16870: Tradesmen of Calbost

by Angus Macleod, Calbost; from the Angus Macleod Archive.

Traditionally the men of Lochs were fully occupied with agriculture, fishing and kelping and these activities required a high degree of skill. Also they built their own homes using local material whenever possible and therefore they were skilled in stonework as well as a certain amount of skill in woodworking and thatching. Some men were naturally skilled in some of these activities and boat-building etc. Such people found openings in the community as jobbers on their own in various trades and skills.

Towards the end of the 19^th century young men were better educated and they began to think of earning their living in ways other than in the traditional ways, in order to be able to do that they would be able to acquire new skills.

Shoemaking

Shoemaking was among the the first trades that became popular in Lochs and the following four young Calbost men acquired the trade of shoemaking in Stornoway.

In due course Donald Kennedy 1852 moved to Stornoway with his family. Alastair Kennedy 1863 emigrated to South America. Both Donald Kennedy 1864 (Domhnall Dhuill) and Kenneth Macleod 1867 (Coinneach Aonghais) set up shoemaking and shoe-repairing businesses at Calbost where they served the whole district of Pairc and indeed they processed orders for leather thigh sea-boots for fishermen from the East Coast of Scotland from time to time during the earliest part of the 20^th century, before rubber thigh boots became popular. Kenneth Macleod was a full-time shoemaker at Calbost but Donald Kennedy was a part time shoemaker and fisherman. Donald Kennedy’s customer ledger book is still in existence giving the name of the customers and prices.

Baking

About a dozen young Calbost men went in for baking in Stornoway about the turn of the century.

Tailoring

One man, Roderick Finlayson, born 1884 son of Alastair Finlayson, 10 Calbost, served his apprenticeship as a tailor. Tailoring was a very popular trade in Lewis in the early part of the century. After working in Oban for many years he settled down on the family croft in Calbost and opened a tailor’s shop there in the 1920s. To begin with he always employed one person and very often two people making new clothes for both men and women for the whole district of South Lochs until the multiple-ready-made tailors came to Stornoway in the 1930s. Thereafter he was very busy on his own until after the Second World War when he moved to Laxdale, Stornoway with his family and continued tailoring until he retired.

Weaving

Weaving for domestic use was practised extensively everywhere in earlier times. In the second half of the 19^th century the domestic cloth produced in the Hebrides, including pladding, was being commercialised and the Congested District Board was established in 1897 encouraged home industries of all kinds including the weaving of tweed. The big loom Beart–Mhor had just appeared in Lewis in the 1890s and the Congested District Board appointed an instructor in Lewis and Harris by the name of Alexander Lamont. Besides paying the salary of the instructor and providing large dyeing boilers, they advanced funds through a local committee free of interest for the purchase of improved looms (meaning the Beart-Mhor). In 1899 there were about 55 looms in Lewis. In 1906 there were 161 and 1911 it was estimated there were about 300.

There were weavers in Calbost prior to the 1890s when the Beart-Mhor came on stream; the writer’s mother was one of them and the original tenant of croft no.9 was known as Murchadh Breabadair (Murdo the Weaver, 1797-1870). At least the following ten heads of families were domestic weavers on the Beart-Mhor (flying-shuttle type of loom) in the early years of the 20th century.

The big wooden Loom began to be replace by the Hattersley iron Loom in the 1920s and the first two Hattersley single shuttle looms came to Calbost in 1933. One to Johnnie Macleod, 8 Calbost and one to John Nicolson, 11 Calbost.

The last wooden Beart Mhor that operated continuously in Calbost was that of Malcolm Morrison, 9 Calbost (Calum Alasdair Mhurchaidh 1875-1944). When Calum died suddenly he had a tweed in the loom and it was completed by Murdo “Peter” Macleod 8 Calbost. By that time a number of Hattersley looms had come to the village as follows: