Fyvie reminiscences [transcript]
Reid, KathleenUUUU
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Imprint:
Formartine Partnership 2008.
Series title:
Formartine Oral History Project ; FP120616
Notes:
Interviewed by Helen Taylor on 6/12/06.Accompanies CD Bib No 584570.Summary: This is primarily the story of Kathleen's husband, Charlie Reid, who was a blacksmith. Charlie has also been interviewed by Methlick Heritage Society (FP120790). Kathleen begins from when they were married in 1965, and says that Charlie was working with his father, Charlie and that his grandfather, Adam Reid, had retired in 1946 and was still alive at that time. Charlie and Kathleen had a son, Charles in 1974, who runs the smiddy with his father today. Kathleen begins the history of the smiddy, when her husband's grandfather took over the smiddy from a Willie Mutch, who had rented it from Haddo House estate. Adam eventually bought the smiddy, had a large staff, and Kathleen's father-in-law Charlie was the first of the sons to work at home and also be born at the smiddy. Kathleen talks about the original building built in 1897 by Willie Mutch, the one built in the 1960s, and a brand new one built a hundred years after the first one. She talks about the schooldays of her father-in-law and her husband's grandfather, how he had other business ventures including steam engines and threshing mills which also brought income, the handcrafted tools they used, billing of customers, jobs they did, large and small, to help the local farmers alongside shoeing horses, how her husband never got to shoe horses because working horses were being phased out, so the older farmers wanted his father to do the job! She talks about her father-in-law's time when he took over the smiddy, the working day, workers' diet, Charlie's grandmother, who had 12 children and was very self-sufficient, how the boys of the family moved out to the chaumer when they were old enough to work, the social life in the 1940s and 50s. She then goes on to talk about her husband's time, when he left school at 15, in 1949, how he built a water wheel to generate electricity, how he was deferred from National Service being an apprentice, and how Charlie went to Ramsay Technical College in Edinburgh and learned about welding, engineering and the like, which created improvements at home. Kathleen discusses the changes in farm technology, how Charlie got involved in building work as things modernised, and fully took over his father's business in 1974, but his father worked up till his eighties. She then speaks about her son, Charles whose degree was in structural engineering, and has worked at the smiddy since 1995. Kathleen says that there is very little need for the traditional blacksmithing skills now, as people just get new parts instead of fixing what they had, but Charlie branched out into welding and engineering and brought the smiddy up to date since the 70s, their current work is mainly in buildings and erecting structures for the farms locally. She mentions how the oil industry's higher wages took away a lot of their workforce, how there are Polish people working for them, how they occasionally repair items for oil firms as well as buildings onshore, and the one other local who is involved in similar work, but is termed as an agricultural engineer. They can supply one-off parts to farmers for their tractors. She then talks about her two-year-old grandson, Cailean, who likes to play with nuts and bolts. Kathleen finishes by talking about her father-in-law making shepherds' crooks for shepherds who worked in Hyde Park in London, where there used to be flocks of sheep.
Language:
English
BRN:
644119