Herring Girls, Stornoway

Herring Girls, Stornoway

ID: QZP99_92052_03_05 DESCRIPTION: A group of women gutting fish in South Beach Street, Stornoway. The buildings in the background have recently been identified. The building on the far right, Beach House, was demolished in the 1950s and a new building erected in 1958 - the Ross & Cromarty County Council Offices, now the Western Isles Health Board. The small building in the centre was Hugh Mackenzie's fish shop which was demolished around 1957. The building on the left was a fishcurers, also demolished around 1957 and rebuilt thereafter. Currently, a bathroom centre is on the site. These women, or 'Herring Girls', followed the herring fleet around the coast of Britain each year. The women worked in teams of three, two gutters and one packer. The herring catches were unloaded into large wooden troughs called farlans. The gutters would gut the fish in a single stroke of their knife. Most women could gut an average of 40 fish each minute but some were significantly faster. The fish was packed into barrels according to size and the guts used as fertilizer by local farmers. Living and working conditions were rough. A team would travel, work and live together for the entire season. The working day was long, usually working on the exposed quays. The women wrapped strips of cotton or sacking around their fingers and thumbs to protect them from their knives. This image comes from a collection gifted to Edinburgh Central Library by Dr Isabel F. Grant. The collection includes photographs taken by a number of different photographers. PLACENAME: Stornoway DISTRICT: Lewis OLD COUNTY/PARISH: ROSS: Stornoway SOURCE: Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh Central Library COLLECTION: I F Grant Photographic Archive Asset ID: 38404 KEYWORDS: