Taylor family operating Lockhart's mill
Photograph courtesy of Alison Mackie of Aberchirder whose grandfather was Peter Taylor who worked in sawmills owned by Lockhart’s of Huntly.
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, Birnam 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. Peter’s brother Bob (worked in Blackisle at a FC mill, Munlochy) and Tom (settled in the Forres area) may have worked (and their sons) with him in the early years.
This image shows the people working at a mill set up at a place named as Arbikie in Oct 1915. The photographer has gone to some trouble to get the men to show the tools of their trade but again unfortunately little is actually seen of the mill set up and power unit. There is no indication of the actual location of Arbikie but the name does exist as a farm name south of Montrose and above which there is a hill which certainly may have formerly had a large forest. Can anyone confirm?
Peter Taylor has not been positively identified in this image (it is thought he never smoked) but Margaret Grant is certain some of the people have a Taylor likeness.
1. (Taylor family?) Engineer, fireman, mill fitter etc
2. Member of 2 man felling team
3. Member of 2 man felling team
4. Horseman timber dragger
5. (Taylor family?) Sawmill worker
6. Sawmill worker
7. (Taylor family?) Sawmill worker
8. (Taylor family?)
9. (Taylor family?) Sawmill worker
10. (Taylor family?) Sawmill worker
11. Sawmill worker
12. Horseman timber dragger
There is some possibility that the people numbered 4, 5, 9 and 10 above are the same people as 2, 3, 5 and 8 respectively in the previous image (record No1025).
This photograph does show well the style of heavy clothes used for work, heavy belts and braces, tacketed boots, protective aprons and in the case of No12 the use of a short protective tunic.
The tools and equipment of note are the large axe (looks like 6-7lb Scottish wedge axe) on No2’s shoulder, the saw held by No3 has sets of 4 plain or peg teeth with individual raker teeth in between, separated from the sets either side by deep gullets. Unfortunately it is difficult to be certain how the handles are fixed on but does look like they are permanent riveted to the saw blade. The Disston saws of Philadelphia, America were certainly similar to this in pattern. One of their refinements was a progressive thinning of the thickness or gauge of the blade metal towards the middle of the back edge making it easier to draw the blade through when in the centre of a tree stem. This was sometimes referred to as arc or crescent grinding.
The other tools of note are the two short handled narrow spade shaped tools with a hooked spike attached just above the blade. Charlie Smith, Ordbrae, Huntly still working with saw benches in his 80s recalls these named as ‘Tomahawks’. These were used by the sawyers to help set the logs into the precise position on the movable bench to meet the saw. The main use of the tool was to lever the log away from the man towards the correct line but if it went too far it could be drawn back by the hooked spike.
It is interesting to note that the horses have short reins only. It is likely they were guided by voice only by the horsemen who walked behind or at the side of the tree being dragged to ensure that it avoided all the snags, roots and rocks that would stop the horse in its tracks. Horses could be stopped, to come back, told to pull to the right or the left solely by the voice. However once they had used a particular route more that a few times they usually could negotiate the whole distance themselves with very little intervention from the horseman.
The boards standing on their end in the background appear to be from the full tree stem cut from side to side or parallel cuts through and through like the leaves of a book. It does give an indication of some of the tree stem diameters. Larch for boat planking was often cut this way but there were many other uses as well. In the foreground can be seen the ‘backs’ or first cuts taken off the log by the saw to begin the squaring process of the log following which the regular squared products would be cut.
Any information on the people and the equipment would be very welcome.
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Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Groups of people, Horses at work in Forests, Northeast Scotland , Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills, Tools, equipment and clothing