How tweed used to be made

[figheadair]

Thought the rabble might be interested to see some pics of the last true vestige of handwoven tweed on Harris. This is the famous Marion Campbell in 1983 when she was well into her 60s and still going strong.



Note the traditional ladies' Highland Dress wellies. Essential for so much of the year



Marion at her loom. She used to spin and dye her yarn, weave the cloth and then waulk (finish) it.


Drying tweed that's been waulked.

If anyone has some of her cloth treat it with the respect due an heirloom. We'll never see her like again.

[Downunder Kilt]

Thought the rabble might be interested to see some pics of the last true vestige of handwoven tweed on Harris. This is the famous Marion Campbell in 1983 when she was well into her 60s and still going strong.

Great stuff Peter, as they say, they bred them tough in those days. Thanks for the photos and commentary

[Watson42]

Note the traditional ladies' Highland Dress wellies. Essential for so much of the year

This reminds me of Billy Connelly "I'd like now to sing a song about Scottish Highland National dress; wellington boots. Oh, you thought it was a kilt?"

Back on the topic, where could one find tweed made by Ms. Campbell? Would it just be sold at local shops? My father has a tweed jacket that he is very proud of even though he can't wear it properly because the sleeves are too short. He said he picked it up in Scotland when my family made a trip there in 1986 so I'm curious to know if it might be a product like the ones you've shown.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I was lucky enough to pick up two short lengths of her cloth on Ebay a few years back. I don't think the seller knew what they had.

I made a kilt from one length.

(Note her signature white selvage stripe).

From the other I had this jacket made.

(You cannot see it, but the selvage stripe is preserved on the interior of the jacket).

There was enough cloth left over from the jacket to make a bonnet.

Marion Campbell was the subject of the book A Harris Way of Life, if anyone wants to do some further reading on her and her textile tradition.

[Tobus]

Matt, I do wish you'd stop posting the photo of that jacket! I really want one, and knowing that I can't have one is causing me emotional distress!

[figheadair]

This reminds me of Billy Connelly "I'd like now to sing a song about Scottish Highland National dress; wellington boots. Oh, you thought it was a kilt?"

Back on the topic, where could one find tweed made by Ms. Campbell? Would it just be sold at local shops? My father has a tweed jacket that he is very proud of even though he can't wear it properly because the sleeves are too short. He said he picked it up in Scotland when my family made a trip there in 1986 so I'm curious to know if it might be a product like the ones you've shown.

As far I know she only ever sold from her house. When I bought cloth from her it was £5 per yard .

There can't be much, if any, left in circulation. So unless, like Matt, you come across some being under-sold i.e. without the seller knowing what they've got then I doubt that you'll find any . More likely is that the odd piece of made up clothing might surface but then again unless the seller has direct knowledge of the source then it won't be sold as such.

I have a jacket + waistcoat in out of her cloth plus 4 yards of mint cloth that's just staying as is for the moment.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

As far I know she only ever sold from her house. When I bought cloth from her it was £5 per yard .

There can't be much, if any, left in circulation. So unless, like Matt, you come across some being under-sold i.e. without the seller knowing what they've got then I doubt that you'll find any . More likely is that the odd piece of made up clothing might surface but then again unless the seller has direct knowledge of the source then it won't be sold as such.

I have a jacket + waistcoat in out of her cloth plus 4 yards of mint cloth that's just staying as is for the moment.

And I didn't even know what I was buying when I did so on Ebay. All I knew was that is was Harris Tweed, I liked the color from the photo, and it was a good price. After I had received it I identified it as Marion Campbell's cloth (with help from Bob Martin) largely due to the selvage.

Peter, if you want that four yard length made up into a nice kilt just let me know!

[Dale Seago]

Matt, I do wish you'd stop posting the photo of that jacket! I really want one, and knowing that I can't have one is causing me emotional distress!

Same here, Matt.

[Lallans]

"Waulking." That's a word that's been missing from my vocabulary for years now and recovering it has allowed me to rediscover what was described in a short story we had in grade school about a Highland (or as I now realise, possibly a Cape Breton) family 'finishing' a length of tweed for the Prince Of Wales. The process was elaborate and is well described on this website:

http://www.ancliathclis.ca/about.htm - some of the text of which I will presumptiously paste on here [needless to say the role of urine was not included in the grade school account or inappropriate hilarity would have resulted; possibly also fainting spells on the part of some of the girls]:

In Margaret Mac Phail's book, "The Bride Of Loch Bras D'Or", she recounts: "First a small oak barrel with a tight cover was placed in the stone cellar where it would remain cool, yet would not freeze, until spring. Every bed had a chamber pot under it, and each day the urine was emptied into the barrel which was well covered with old mats to keep out the fumes. My mother prepared the yarn. The warp, also of wool, was made from the longest fibres of the fleece and carefully carded by hand, then the rolls were spun soft. Following that the skeins were carefully and painstakingly washed to pure whiteness. When spring was well advanced, the eel-grass that banked the house for warmth against the chilly frost, was removed and then used for compost fertilizer. The cellar door could be opened, and by this time the barrel was full and gave off no fumes under its tight cover. After the potatoes were planted and early farm work started, Father carried the old iron chimney boiler, so huge that it almost contained a barrel, into the cellar. The contents were emptied into the boiler. I must say that then fumes escaped during the process' but no one minded for it was a necessary thing. The boiler was carried to an open field near the pond. Every farm had a pond or brook. There the boiler was left still well covered to keep out the rain, yet in the strong sunlight to become stronger as it warmed, for indigo required a strong ammonia mordant. It was literally rotten when a crushed cake of indigo was stirred into it with a special ladle made from ash and carefully smoothed of every splinter. This was called the "indigo stick" and I think every household had one carefully kept in the cellar for years."

The women would sit at a table, or something with a rough ribbed surface, and repeatedly knead and pound the cloth to a steady rhythm, squeezing and folding and rubbing the cloth hard. Sometimes a door was taken off its hinges and used as the work surface.

The cloth was always passed around the table in a clock-wise or sun-wise direction. The Gaels were very superstitious and believed it was unlucky to do anything in an anti clock-wise direction. They also believed singing any song twice over the same piece of cloth would make it imperfect. The cloth was pulled towards you and passed to the left before pushing it back. This way, the cloth turned around the table in a clock-wise manner as it was evenly processed. At milling frolics in Cape Breton the cloth is not always passed around the table.

The earlier waulking songs were mostly composed by women and provide a vivid picture of life in the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries from a woman's point of view. They are completely unsophisticated and spontaneous.

In general, orain luadhaidh are classified according to the structure of the chorus. Nearly always the chorus consists of "vocables" or meaningless syllables, although they were carefully chosen to fit the rhythm of the tune. The songs are generally divided into the main verses sung by the lead singer, and the choruses, which were sung in response by the rest of the women. The songs are often compared to dreams, the constant repetition and rhythm having a hypnotic effect.

Genuine waulkings of home spun cloth seem to have died out in the 1950s. And although the actual practice of waulking has faded into history, the milling tradition and accompanying songs have been preserved and handed down from generation to generation.

In Cape Breton many songs that are sung at milling frolics are not true waulking songs, but have been traditionally sung at milling frolics. They have the same rhythm, but they are more complicated and have longer choruses (not necessarily vocables), and longer verses.

Milling ceased to be essential as the Gaelic speaking people moved away from self-sufficiency and began to purchase factory produced clothing. Today, milling survives as a social event and cultural performance.

Mary (taigh solas) MacLean

[Arlen]

She was a great woman, indeed. I used to have a recording of her singing a couple of waulking songs but it got chewed up in the tape player lonnnnngg ago.