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Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:26 amby Tommy Ralston
Can anyone remember or maybe even be able to put a name to the inhabitants of the - I think there were two - upturned wooden boats, might have been old skiffs, down about the Dhorlin, or maybe nearer the town, that served as homes to some people, many moons ago? I recall seeing smoke coming out of metal chimneys that protruded from what was now their roofs, when I was gey wee. Were there perhaps others on the north shore of the loch, near the shipyard?
TR
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Mon Mar 09, 2015 1:22 pmby petewick
Just read about this in one of Angus Martins latest books, sadly forgotten any detail.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:18 pmby MPR
was there not one or two up by putchecan also?
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Tue Mar 17, 2015 12:02 amby lochend
I used to see a couple of dwellings in the field on the right, where the backs went under the bridge on the road to Machrihanish at Stewarton,there was usually blue smoke rising from a cooking fire.This would be in the 1950's.The dwelling wher aboutfour feet high and looked dome shaped,they appeared to be covered with sacking of some sort.I was only a child at the time but my parents told me they belonged to people who where described by a name which is not politically correct these days. I think the name derived from the traditional custom of these people mending pots and pans.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:10 pmby EMDEE
lochend wrote:I used to see a couple of dwellings in the field on the right, where the backs went under the bridge on the road to Machrihanish at Stewarton,there was usually blue smoke rising from a cooking fire.This would be in the 1950's.The dwelling wher aboutfour feet high and looked dome shaped,they appeared to be covered with sacking of some sort.I was only a child at the time but my parents told me they belonged to people who where described by a name which is not politically correct these days. I think the name derived from the traditional custom of these people mending pots and pans.
This was the old Lintmill. I remember there was a good number of these tent type dwellings in that field and there must have been quite a community of these folks living there.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Tue Mar 17, 2015 11:32 pmby bill
lochend wrote:I used to see a couple of dwellings in the field on the right, where the backs went under the bridge on the road to Machrihanish at Stewarton,there was usually blue smoke rising from a cooking fire.This would be in the 1950's.The dwelling wher aboutfour feet high and looked dome shaped,they appeared to be covered with sacking of some sort.I was only a child at the time but my parents told me they belonged to people who where described by a name which is not politically correct these days. I think the name derived from the traditional custom of these people mending pots and pans.
Lochend, they were Tinkers. P.C. correct or not that is what they were.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:10 amby EMDEE
petewick wrote:Just read about this in one of Angus Martins latest books, sadly forgotten any detail.
There is a chapter in Angus's book "Kintyre - The Hidden Past" about the "Coasters" who frequented the area from Kildalloig down to Corphin. Anything to do with them?
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:28 amby lochend
Bill,thanks for that.I hate political correctness myself but being an outsider I did not wish to rattle any cages!
BTW do you remember the gas mantles flickering on the landings of Kinloch place?
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Wed Mar 18, 2015 11:42 pmby bill
Yes I certainly do remember that Lochend. Coming into the close on a dark evening and seeing your shadow flickering on the wall could be quite scary .
The funny thing is ,Catherine my wife, stayed across in John Street at that time, she and her pal Mary would sometimes creep up the stairs, give the other a lift up and smash them. In all honesty they probably only had the nerve to break the first one before running back across the green to home. Good job they were never caught by any of the residents.
Funny the things you can find out in later life.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:07 amby WC1
EMDEE wrote:lochend wrote:I used to see a couple of dwellings in the field on the right, where the backs went under the bridge on the road to Machrihanish at Stewarton,there was usually blue smoke rising from a cooking fire.This would be in the 1950's.The dwelling wher aboutfour feet high and looked dome shaped,they appeared to be covered with sacking of some sort.I was only a child at the time but my parents told me they belonged to people who where described by a name which is not politically correct these days. I think the name derived from the traditional custom of these people mending pots and pans.
This was the old Lintmill. I remember there was a good number of these tent type dwellings in that field and there must have been quite a community of these folks living there.
Does anyone remember the BBC programme about the life of the 'tinkers' (which - as Bill correctly says - is what we called the travelling folk in those days) that was broadcast in the late 50s? It was a live outside broadcast from inside one of the tents at the Lintmill interspersed with filmed sections showing them working in the fields and signing on at the 'buroo' and various other activities. Jamieson Clark was the presenter. It was quite a major effort on the part of the BBC in the days before satellite uplinks and so on. I often wonder if that programme is still in the BBC archives somewhere.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:26 pmby skrik
Some of the tinks were: Old Neilly, Old Fernie, Tobermory (John Maclean), Peter McArthur (the jostler), Tom Williamson, and Danny the tink. It's all in Angus MacVicar's books. You can still get them from the bookshop on Cross St.
Re: Boathouses by the Loch.
Posted:
Mon Mar 23, 2015 1:38 pmby petewick
There was boat dwellers just down past 'The Jetty' in the 40's/50's