Monthly Meeting – “Travels With My Grandfather”
Tuesday 11 February
Anne Artis rang the bell and kicked off the February meeting introducing a flurry of activity during March including visits to the Forest Theatre company at Gartmore, to the Grahams Family Dairy followed by refreshments at the Woodhouse and the Federation Centenary celebration craft display in Gargunnock Church at the end of March and the Federation Quiz now hosted by Polmont on 21 April. The Federation Spring Meeting is on 26 April in the Smith Art Gallery with a presentation from our friend Paul Bradford (competitions are a pair of baby bootees in 3 ply yarn (New Forge Trophy) and Morton Pairs of a middle slice of a 2lb vegetable loaf and an embroidered needle case). What a busy few months! After that we have the SC&WP, Perth & Kinross and Fife Area lunch on Sunday 8 June in St Andrews and also a sail on Loch Lomond and meal at The Oak Tree Inn on 10th June. Then later in the year we have our Ruskie summer outing to Kailzie Bunkhouse in Peebles 12-15 August. Names for any of these events to Liz Black please. Never mind busy months … what a busy Rural Year!!
Anne then welcomed Alasdair Beaton, who regaled us with tales from many years ago starting with his grandfather moving from a horse and cart business in Slamannan with a to shop a Thornhill where everything was sourced locally including from the auction mart where cattle were brought to Kippen station before being walked/driven up to Thornhill and housed safely in a shed on a Thursday night to be killed when needed during the following week using practices accepted at the time. The ring for tethering the beasts remained in the family shop until it closed recently! Alasdair’s full story is below, a long but worthwhile read as it gives a lovely insight into local history, and some of the behaviours of relatives of members of the Rural (including being bribed with sweeties and chopped pork slices!)
In addition, Alasdair shared some memories of his time at Ruskie School in 1948 with Mrs Fisher the teacher in the school who always went home for her lunch rather than eat school food! He shared a story of the current Ruskie fire guard which was used to dry the trousers of small children who fell in the burn when they did not make the jump to clear it like the older boys did! Also the school roll would have been a maximum of 15 pupils and in 1948 with only Alasdair as a single pupil in P1 and he was put with the P2 boys and immediately advanced a year! The education provided was very good and stood all the pupils in great stead for their future. There was a year of heavy snow and the ‘gang hut’ in the gulley was filled with the straw taken from feed for the local cattle and ‘someone’ had matches and there was accidently a fire which threatened to set fire to the tree the hut was under. When Mrs Fisher retired Mrs Monk took over – a lady from Benbecula with very long hair which was pleated and piled up on her head making her much taller! The members encouraged Alasdair to write his memories in a book to capture his stories and memories of the Ruskie School.
Competitions
3 cocktail sausage rolls (Mrs Parlane Trophy) – 1) Liz Black 2) Sharon McRobert 3) Alison Smellie
Favourite Apron – 1) Anne Artis 2) Lottie McKie 3) Janice Oman
After another super Ruskie supper from Lottie McKie, Mary Muirhead, Mary Woods and a generous raffle members and friends headed off on either the ‘east’ or ‘west’ butcher cart route depending on where home is 😊!
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To continue Alasdair’s stories he told us of the horse and cart which was a 5 wheeled vehicle and travelled a fair distance each day and served many many customers from one load of product. This was a solo effort from Alasdair’s grandfather out on the road with support from his grandma in the shop making small products to sell. There was no fridge at the time but ice was delivered weekly in jute bags. In 1947 the family decided to buy the Wards of Goodie farm, and exchanged on the ‘term’ date – moving in with no light or electric and three horses rather than a tractor! A paper from 1919 shows a Fife sale report for 3 horses for 190 guineas which was a substantial sum compared to the annual wage of a worker – but in reality, much the same as the cost of a tractor in todays wages. The animals on the far were inspected every Sunday for their condition – realising they were short of a milk cow at the time one was secured from the field behind the police station, and walked down to the farm! In springtime the moss was set on fire and needed to be beaten out with old jute bags to keep it under control (rather than the sensible way of setting it to burn into the wind!)
Having grown up for 60 years on the farm it is interesting to reflect there are only 12 families in the area who have a long term connection with all other farms changing hands 2-3 times, which is interesting to think on in these times of political change.
