Author Topic: Over the Sea to Stroma..  (Read 1422 times)

Raven

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Over the Sea to Stroma..
« on: Sep 05, 2020, 04:22:09 PM »
Stroma is now deserted even though it's only a short distance from the mainland at John o Groats. From an all-time peak of 375 people in 1901, the population fell to just 12 by 1961 and the last islanders left at the end of the following year. Stroma's final abandonment came in 1997 when the lighthouse keepers and their families departed, after the lighthouse became fully automated.











Michael Rolls

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #1 on: Sep 05, 2020, 08:35:10 PM »
One can almost feel the ghosts
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me.
The older I get, the better I was!

biglouis

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #2 on: Sep 05, 2020, 09:05:19 PM »
Why no repopulate it with these damned boat people and let them build their own shelter?
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools.

Jacqueline

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #3 on: Sep 05, 2020, 09:13:14 PM »
Why no repopulate it with these damned boat people and let them build their own shelter?


What a very good idea, didn't Krankie say she wanted to repopulate Scotland?

zoony

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #4 on: Sep 05, 2020, 09:46:35 PM »
One can almost feel the ghosts
Mike


I imagine it's a very eerie place to spend a night..
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

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                                           cowboy wisdom.

GrannyMac

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #5 on: Sep 06, 2020, 07:05:18 AM »
Very eerie. Crofting is unsustainable there I'd imagine?
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R. Gervais

Raven

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #6 on: Sep 06, 2020, 10:04:31 AM »
From the information I've gathered on island life it is apparent that the community of Stroma could easily support itself. The people produced nearly all their own food, clothing, furnishings and tools, but they were not entirely without influence of the mainland.

Extra groceries that were needed were bought from the island shop or the 'floating shops', both of these services were comparatively new to island life, for years the islanders had managed successfully alone. This shows that as life became easier on the mainland self-sufficiency on Stroma no longer seemed acceptable; Stroma people also wanted nice food and clothing. From Sinclair's Report in 1814 we are told that Stroma people were very simple and hard working, one hundred years later they were still hard working but also less self-sufficient.

Alex22

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #7 on: Sep 06, 2020, 11:31:53 AM »
Great photos Raven, that old phone box would be worth a couple of thousand !
.

crabbyob

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #8 on: Sep 06, 2020, 11:55:46 AM »
and the mangle might be worth a few bob..
they must have been hardy folk, but again it might be an ideal place for folks fleeing from wars
“Life may not be the party we hoped for, but as we are already here we may as well dance”

richmond62

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #9 on: Sep 06, 2020, 03:59:35 PM »
I remember going out to Swona to attach an acetylene cylinder
(that had been deposited by helicopter) to the semi-automatic light-house
with Cyril Annal, in about 1984, and seeing Stroma to the south;
however got distracted when a tern dive-bombed me with her beak because
I was too near to her nest.


Thanks for the lovely and extremely atmospheric photos.

klondike

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #10 on: Sep 06, 2020, 05:06:36 PM »
How did you get there to take the pictures Raven? Is somebody running trips?
So long and thanks for all the fish

biglouis

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #11 on: Sep 06, 2020, 05:14:42 PM »
I like the old mangle. My mother had one like that in the outhouse when we were kids.
Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools.

Michael Rolls

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #12 on: Sep 06, 2020, 06:11:31 PM »
My mum had a mangle much on those lines, with wooden rollers and that had wheel for adjusting the amount of’squeeze’ for want of a better word. No idea what became of it, perhaps the rag and bone man, but I do remember it was replaced with a mangle with rubber rollers of considerably less diameter, and which was stored upside down in a container about the size of a large oil drum. When in use the water squeezed out by the mangle was collected in the drum.
Memories! Haven’t given those devices a thought for best part 70 years until today
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me.
The older I get, the better I was!

richmond62

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #13 on: Sep 06, 2020, 07:15:09 PM »
Cripes: when I was between 6 and 12 my "Saturday job" after I came home from my violin lesson was
to turn the mangle handle. Mind you it was dead sophisticated insofar as it was made of enamelled metal
and had rubberised rollers.


When I was 12 my Dad got a job as a headmaster of a private school and everything went 'wrong'
including the acquisition of an automatic front-loader.


https://youtu.be/SGBqns3fWGk

klondike

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Re: Over the Sea to Stroma..
« Reply #14 on: Sep 06, 2020, 07:15:49 PM »
I vaguely remember my home having one of the smaller rubber roller mangles being fixed atop some sort of washing tank for want of a better word.
So long and thanks for all the fish