Taylor family operating Lockhart's mill
Photograph courtesy of Margaret Grant, Huntly whose grandfather was Peter Taylor who worked in sawmills owned by Lockhart’s of Huntly. Year is unknown also but estimated to be around 1905 as it possibly is a little earlier than Picture No 1023
Peter Taylor born circa 1876 had six of a family (oldest born c1906) who in their early years trailed around the country as Peter worked in mills which were moved and set up many times in locations as diverse as the BlackIsle, Laggan, Dufftown and Kintore. In those day the sawmill and attendant camp were dismantled, loaded onto wagons and moved to a new forest location whenever the job or forest in one area was finished. Margaret recalls her mother Helen going to Birnam, Gartly, Dufftown and possibly Mulben schools in her young days and living in wooden huts and bothies at each site.
In this photograph at an unknown location but photographed by A Cooper and Son, Inverness shows six men posing for the photograph. They seem to have been working the saw and stopped for the photographer as the man with his hand on the saw has sawdust over his hair. Margaret has identified her grandfather Peter (3rd left) but also mentioned that his brother Bob also worked in the mills and could be in the photograph (5th left?). Bob Taylor eventually settled down at Munlochy and worked in the Forestry Commission sawmill which was located near there.
Note the heavy aprons worn by the two men who are probably handling and guiding the logs through the saws. The aprons protected the clothes as they used their hands and bodies to push and guide the heavy logs on a straight path through the cutting process. Can anyone confirm if this is a double bench set up?
The rather battered barrow on the left with the wide side boards may have been used to cart the sawdust away from the saws to fuel the steam engine boiler that would almost certainly been the power source. The barrow on the right with no sides would be used to carry the smaller sawn products to their stacking areas in the yard.
Any help to identify the other men in the photograph and other Taylor family members would be very welcome.
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Groups: Forestry in Action, Groups of people, Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills, Tools, equipment and clothing