Unkans FREE The newsletter of the Museum and Archives January 2009 and the Shetland heritage community Issue 12

Unique record of cleeps, draas, rits and holls donated

A hand-made, leather- names and descriptions of condition and will be taken available to researchers. It bound book listing more lug marks for sheep and to a conservator this month will be a valuable resource than 1300 sheep and cattle cattle. Changes to lug and it is expected to be for those interested in lug marks for Sandwick mark ownership were back at the Archives later genealogy, agricultural and Cunningsburgh has added between entries and in the year, when it will be history, and place-names. been donated to the in margins. Archives. Pages of different types Christopher Jamieson, of paper were added to the who volunteered in the book as it was filled and What’s On Guide Archives over the summer, sewn together with 28th: Find out about the Viking and his grandfather, Lollie sailmaker’s twine. January god Thor and make a Thor’s Halcrow of Aithsetter, Included with the book 10th Jan.-8th Feb.: ‘Men in hammer clay pendant. 2.30pm – generously donated the is an order dated 13 Tights’. Up Helly Aa exhibition, Da 3.15pm. £3, booking essential. Gadderie. Primary 1-7 book, which had been in October 1813 from Sheriff 16th.: Launch of SIC Dialect 28th: ‘Men in Tights’. A talk by Dr their family for nearly 200 Substitute Andrew Duncan, Songs for Schools, CD & Ian Tait on our Up Helly Aa years. Archives’ staff were explaining the need for Resource pack. 1.30pm. Join exhibition. 1.15pm in Da Gadderie. delighted to receive such a such a register ‘as a pupils from across Shetland as rare item. means of preventing and they sing to celebrate the launch of this new resource for schools. February The register, which punishing crime ... and Open to members of the public, 14th Feb.-15th March: Exhibitions began on 12 December preventing disputes’. free, drop-in by local artists, Jim Tait, Bobby Robertson, Da Gadderie. 1813, lists crofters, croft The book is in a fragile 20th: ‘Men in Tights’. A talk by Dr Ian Tait on our Up Helly Aa 18th: Lecture on Brochs (title to be Winter Opening Hours exhibition. 1.15pm in Da Gadderie. confirmed) by Brian Smith 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm). Free – but Museum: 23rd – 28th: Gallery talk, ‘The booking essential Monday-Saturday Sunday origins of Up Helly Aa’, daily at 10am-5pm, 12pm-5pm 3pm, 20 minutes long. Free, drop 26th: Fishy Fun!. 11-12noon. in Make a colourful fishy collage to Archives: take home. Free, but booking Monday-Friday 10am-4.30pm, Saturday 10am-1pm, 24th: Up Helly Aa Shields. Come essential. Suitable for kids aged 3 Sunday closed and paint your own shield for Up and 4 years old (bring an adult!) Helly Aa. 11am – 12noon. £3, All events are held at the Hay’s Dock Café Restaurant: booking essential. Primary 1-7 Daytime: Monday-Saturday 10:30am-5pm, Shetland Museum and Archives 25th: Up Helly Aa Shields. Come and are free, unless otherwise Sunday 12pm-5pm Thursday-Saturday and paint your own shield for Up stated. To book call 01595 695057. Evenings: 7.00pm-late, last orders 9pm. Helly Aa. 11am – 12noon, £3, No bookind is necessary for drop- To book, phone 01595 741569 booking essential. Primary 1-7 in events. 2 Unkans Bobby begins fishing research A new fishing history project is undertaken in collaboration with underway at the NAFC Marine Shetland Amenity Trust and the Centre with the appointment of University of Hull’s Centre for Bobby Gear from . Maritime Historical Studies, and is Bobby, who graduated from the being funded by Shetland Catch Ltd University of St Andrews last (through the Arthur Laurenson summer, will be carrying out Memorial Bursary) and research on the post-war Port Authority. The research is development of Shetland’s pelagic being supervised by Dr Ian Napier fishing industry. (NAFC Marine Centre), Dr David The main aim of the study is to Starkey (University of Hull), Dr Robb provide an accurate and Robinson (University of Hull) and comprehensive record of the Brian Smith (Shetland Museum and changes that have taken place in Archives). the industry since World War II. It Explaining what attracted him to will attempt to explain how and why these changes occurred, identify the the study, Bobby said: “I believe this factors that influenced the is an important project for Shetland development of the industry, and which will examine a lot of examine the wider effects that information which hasn’t been these changes had on Shetland’s looked at before. I hope to Time for school