Welcome to our new eBook and eAudio book service! We're excited to join the BorrowBox family and hope that you'll love it too. To get started, go to: https://highlifehighland.borrowbox.com/

You'll need your High Life card number and PIN to log in. If you need to reset your PIN, follow this link: https://hlh.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/PGM/WPAC/CCOPT/RPWD/1

#BorrowBox #HLHMoreThanLeisure

Work is still going on behind the scenes on our Shops and Businesses of Nairn project. We are very grateful to have had some really interesting information coming in, so please keep sending any stories/photographs to add to our collection. You can email these to: manager@nairnmuseum.co.uk or post them in to the Museum. Below are a few images of Thomson's the Tobacconist, High Street, Nairn. Information on the history of this shop was kindly sent to us by Sandra Ross (niece of Henry Spence Ross and Pearl Thomson). Here is a little of its history by Sandra:

'Thomson's was originally owned by Frank Thomson who had a daughter, Pearl Thomson. She married Henry Spence Ross. Spence, as he was called, was badly injured during WW2 and had a bad shrapnel wound in his chest. He trained as a confectioner and went into the shop to join Pearl in the early 1950s. The shop was old fashioned and sold many items such as: 107 different kinds of loose tobacco in jars, pipes of all sizes, cigarettes, snuff, walking sticks and Shepherd's crooks, fireworks, and silver cigarette boxes and lighters from all over the world'. Sandra recalls the' smell of the pipe tobacco and the old weighing machine for weighing the tobacco.' She remembers that 'in the 1960s they added toys and sold them in the basement. Pearl and Henry both played golf and badminton and Pearl, a great swimmer, helped with the Nairn Swimming Club. She taught me how to dive! Spence was also a good cricketer and played for the local club. Next door to the shop was Burnett's the bakers and on the other side was Norman Fraser the butcher. The shop was a great meeting place for lots of Nairn folk and 4pm was the time a lot of them met up. I recall it was a very happy place to go into. They also had people leave their shopping there until they were ready to go home, as there were not so many who had cars and they came to the shop from the country'.

#museumscollections #MuseumsInLockdown #museumshops #nairnscotland #visitnairn #MuseumsFromHome

The Fishertown of Nairn:

The harbour and boats:

The harbour basin we see at Nairn today was only completed in 1932. Prior to that the river Nairn was the harbour and boats could be moored right up to the Seaman's Hall. The 'Maggot' area on the east side of the river was where boats were moored for repair work before being re-floated at high tide back into the harbour. In 1820, Thomas Telford built a pier to protect the fishing fleet from the north-westerly gales which swept across the Moray Firth. Telford altered the course of the river and built a pier along the western bank of the new river channel. The pier was destroyed in the great Moray floods of 1829 and had to be reconstructed with the addition of an east pier. For centuries boats were simply dragged up onto the beach above the high water mark for safety. When the men were setting off on their fishing trips to Caithness and Sutherland, or up to Fraserburgh, it was customary for the womenfolk to carry the men on their backs out to their boats. This would ensure they stayed dry. In those days they wore moleskin trousers, leather boots and serge jackets, no waterproofs then!
Now the harbour is home to a large number of small and medium sized pleasure boats and there is an active sailing club at the harbour with its own Clubhouse for social events.

Boats:

The earliest type of boat used by Nairn fishermen was known as the 'Scaffie'. There are various early photographs of this type of boat in the Nairn Museum archives. Scaffies normally carried a crew of 5 and later Scaffies were decked. Increasing distances led to the development of a much larger class of boat known as the 'Zulu', so called as it first appeared during the Zulu Wars in South Africa. Their design (invented in Lossiemouth) meant they were extremely fast and manoeuvrable because of their shorter keel length and massive expanse of sails when fully set. The Zulu boats took over the Scaffies and by 1884 no more Scaffies were being produced. Zulus usually had crews of about 9 men and were driven purely by wind power. The length of keel was 60 feet tall, length was 80 feet, breadth of beam, 19 feet 8 inches and depth 11 feet. Elm was used for the keel and oak for the stems and gunwhales. They were made to withstand the rigours of fishing in the rough waters along the Moray coast. They also carried a stove to provide heat in the crew's living quarters. They must have looked a beautiful site out at sea.

By the early years of the 20th century there was a move away from sail powered fishing vessels towards Steam Drifters and by the end of the First World War, there were very few Zulu boats. The last of these in Nairn was the 'Water Lily' owned by the Wallace brothers of 32 Society Street. The boat is apparently still buried in the Maggot. The Drifters were able to get to and from the fishing grounds very easily and fished for herring during hours of darkness. They were low cost and lasted until the 1930s. During the war most of the Nairn fleet Drifters were requisitioned by the government for naval duties. The Steam drifters gave way to the Seine Net boats which had originated from Denmark. Nairn had a fleet of these boats which included the 'Nairnia', the 'Dulsie', the 'Kilravock', the 'Strathnairn' and the 'Lochloy'. These boats were powered by diesel engines and were fitted with up to date machinery and technology.

Images of various types of boats and of the harbour can be seen below.

#MuseumsFromHome #MuseumsInLockdown #museumscollections #nairnscotland #nairnmuseum #fishingboats