Forfar Don's Jute Factory "Girls" - Picnic at Justinhaugh in the 1930s
This photo came from the collection of my aunt, Hannah Macdonald, who was well-known in Forfar all her days. She worked in Don's as a weaver. and later became the darning mistress at a Don's offshoot - the tweed factory in Canmore Street. Hannah isn't on the photo though. It shows her group of workmates, mainly jute weavers, who were collectively known in our family as "the girls". When I was very small, "the girls'" night was an institution at our house in Albert Street. . The names I remember are Jessie Middleton, who was a lifelong pal of Hannah's, Moll Milne, Ciss Milne, Lot Black, Meg Clark, Jinx (or Jinks - up to high jinks anyway) Rae. There was a core group of about ten, very few on the periphery. The role of "the girls' as I saw it was FUN! When they came down for their frequent nights out to Albert Street, chatter, laughter, (and more!) filled the room. Moll Milne would stand on her head and show her breeks. Bawdy songs were sung solo or in concert on the subject of old men and their limitations ("He had no fal-de-raIs, no richt falal-de-rals") and the piteous fate of the spinster ('''...if I dee an auld maid in a garret"). I had no context for understanding their lives. I wondered why they always shouted and why everything had to be so loud. But a life at the looms meant you had to shout all day and every day to make yourself heard above the din. And it could make you deaf, as happened to my mother who had an eardrum burst at work and just left it untreated. "Naebody bethered about they things in they days", she said. The work was long. Your day started at 6.00 am and ended at 5.00m pm. And it was physically demanding. This was a time before the 'automatic' looms. (A weaver could choose to operate more that the standard four looms, To "hed on" six looms gave you status.) There were other dangers besides the risk of deafness. 'Flying' shuttles caused injuries and the boards (the "bairdies"), on which the weavers stood and moved around on, were unsafe.
"The girls" were what today would be called "strong women" who often did men's jobs during the war, lost boyfriends and partners at the front or in the prison camps, while developing both independence and solidarity. And when they were "awa' fae the lims", they loved a bloody good time! For the most part, I was banished to my bedroom when the real action started, or that's how I imagined it.
Whenever Burns' night comes round and I read again in "Tam o' Shanter" how Tam gazed amazed at the sight of the witches' cantraips - "The mirth and fun grew fast and furious...They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit Till every carlin swat and reekit" - I think of "the girls".
The four on the left I recognise as: Lot (Charlotte) Black and Moll Milne (front); and Meg Clark and Jessie Middleton (back). I think the one on the far right is Lizzie Balfour. I know the faces of the others, but can't recall their names. Maybe some Forfar viewer will recognise his or her relative and fill the gap by adding a comment and/or tag.
Forfar Don's Jute Factory "Girls" - Picnic at Justinhaugh in the 1930s
This photo came from the collection of my aunt, Hannah Macdonald, who was well-known in Forfar all her days. She worked in Don's as a weaver. and later became the darning mistress at a Don's offshoot - the tweed factory in Canmore Street. Hannah isn't on the photo though. It shows her group of workmates, mainly jute weavers, who were collectively known in our family as "the girls". When I was very small, "the girls'" night was an institution at our house in Albert Street. . The names I remember are Jessie Middleton, who was a lifelong pal of Hannah's, Moll Milne, Ciss Milne, Lot Black, Meg Clark, Jinx (or Jinks - up to high jinks anyway) Rae. There was a core group of about ten, very few on the periphery. The role of "the girls' as I saw it was FUN! When they came down for their frequent nights out to Albert Street, chatter, laughter, (and more!) filled the room. Moll Milne would stand on her head and show her breeks. Bawdy songs were sung solo or in concert on the subject of old men and their limitations ("He had no fal-de-raIs, no richt falal-de-rals") and the piteous fate of the spinster ('''...if I dee an auld maid in a garret"). I had no context for understanding their lives. I wondered why they always shouted and why everything had to be so loud. But a life at the looms meant you had to shout all day and every day to make yourself heard above the din. And it could make you deaf, as happened to my mother who had an eardrum burst at work and just left it untreated. "Naebody bethered about they things in they days", she said. The work was long. Your day started at 6.00 am and ended at 5.00m pm. And it was physically demanding. This was a time before the 'automatic' looms. (A weaver could choose to operate more that the standard four looms, To "hed on" six looms gave you status.) There were other dangers besides the risk of deafness. 'Flying' shuttles caused injuries and the boards (the "bairdies"), on which the weavers stood and moved around on, were unsafe.
"The girls" were what today would be called "strong women" who often did men's jobs during the war, lost boyfriends and partners at the front or in the prison camps, while developing both independence and solidarity. And when they were "awa' fae the lims", they loved a bloody good time! For the most part, I was banished to my bedroom when the real action started, or that's how I imagined it.
Whenever Burns' night comes round and I read again in "Tam o' Shanter" how Tam gazed amazed at the sight of the witches' cantraips - "The mirth and fun grew fast and furious...They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit Till every carlin swat and reekit" - I think of "the girls".
The four on the left I recognise as: Lot (Charlotte) Black and Moll Milne (front); and Meg Clark and Jessie Middleton (back). I think the one on the far right is Lizzie Balfour. I know the faces of the others, but can't recall their names. Maybe some Forfar viewer will recognise his or her relative and fill the gap by adding a comment and/or tag.