Our clothes, duvets, sofas, socks and scarves are made from a huge amount of differ- Both in the past and today the ent colours and fabrics, from wool sheared from sheep is red to green to pink to black washed and spun to form what to blue to yellow dyed onto we call yarn. This yarn would linen, cotton, wool, polyester then be woven to form fabric, and silk. Some fabrics are which could be cut to make a made from plants, some are variety of different things made by people and others come such as clothes, bedsheets, from animals. Fabric is made curtains and so on. up of something that we can call fibres. The fabric cotton In today’s pack you have been is made from cotton plant given yarn, made from the fibres, silk is spun by silk- wooly coats of sheep.Today we worms and polyester is made are going to be learning how from petrol, water and air. to dye this yarn with red This week however, we are cabbage, dandelions and doc going to be dyeing a fibre leafs and all the different that is made from an animal colours that you can make from that lives in many of the these three plants. This pro- fields surrounding Helmsdale cess is called natural dyeing and Portgower. This fibre is as it does not contain any called wool and is the wooly human-made chemicals. We will coat that keeps sheep warm in also be looking at the history winter. of sheep in our area and how

the money that could be made The task of raising from wool, made big landowners sheep for milk, wool and meat kick tenant farmers off the by farmers is said to have land to newly built coastal originated in Ancient Mesopo- villages like Helmsdale and tamia. Mesopotamia was situat- Portgower. Lots of people were ed in the fertile valleys against being driven off the between the Tigris and Euphra- land and the way that tenant tes rivers. Today the region farmers were treated by the is now home to modern-day landowners, and this led to Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey and the formation of a resistance Syria. (See map) group called the Highland Land Humans first lived in League, who fought to gain Mesopotamia over 16,000 years rights and land for crofters ago. Sheep are thought to have in the area. Look to the last first been raised and looked page for more info on this! after by farmers in Ancient Next week we'll be learning Mesopotamia around 12,000 how to weave this yarn so be years ago. It would take at sure to keep hold of it once least another 6-7,000 years it has been dyed and dried. after this date for sheep to come to Scotland, brought by farmers from Europe.

A rent strike is when lots of In the area where we live there is a long Therefore she decided to replace the In 1835 the people that had once lived people all together refuse to pay their standing history of resistance to big people that once lived across the whole there were replaced by 131,000 sheep. rent, for the land on which they live on, landowners who own most of the land. The of Sutherland with sheep. As sheep made but do not own. If lots of people do it Highland Land League formed as a resist- more profit than people. Those that were moved into places such as together it means they are less likely to ance group of crofters to fight against Helmsdale and Portgower, were moved onto be kicked off their land, as the landlord unfair distribution of land across the From 1814 to 1820 some 15,000 people, land that was not fertile. Meaning that would then have to kick everyone off the Highlands as a direct result of the High- about 3,000 families were hunted and the land did not have enough nutrients to land that they rent. land Clearances. rooted out. Their villages up the Strath grow crops. Many people that lived there were destroyed and burnt and all their were also treated badly by the landlords Their protests worked and the people in Before the Highland Clearances (when fields, where they grew food to feed (like the Countess of Sutherland) who government set a list of things to tenant farmers were forced from their their families, were changed into graz- owned the land on which they paid rent to change, but this list fell way short of land) Tenant farmers kept a small amount ing land for sheep. The Duchess of Suth- live on. the crofters demands and so the fight for of mixed cattle including sheep. The sheep erland stole 794,000 acres of land from equal land distribution continues on to were used for milk that was made into the people. She gave those that were However, the people fought back to gain this day. Garbh Allt Community Initiative cheese, but they also kept sheep for their cleared off the land only 6,000 acres rights to their land. In 1882, some years (GACI) in Helmsdale is part of the commu- meat and wool. Mainly the tenant farmers between them, divided up into 2 acres per after the highland clearances, groups of nity land movement, a collective of com- grew crops and raised cattle to sustain family. She decided that the crofters’ crofters came together to ensure that the munities who believes in putting Scot- themselves and to pay their rent to the lives would be ‘improved’ if she built a land was put back into the hands of the land’s land in the hands of the people landlord, in this case, the Countess of fishing village for them to live in, and people. They formed a group called the for an environmentally sustainable future Sutherland. Toward the end of the 1700’s took action without listening to their Highland Land League and protested about for Scotland. the countess of Sutherland needed to make needs and 100s of years of crofting tra- their severely reduced access to land and more money, and as the price of wool rose, dition.She divided the whole area of the exploitative rent contracts. Their so did her desire to profit from it. land that had once housed families for resistance took the form of direct action 100s of years into 29 great sheep farms. such as rent strikes and land raids.