15618: Gress, Lewis

Gress is a crofting township on the east coast of the Isle of Lewis; it lies to the north of the village of Back, about seven miles from Stornoway. The area had formerly been a farm. It taken over by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland and lotted as crofts in 1922. Lord Leverhulme tried to create a large dairy farm here in the early 1920s to supply milk to Stornoway. However, despite the support of the local people, the scheme failed having suffered land raids by landless ex-servicemen.

The crofts had been allocated by ballot; Lord Leverhulme unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Gress Raiders putting their names forward and 18 of them were allocated crofts. By 1922 many of the tenants had put up temporary dwellings prior to the croft being officially marked out by the Board of Agriculture. They were asked to leave these dwellings and all, but four of the former Gress Raiders did so. The ones that stayed, Murdo Graham, Donald Maclean, Allan Martin and Roderick Macleod, did so because they had nowhere to go, so the Board of Agriculture put up four small corrugated iron house for them near the Gress river in Back. When the crofts were allocated these four took the houses apart and moved them to their crofts as temporary dwellings. One of them is still on 25 Gress.  

Two of the Gress crofts (45 and 46) are situated in Glen Tolsta.

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