Day 3 New Lanark and Selkirk

Thurday 28 April. Each day of the tour, I share a poem that is relevant to the place or area we are traveling. As we went to the Borders today, we passed the home of the poet known as The Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg. His poem, "A Boy's Song" eloquently describes the rolling green hills of sheep and cattle pastures bisected by the rivers Tweed, Clyde and Yarrow. One stanza goes...."Where the mowers mow the cleanest, where the hay lies thick and greenest, there to track the homeward bee, that's the way for Billy and me..." This year due to the unusually high amount of sunshine and lack of rain in April, the growing season is 3 weeks ahead of normal. Daffodils are done blooming, the tulips are nearly done, and the flowering trees are starting to lose the blossoms. Scottish Blackface or Cheviot ewes, often with 2 lambs cover the pastures. These are cherry blossoms in front of the loo in the Scottish Borders town of Peebles. This loo stop, just along the River Tweed, is especially picturesque.

It was such a bonnie day that for fun I asked some of the travelers ham it up for the camera. "Hey Nancy M., you can't fall asleep yet, there are still 8 more days and dozens of venues left to visit on the tour!"

New Lanark World Heritage Site is the site of a former mill where cotton was spun. Today, in one of the restored mill buildings, there is a small production of wool yarn being spun on a large spinning mule for the sake of education and for profit.

The community was built below three falls on the River Clyde in the late 1700’s by David Dale. The mill ran on power generated by the falls. Today New Lanark still produces hydropower that runs the community, with enough left over to sell back to the power grid. The mill was purchased and run by Robert Owen from 1800-1825. He was a social reformer and forward thinker far ahead of his time. He ideas were not popular with other mill owners. But his efforts gave him the title “father of trade unionist movement” in Scotland. He banned children from under age 10 from working in the mill. He started the first nursery school in the UK. Children from ages 2-9 went to school while their parents and siblings worked in the mill. Once children reached age 10, they worked in the mill and then attended classes at night. Mr. Owen treated his own 7 children no differently than he treated the children of the mill workers.

The school was built by money generated from the company store which was run as a cooperative. New Lanark was the first cooperative that lead to the foundation of The Co-op, a grocery store still thriving around the country today. In school not only were reading, writing, and arithmetic taught, but the children studied dancing, music, and nature studies.



The workers lived in buildings just across from the mill. A family of 10 may share one room, but they were warm, well fed, and had health care provided by the mill doctor. Here are John W. and Jenell P. listening with rapt attention to our guide. The work day started at 6 a.m with a breakfast break at 9 a.m. and lunch break in the middle of the afternoon. The work day ended at 7pm. The mill ran 6 days a week and was closed on Sunday. They produced 50,000 miles of cotton per week. The mill operated until 1968 when it could not operate profitably. The mill buildings sat empty and fell into disrepair from the elements and vandalism. A foundation saw the value in restoring the site and started the vast restoration of the mill in the 1970’s. The restoration still continues today. The newest addition is a roof on top of one of the mill buildings.

The site is a glorious example of public and private cooperation to preserve an important part of Scottish history and to educate generations to come. Today 150 people live on the site. Many visitors may only take the Annie McLeod ride. But I encourage you visit the school building, visit Robert Owen's house, spend time looking through the exhibits in Mill buildings 1&2 and the housing block, and take the hike to all 3 water falls. Above are Jere and Evelyn on the roof garden. Day 3 continued entirely sunny and warm, tropical Scotland so far.

I was inspired on the roof garden to capture the travelers who were in the vicinity. a) Karin and Maria walking the labarynth b) Karin S. c) Linda & Jim's dancing rabbit imitation d) Linda Ru. and Jim D. e) Maria L.

We had our lunch break at the Mill Pantry. Gerri and Dan are enjoying a very large waffle dessert. I was very struck by this place on my first visit in 1997 and each visit deepens that impression. I think it is the most tasteful and educational tourist site in Scotland. www.newlanrk.org/

The first week of the tour we are traveling in tandem in two Rabbie's mini-coaches. Here is assistant leader Doreen and guide/driver Ally, who wore his kilt to impress us today!

The travelers on Coach B could not stop smiling with Ally continuously cracking jokes inbetween the historical and informative commentary the Rabbie's drivers provide as they drive.

Lochcarron of Scotland was the afternoon venue. One of the few weaving mills left in the Borders, this Selkirk-based company weaves tartans and fashion fabrics for designers and companies around the world. They are housed in a former mill building that was refurbished in Riverside industrial area and feature a huge showroom of their goods. The business is family owned with many of the workers long time employees. A guided tour starts with the dying process of the wool.