interview fishermen active in the fishing industry and communities. Once upon a time clocks were individually post-war period and record The project will also compare made by hand, but from the 1850s factories the changes which occurred in information for the Archives that Shetland’s pelagic fishing industry otherwise would be lost forever.” in New England started mass-producing with those seen in other areas of Bobby can be contacted at the them, in a range that soon expanded to many , and beyond. NAFC Marine Centre, different designs. Costs were kept to a The three-year project is being [email protected]. minimum through standardised components, allowing timepieces to become affordable to ordinary families on both sides of the Atlantic. What could be more Shetland than Give us a clue! an American clock! Householders invariably bought mantel clocks, but different models were used in offices, where wall-mounted ones were more practical. Plain round ones were popular, and visitors to the Museum displays will see one from the Boddam School. In the 1870s- 80s several schools were built throughout Shetland, and a standard piece of classroom equipment was the clock, that pupils watched making its slow progress through the day. Late 19th-century clocks are common, but ones with local markings are interesting, so we were pleased when Winnie Leask, Asta, donated one to us with an inscription. This oak wall clock with leaf and acorn decoration dates to the 1880s. Pencilled on the back is ‘Quendale Public School, Dunrossness’, along with a vertical line and instructions to ‘Hang with this line plumb’; if a pendulum-driven clock sat squint it Do you know where this photograph was taken? wouldn’t run at all. The Quendale School A merchant’s premises with booth or warehouse attached; the wooden opened in January 1882, the clock hanging in building is probably a workers’ barracks. It is at a whitefish station – note the salting vat and washing tub. One of the boats seems to be the Burra haddock the classroom until it closed in 1969. boat Lark 2974 LK. Photographed circa 1890. Contact Ian Tait on 01595 Dr Ian Tait 695057, [email protected] Curator of Collections Unkans 3 COMMUNITY Shetland could HERITAGE NEWS Is your heritage group working on a special project? Why not tell us about it. Contact Carol become Geopark Christiansen on 741560, [email protected] Shetland is making a bid to become a geological exhibits planned throughout UNESCO European Geopark. A geopark Shetland. Interpretive panels have been is an area with outstanding geology that set up to provide more detailed Heritage Hub map is used to promote sustainable information at many key sites. The first Shetland Amenity Trust marketing development, mainly through tourism. of several planned trails will soon be staff have completed a draft of a Nearly all of Highland Scotland’s launched, taking visitors on a self-guided large map showing the Heritage geology is represented in Shetland, as tour around the stunning volcanic Hub. They are asking for your well as unique features such as the coastline of Eshaness. Shetland ophiolite, an exposed section of input into the final version. The These developments are only the start ancient seabed in and , and map is located in the Museum of the process of making Shetland a the volcanic rocks of Eshaness and Papa foyer, on the wall to the right as Stour. world class area for geotourism. For you walk into the ground floor To the uninitiated, Shetland’s rocks more information about geoparks, visit gallery. You will also find and landscape are striking, but a little www.europeangeoparks.org. Our comments cards directly below the website, www.geoparkshetland.org will interpretation reveals the fascinating map. stories behind them. Geological walls be launched early in 2009. created by local craftsmen on Fetlar and Robina Barton, Project Officer – Geology at Mavis Grind are the first of a series of Shetland Amenity Trust Scotland’s Rural Past The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Remembrance display at Archives Scotland has implemented a project whereby individuals and groups interested in their local history can receive training and advice toward recording historical features in their landscape. Besides fieldwork, Scotland’s Rural Past also has an archival element, which can include researching historic photographs, maps, place- names and other historic documents about the rural landscape. Brochures about Scotland’s Rural Past are available in the Museum foyer and in the Archives, or go to www.scotlandsruralpast.org.uk.

