History in our back yards…

I love writing about ancient times. History fascinates me, but what about the more recent past? Who lived in your house before you did? Was it family, or strangers, about whom you know almost nothing? What stood on the site of your home 50 years ago… 100 years ago?

We’ve been lucky enough to find out a bit more about our house and the building that stood here previously.

The place we call home is a traditionally built house erected in 1975. It has concrete block walls and a slated roof. There are hundreds of dwellings locally made to the same design. It was built by a man native to these islands after his marriage to a lady from Canada. They married later in life, so there were no children, and after he died, his widow sold the house to us in 2005.

It’s what stood here when he acquired the land in 1975 that interests us, though.

The traditional houses on the Hebrides, until the 1920s, were ‘Black Houses’. These were constructed with low stone walls topped with wooden roof timbers, then a layer of turf and thatch. They were long buildings with a living room/kitchen, a bedroom at one end, a byre for the cattle at the other. Originally, there would have been a hearth in the middle of the room with an open peat fire. The smoke filtered up through the roof. Later, fireplaces and chimneys were added, as in the picture below, which is the house that once stood where our front garden is now.

Quite large families would have lived in these small buildings. There were ‘box beds’, a wooden affair with walls, a ceiling, and a curtain across the front to give some privacy and keep out draughts. There might have been two large beds in the bedroom and another in the living room. Children would have had to share a bed with many siblings!

It makes you wonder who the people were that lived here. We’re lucky enough to have a picture of the last residents and even some of their names. Though we don’t know what most of them did for a living, it was certain that they all worked the land here to survive. They’d have kept a few sheep, perhaps a house cow, for milk, cream and butter. They’d have grown potatoes and oats, some swedes and cabbages. They’d have fished in the bay and subsisted on a very simple diet.

The last residents we know of in the black house had two sons. One was killed in Mesopotamia in World War One. After the war, the other became a police officer, returning to serve as a police superintendent in Stornoway, our local town.

History doesn’t have to be about great kings and battles. It exists in our own backyards too.

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Until next time,

D J Eastwood