The process continues with cone winding, winding the warp and then tying onto the looms. If the current order has the same number of warps per inch as the previous job, a machine can tie on the entire warp in one hour. If an order has an unusual set, a worker has to hand thread the heddles, about an 8 hour job, just like us labor intensive hand loom weavers have to do in our studios.

The Swiss power looms the company used are 10 years old and cost 250,000 pounds each. But still much hands on work and checking is required to retain the high standard of quality the company demands of their cloth. The women in quality control handle and inspect every yard of fabric after it comes off the looms. If an error is found, they may have to hand needle in yarn to fix the problem for up to a 40-yard length. The finishing of the cloth is done in Galasheils. Locharron has their own in-house design team.
The head designers spend half their time in New York and Japan. In addition to traditional and private tartan designs, the company weaves fabrics for fashion houses around the world. 4 different weights of tartan are woven by the company. When I asked the guide how Lochcarron has survived when most other mills have closed, he answered simply “quality. When companies buy from us, they know what they are getting.” Sadly these days, you can purchase cheap knock-offs of tartans made in India. Always look for the label “made in Scotland” to assure you are getting the authentic thing, made with quality and pride in Scotland. http://www.lochcarron.com/

For 2010 Paris Fashion Week, Lochcarron designers used plaid to create a display of tartan butterlies.

www.hotelceilidh-donia.co.uk/
The night found us in Edinburgh scattered about the B&B's along Dalkeith Road. Maxx and Annette prepared at Hotel Ceilidh Donia served us a delicious meal of fresh and tasty Scottish food.
Scotland excells in using as much produce, meat , and fish produced locally and around Scotland. Fuel is so dear, (current 1.50 pounds per liter for diesel) that eating local is not a fad but a necessity here. Extensive use of poly tunnels by farmers allows fruit and vegies early and late in the normal season.

Day 2 Paisley

Wed April 27
We started at the Paisley Abbey which dominates the center of town. Robin Craig and James Wardrop guided our groups through the Abbey. St. Murrin founded a church on this site in the 6^th century. In 1180, thirteen monks from the monastic order from Cluny, France, arrived to start the monestary. The weaving trade in Paisley developed to provide fabric for the monestary. The 12th century abbey has a medieval nave from the time of the founders.
After the Reformation in the 1500's, the monestary disbanded in 1560. The central tower of the abbey collapsed in the same century. Restoration started in the 19th century and continues into the 21^st century with the recent refurbishing of the organ. The abbey also houses a 10^th century stone carved Barochen cross which used to stand in a field near the town, carvings of 16 different monks faces tucked into various niches in the Abbey and stunning stained glass windows. Two queens and one king are buried in the church including the Royal Tombs of Marjory Bruce, the daughter of Robert the Bruce, and King James III. The Abbey is known as the “Cradle of the Stewart Kings” of which the current queen of England can trace her lineage. www.paisleyabbey.org.uk/

Paisley City Museum. This is a free museum and the oldest municipal museum in Scotland. It houses one of the best collections of Paisley shawls in the world. The just retired curator, Valerie Reilly, graciously came back to gave us a powerpoint lecture of the history of the Paisley shawl. From the design's origins in Babylon where it was a fertility symbol, it spread to the Kashmir region of India, and then finally to Europe. The East India company started importing them to Europe in 1780.

Originally the shawls coming from Kashmir were made of pashmina goat fiber that was collected from bushes where the goats would rub it off. These shawls were woven on simple wooden looms and took months to weave. The limited source of the fiber and the time it took to weave these shawls in Kashmir made them very expensive. Josephine, Napoleon's wife, had 200 shawls in her wardrobe. By the late 1700's the shawls were being produced in Edinburgh, Norwich, France, Russia and Paisley on draw looms. Paisley had highly skilled weavers who had previously woven linen.

The town of Paisley in the height of popularity of the Paisley shawls around 1840, had thousands of weavers making these wonderful cloths, then on the Jacquard loom. An elaborate paisley design could take 484,000 pattern cards to produce it. But the weavers had to be accurate in their weaving, so that by the time they had woven an entire shawl pattern, they were within 1/4" of the required length.

