barbeque would be a good idea, and want to invite the local Highland Dancing club to perform (one of the girls attends this club). They haven’t decided what music they want yet – but one of the boys suggested Jake Bugg.

Aged 15 and under - they all have part-time jobs in the village and spent time the other night comparing their hourly rates of pay.

They like to play pool in the Ellangowan Hotel and listen to music. They like to go on facebook - and I heard how one of the girls was gala queen a couple of years ago. Apparently there’s a beauty pageant planned soon and the girls were discussing whether they would enter.....”Ah widnae git in - but you wid, you’re MUCH bettar lukin than ___ ” [insert name of another girl at their school]

I heard about the country-dancing club, and how one of them played the bugle in the Silver band. Several of them go horse riding and one helps out at the stables – two of the girls want to be in the mounted police, one in the military police, one loves animals and wants to be a vet, one a chef and one a music teacher. They told me how they often get a taxi/bus to Newton Stewart to hang about there – that some of them are going to a party there this weekend. I heard about the evening they made mocktails (one boy claiming his were the best), and another night when they made scotch broth and cranachan - another when they made pancakes .....  and another when they made cakes (same boy showed me a picture of the cake he made on his phone).

Then Eddie walked in  - and one of the boys shouted “He’s Creetoun’s prime minister!”

They told me that if I collapsed suddenly they would put me into the ‘recovery position’, because they’ve all done first aid training. I heard about the cube game, scarecrow making and t-shirt making.

I heard how one of the girls had been drawing an axle at school and that she likes to draw pencil sharpeners. Another girl told me about the tea light holder she had made in clay and another told me about her anime drawings. One of the girls left the room at this point and came back with her drawing of ‘Sponge Bob’ - we could put this on a flag, because the sculpture is going to be near the water.

The girls pointed at one of the boys “He likes tae stick fitba stickars aroon Creetoun” – (boy concerned, looked a bit uncomfortable). “Maintain The Union stickars” - he said a bit red faced. He then went on to talk about William Wallace.... and September the 14th 2014 (Voting day - Scottish Independence). “Ah dinnae wan tae see the union broken up”. A debate ensued - with most of the young people in agreement.

N.B. The picture above was taken on my first day in Creetown – I’ve seen a few of these stickers around Creetown - Mystery solved.