Bruce the baker on Lilleshall Street

G. Bruce, the baker on Lilleshall Street, Helsmdale, c1910

Some members of the streets group took a walk around Helmsdale last Tuesday to deliver invitations and speak to residents.  Gerry Wood, who is researching Lilleshall Street, spoke to the residents of Kindale Guest House, who informed her that their house used to be an old bakery (G. Bruce) and the remains of the shop ovens still existed in their back garden.  This was an opportunity not to miss and the owners kindly allowed access to see and photograph these rare features.  It became apparent that the ovens were housed in a separate building once attached to the house and main shop.  The owners said that evidence of burning was revealed during renovation work to the house.

 Kindale Guest House (Previously G. Bruce, the baker)

 The remains of the bakery oven in the back garden

Street talk goes down well in Timespan!

 Group attending talk by Nick Lindsay in Timespan

Today, Nick Lindsay, the Chairman of Clyne Heritage Society, presented a talk about his research on the houses and past residents in the Parish of Clyne.  He informed the group that he had used the information obtained from census records, valuation rolls, statutory registers, and graveyard records, compiling it all into computer searchable databases.  He said that colour coding the information was a useful way of following a house or property and its occupants through the ages, i.e. 1841 to 1901.  There were many questions from the 20 strong audience, some of which had traveled from Brora for the event.

Nick told the group that during the course of his research he had found out that some street names had changed over time, i.e.  Commerce Street in Brora changed to Roselyn Street by 1871.  He also indicated that the first ever valuation roll numbers recorded in 1849 were allocated to existing tenants in alphabetical order according to surname and that these numbers were the original croft numbers, some of which are still used today.

He had also noted that some census records contained ‘bynames’, as well as the correct surnames.  This was probably done to distinguish between the many families with the same surname, i.e. Robert (Bain) Sutherland.

He finished his presentation by informing the group that his research would take another five years to complete - and he wished the Timespan group well with their ongoing research!

A view from Helmsdale Rock

Happy New Year 2011!

Stunning view of Lilleshall Street courtesy of Brian Adams, Helmsdale

Latest news on the streets!

STREET TALKS/DISCUSSIONS

Don't miss our Saturday programme of talks in Timespan.  We will be looking at the different streets in Helmsdale, starting with Shore Street on Saturday 15th January in Timespan from 10.30am-12.30pm.  This event will include a look at an amazing collection of old images of the oldest street in Helmsdale, a presentation of the most current research carried out by the group and a discussion about daily life and stories.  We would be delighted to hear from any past residents and hope that you will come along.

The streets project will get back on track this week after a short festive break.  The snow has nearly gone and our long-awaited research trip to the Inverness Archive will be re-scheduled to take place in the next two weeks - keep watching the blog for updates.  The next workshop is on Saturday 8th January in Timespan from 10.30am-12.30pm - everybody welcome.

Local researcher, Nick Lindsay (Chairman, Clyne Heritage Society), hopes to join us on Saturday 8th to talk to us about his research on the Parish of Clyne and its past residents.

A selection of Valuation Roll extracts for Kildonan and Loth Parishes has been ordered from the Inverness Archive covering the period from 1874 to 1981.  This information will greatly enhance the genealogy resources freely available to consult in the Timespan public archive.

APPEAL FOR PHOTOGRAPHS

We would be delighted to hear from anyone who has old photographs of houses in Helmsdale or Portgower, i.e. before and after renovation work, past occupants, old features etc.