The paisley pattern changed throughout the 100 years the shawls were in fashion The designs became more elongated in the Victorian era. The size of the shawls also changed as women's fashion changed. In the 1850's, the shawls were woven 5' 6" x 11' so they could be folded and used like a coat to fit over crinoline skirts. Here is a "kirking" shawl that women would wear to church the first Sunday after the birth of a child. When the bustle came into fashion 1865-1870, this was the death of the paisley shawl as the shawls didn't work with the protruding bustle shape. Some Paisley weavers found work into the early 20th centuries when “fur shawls” enjoyed a period of fashion popularity. www.paisley.org.uk/attractions/museum.php

Dan Coughlin is now not only the head weaver, but the shawl curator at the museum. Part of his job is to research and rebuild the equipment and examples of looms used in the shawl industry. He also teaches weaving classes at the museum. Dan showed us pattern books and explained the process from designing to weaving. At the peak of the Paisley shawl industry there were 10,000 weavers working in their homes and perhaps 20,000 more people supporting the trade. The fine threads, 80 to 120 ends per inch in paisley shawls and the exacting weaving specifications meant the Paisley weavers were highly skilled. Dan has rebuilt several jacquard looms back to working condition in the weaving studio at the museum. He made a shuttle box that holds 10 shuttles for one of the looms. Paisley is the only place he found that shuttle boxes this large were used on the looms. He is currently building a draw loom and turning 200, 3/16” thick pulleys for it. His next project is designing a beaming frame. Here Dan is showing how the pattern cards were punched for the Jacquard looms that wove the shawls. Once the weaving industry died, most of the looms were turned into firewood. But with Dan’s passion, skill, and dedication, he is bringing the history of the weaving equipment and the art of weaving back to Paisley. Nowadays, people can weave for enjoyment, unlike the past where the weaver was the loom’s slave. One journal of a weaver of Paisley reads “I’m glad to be free of the four posts of misery.”

Sma Shot Cottages are just down the road. The name Sma Shot comes from the binding weft thread that was thrown every 7th pick to hold the rest of weft threads in place in the paisley fabric. A society has resurrected and preserved one of the weavers cottages from the era when linen was woven Paisley, (1700's) and then other rooms depicting life in later years. The cottages sit on Shuttle Street.

In 1704 the weavers union started. The union watched out for the weavers. If trade was bad and the weaving was scarce, they gave the weaver 10 pounds cash and sent them off to America. One such weaver who came to America from Paisley was Alexander Wilson. He went onto to become a leading ornathologist, poet, and president of Princeton University.

The men were the weavers, but there were many other jobs associated with making the shawls including designers, beamers, warpers, washers, steam pressers, stenters, fringers, and then the marketers. The weaver took an oath to eat his shuttle rather than give away trade secrets. Thus the shield for the weaver's trade has 3 tabby cats on it with shuttles in their mouths. Their motto was "Weave Truth with Trust" The first Saturday of July, is "Sma Shot Day", still celebrated. This commemorates the day in 1856 when the weavers won the case to be paid for the yarn used to weave the "sma shot."

Ellen Farmer, president of the society and her group of volunteers do a smashing job of keeping the story of Sma Shot alive. http://www.smashot.co.uk/

The group in the courtyard garden at Sma Shot.

When you step outside the cottages, you can see the parish church where John Witherspoon preached. Witherspoon emmigrated to America and was the only Scot and the only minister to sign The Declaration of Independence.

My camera was quite keen on picture taking at Sma Shot, so below is a flurry of shots from our visit.

a) the paisley pattern shaped herb garden in the Sma Shot courtyard

b) Mary H., Judy L. and Nickie W. enjoying the gift shop

c) Jere L. wrapped up in 150 year old paisley shawl

d) Wallie W. emerging from the cottage

The Thread Mill Museum tells the story of the huge thread industry in Paisley that shut the last door in 1992. The Coats and Clark Company which was a combination of the Anchor Thread Mill and the Ferguslie Thread Mill, at one time produced 90% of all the thread made in the world.

10,000 workers were employed in the mills. To allow mothers to work, there was a twilight shift from 5:00-9:00 pm. The cases display mile reels of thread, posters, memorabilia from mill workers, and now all the photographs have been digitalized and are displayed on a large plasma screen. Most of the volunteers who run this museum worked in one of the mills. We thank Eleanor, the leader of the volunteers for lovingly sharing the history of the thread mill industry with us.

Here is Eleanor standing here by a crocheted wedding dress. When one of the last of the functioning mills was closed, the mill was stripped of equipment for scrap. This dress was found some years later in a bin that had not gone to the smelters. It was crocheted with Anchor thread by an unknown mill worker and only recently donated to the museum.

http://www.paisleythread.org/ The thread mill's website is currently offline but here is the cities' link to the mill www.paisley.org.uk/attractions/paisley_thread_mill_museum.php