In 1958, Alasdair’s father asked if he was to return to school or work but after one day at school he was ordered to stop school and complete the harvest then become a butcher in the shop! In order to learn the trade of a butcher he was given 2 sticks to separate the bellies of sheep to keep the carcass ventilated and fresh. He was also taught to sharpen a knife with minimal wrist movements… working at this for a while before being promoted to work 2 days per week on the ‘east’ route on Monday and Friday, and 2 days on the ‘west’ route (Tuesday & Saturday)! In addition to these rounds all the hotel and trade customers were supplied by Alasdair who had only just passed his driving test and was working from a rough list of orders on paper which were then manually priced but never at a ‘round’ pound but at one penny more and then discounted to a round pound! The art of salesmanship is simple – when a lady did not know what she wanted then you sold her what you want rid of and convince her it was what she wanted in the first place!
Although a hard taskmaster Alasdair’s grandfather was a craftsman too – products were made every day, including blackpudding on a coal fired open boiler which heated the water for the shop. Blackpuddings were made in rings and put in the water to cook and rise to the surface and removed before they were overcooked! The family were handing 100 blackpuddings which all sold regularly, including some ‘odd’ large ones for big families! Thursday was potted meat (NOT haugh!) made from cows feet picked up at the same time as the blood for the blackpuddings. The jelly was made from the feet, 2 ox heads, sheep heads and pigs head and trotters all boiled together until the meat separated from the bones and was chopped by hand and put into bowls – but only in the winter as without refrigeration the jelly melted in the summer! Bacon was made from sides of spiced pork cured in a large bath tank filled with salt and liquor which was clarified and reused and then the meat hung on hooks in the kitchen to dry.
Boning out happened on Thursday. Making sausages was a regular occurrence and the apprentice had to scrape the bones for the meat for the sausages – nothing was wasted in these days! Dripping rendered from mince was also a popular product but care needed to be taken not to burn the fat when making it on the coal fired boiler – again nothing wasted!
Alasdair’s grandfather had shared a story of buying eggs (not chickens) and often in exchange for meat from the van – a farmer in Slamannan was selling eggs cheaply and cheaper than the van and when challenged on the price he was charging he explained he had a higher turnover so could sell at a loss (hence he did not last in business!!)
Each butchers van catered to 50-60 customers per day on each route, using mental arithmetic to calculate the costs quickly which would be a challenge these days! To service all these customers needed 2-3 cows and 8 sheep per week, although animals were smaller in the past days but even so very few butchers businesses would do that level of trade now. If Alasdair’s Grandfather came back nowadays he would not believe the changes! He educated the family in the business from butchering the animal to how to deal with members of the public – including wearing a tie and being presented as a professional. Times have changed but the characters still have their histories – including the lady who always wanted 6 inches of brisket (regardless of the width!), or another for four ‘strings’! Dealing with the public is always an experience!
Alasdair kindly answered questions including about the value of horses which would have increased greatly after the great war, or how unusual it was to eat chickens (other than at Christmas) until relatively recently – and the rare stock of ‘live’ chickens paid their way in eggs until the were butchered for meat! He shared photographs of favourite animal and an original price list which showed the maximum price the government would allow butchers to charge. He also commented on the new cuts nowadays which still come from the same animal but are priced very differently! He also shared the story of steak pies made with Argentinian kidney, and round and shoulder steak put into customers own dishes before being sent to the bakers in Doune for seasoning and baking – some customers wanted customer made pies with some sausage in them until it got so complicated and they had to revert just to plain steak (and be sure of how many pieces were returned to each dish after the baker removed them for seasoning!). There was always a last minute rush at Hogmanay and a late night delivery at Gartmore was particularly memorable where one delivery was intentionally missed by the driver so he could drop off on the return journey and after delivering the pie the driver came out after a few drams and Alasdair, at age 16, reluctantly drove the van home. His grandfather was a hard man but generous, welcoming competition as there is room for everyone in business and we should make sure there is enough profit to be shared around unlike the businesses today who are only out for themselves.
Members of the rural thanked Alasdair for their fond memories of getting their deliveries in the village (at the same price as the shop price with no surcharge!)