Free Training Three free courses on museum documentation, including a course on numbering, labelling and marking, are available to Mrs. Hilary Harmer, niece of Karl Manson, views the exhibit with Mark Smith. registered/accredited museum staff. For further information or to The current Archives’ focus display features four young men lost in the First World War. register please email The idea for the display came to Collections Assistant Jenny Murray as she was reading letters sent home to Shetland by soldier Laurence Thomson. The Museum collection [email protected] or included medals sent posthumously to Laurence and artefacts and medals belonging to telephone 01223 316028. other Shetland servicemen. A Glengarry hat and the personal effects of Karl Manson, Museums Galleries Scotland has son of printer Thomas Manson, were chosen as centrepieces. These items were also made money available for brought back from the battlefield in France when another Shetland soldier recognised travel bursaries. Contact Karl’s body. The display opened on Remembrance Day and will run until March. colleenp@museumsgalleries Mark Smith scotland.org.uk Archives Assistant 4 Unkans

Derek swoops in to help Volunteer Derek Jackson, who usually From the same period, there are a gear / Pitch – Control – Unit (PCU) and works in the Archives, spent his career few components from German aircraft their associated propeller, for three Pratt as an aerospace engineer. He has been such as the Heinkel 115, a general- & Whitney 1830 Radial engines. These helping the Museum identify aeroplane purpose seaplane, the Messerschmitt probably originated from a Catalina, but parts in the collection. 110, a twin-engine fighter and the unfortunately, salt water, weather and Recently the Museum’s aviation Junkers 88, a twin-engine bomber. time have reduced them to a stage of artefacts have been dusted off and It is a little unusual finding parts from non-recoverability. reviewed, in an attempt to clarify exactly Blenheim aircraft in Shetland, as the only First World War artefacts are limited, what the collection contains. Sadly, most commonality with any of the aircraft, is but appear also to come from a seaplane, of the artefacts are the remains of that some Mks had the same Pratt & the Felixstowe F2A. The lack of aircraft that crashed on land or at sea, Whitney radial engine fitted, as the components is not surprising, as these often with loss of life. Catalina’s. One can only presume it was a aircraft were last flown about 88 years The majority of the components are passing (or flying) visit. ago. Excluding the engine, they were from the Second World War era, with a There is evidence that a number of made primarily from wood, so having any smattering of World War One items. The artefacts were re-used after the aircraft surviving artefacts is a plus. two aircraft from which most of the had crashed, for more mundane In almost every case local people artefacts originate are the Consolidated requirements on crofts or in the home. have donated the artefacts over the years. Catalina multi-role flying boat, and the For example, fuel tanks were used as It seems likely that out and about in Short Sunderland, a patrol flying boat. water butts and flight control levers were Shetland, in garden sheds and attics, Both of these aircraft were flown made into five bar gate latches. This is there could be many more aviation extensively from the military air base at not surprising, when one imagines how artefacts. These are probably slowly Sullom Voe from 1939 to 1945. There are limited basic materials were at this time rusting and corroding, but have, by their also many artefacts from the Bristol in Shetland. history and design, a story to tell and a Blenheim, a light bomber. There are remains of the Reduction – need to be looked after.

This page is dedicated to research on all aspects of Shetland’s history and heritage. Contributions are welcome. Get in touch We are keen to include contributions from anyone who has something interesting to share about Shetland’s heritage. If you would like to stock our newsletter or distribute copies to your group, let us know. Email: [email protected] Telephone: 01595 695057 Fax: 01595 696729

Post: Newsletter, Shetland Museum and Archives, Hay’s Dock, Lerwick, Shetland ZE1 0WP DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE IS 13 FEBRUARY 2009