District 1010 - Scotland

11th December, 2008 - Alistair MacLean talked on his childhood, growing up on Lewis. Born in a croft house in Shawbost on the west coast of Lewis 36 people lived in 3 “white” houses, all built in the 1930s, and 4 traditional "Black” or more correctly thatched houses, and the rest of the village was similar, now the only “black” house on the West Side is a museum and it is even virtually impossible to find a thatched, barn or byre in the whole Island. There was neither electricity nor running water inside any of the houses nor were there any bathrooms or toilets. If nature called there would be a pot under the bed and an outside shed in the white houses while those living in black houses had to make do with using the drain in the byre. Lighting was provided by paraffin Tilley lamps and Alistair proudly recalled the first time he lit the Tilley by himself.

On each croft in the yards adjacent to the byre, there were stacks of hay and oats, with a potato clamp in a nearby field. Indeed the activities of the year were dictated by the crofting calendar. In the spring the dung was taken by cart from the dung heap to be spread with a grape over the fields, ploughing, harrowing, and sowing the oats and potatoes all with horse and man-power only. Then the peats were cut, dried, stacked and then carried to the nearest track with both a horse and cart or if the ground was unsuitable on one’s back in either a creel or a sack. Then around mid-summer the big day arrived when one of the 3 Lorries in the village was hired to bring the peats home, the young men out on the moor loading up the lorry, while the older men and the women were in charge of building the peat stack at the back of the house. The construction of the peat stack was very important as it was built to withstand the winter wind and rain.

Then as the summer progressed into autumn the hay and oats were cut, all with a scythe stacked in particular ways until dry enough to be stacked in the yard. Potatoes were lifted and stored some inside in the barn others in a potato clamp in the field and again the construction of all these was designed to withstand all the rigours of a harsh winter climate. The labour force was communal with all the able-bodied neighbours involved in helping each other with all these tasks.

Although the work was hard, and often made even harder by the weather, for a boy growing up it was great fun running in the croft among the stacks playing hide and seek and various other ploys although one was expected, and did help in most of these chores from an early age, life was hard but I was happy growing up on Lewis.