One Penny Per Hour

Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands 1883 Part E

Alex Gunn continues:

Pay  - two or three years later

'When any work was to do on the estate, we had to attend at once, no matter how pressing our own work might be, and we were paid the handsome sum of 1 shilling per day, of 12 hours, being at the rate of one penny per hour, and after working for it, it was sometimes two and sometimes three years before we got a settlement, and there would be no money got at that time. The head of the family would get a boll of meal if he had as much in the laird’s hands as would pay the rent.'

Doing their own work. Leave at once.

Building Roads

'All the males on the estate, on reaching the age of 17, had to pay 3s 6d each for road money. This money was kept off the counting table. Should any of the young men seek more remunerative employment elsewhere, the father was threatened with eviction.'

Proprietor's Protection Society

'When a family was evicted from the estate, they had great difficulty getting a house on the neighbouring estate, as the landlords had a sort of a trades protection society amongst themselves, and the unfortunate man had to stand a process of cross-questioning as to why he had left, and what the laird had against him, and was in some cases kept for weeks in suspense before he got a definite answer.'

Further comments by Alex Gunn:

‘The district [Auchencraig] being depopulated, the fishing was discontinued, and those poor people were obliged to work for their human laird at the rate of 1s per day for full grown men, women and boys from 4d to 6d per day, and out of this pittance to support themselves and families, and pay their rents, for their crofts scarcely yielded anything.’

Ousdale steep land plus Ousdale bridge and old road

‘Badbea comes next in course, the inhabitants of which were employed in reclaiming a wild piece of ground on a hill-side at Ousdale for Mr Horne, where he availed himself of the Government Drainage Act. They were made to toil and travel two miles each way for 1s a day, and Mr Horne was very fortunate in the choice of a man to set over them, as he spared neither bone nor sinew. The heads of families were obliged to take all their family to the work that could work, and if any young man was found spirited enough to go and work where he would be better remunerated for his labour, his parents were marked, and they did not escape punishment. 

But the work at Ousdale was finished, and Mr Horne could find nothing more for them to do, and as a matter of course six families were single out to be set adrift by next Whitsunday, and to find no shelter on the paternal estate of Langwell. This appeared the harder when it is considered that some of them had been in the place for 50 or 60 years, and one family occupied the house possessed by their forebears for four generations, and others reared families of 10 and 11 children under the same roof.’

‘They were promised payment for all the foreign timber in their houses, but one day a couple of men appeared on the scene, leaped on the top of the house, and with shovels and graipe peeled the roofs of the house, leaving nothing but the bare roofs and the bare walls. When the poor people demanded payment as promised, they were told they could take the timber if they chose, but no payment would be made, and there was no redress. These men were the scum of the estate, always ready to perform any dirty work the laird wanted done. This was the year 1845. Before this happened the village of Badbea was surrounded by a five-feet stone wall, a sure indication of the coming storm.’

The additional comments are from Roydhouse unpublished 1975

Ousedale. Article VI, 16/10/1879 - Rambling Recollections of Berriedale Badbea and Neighbourhood – Part C

Article VI written by Alexander Gunn aka A Native of Badbea was printed in the Northern Ensign on 16 Oct 1879. Part C

“Ousedale comes next in the way of recollections. It is situated about two miles to the west of Badbea and to the north of Auchencraig. At one time there was a flourishing tenantry in Ousedale. There was also the Borgue of Ousedale and the Struee, about half a mile to the west of Ousedale, on the western edge of the burn of that name, opposite Auchencraig – the burn running between them. There was fine fertile soil at both places, and abundance of hill-pasture for cattle grazing. It was much more suitable for farming than either Badbea or Auchencraig, as it was fine level ground, and easily cultivated. It is a pity to see such a fine tract of country lying waste, so to speak – only a few parks under cultivation, but yielding crops second to none in the country. There were about 50 acres brought under cultivation to the west of Ousedale, and this ground is yielding splendid cops. It was just brown heather in my young days.

Ousdale in 2011 showing the cultivated land

Looking toward the Borgue of Ousdale

There are hundreds, yes thousands, of acres around Ousdale, which are just as capable of being cultivated as those were, and which, if cultivated, would yield equally good crops. The Ousedale tenants were as comfortable as any on the estate, had they been let alone. But no, they had to be removed to make room for sheep, and left to shift as best they could.

The Ousdale burn showing the remains 

of stone works on the banks. 

Looking toward Auchencraig.

There was a corn-mill at Ousedale, where all the victual in the district was converted into meal. It was kept going till Auchencraig was turned out, after which it was discontinued. John Gunn, Badbea, was the miller, and just a few months before the mill was stopped he brought home a new millstone at considerable labour and expense; but there was no allowance made to him for it.

I really have no idea what the Ousdale Mill looked like but it 

may have been something like this old mill at West Murkle. 

Photo: Bill Fernie Caithness.org

Ousedale, too, could boast of its soldiers. Donald Sutherland, a brother of “John Badbea,” both born in Ousedale, was a soldier, and fell in Spain in one of those desperate battles which cost this country so much blood and treasure.”

My Comments:

As with other old place names there are variations of the spelling of Ousdale, Ousedale, Ausdale – all the same place. 

The comment about Donald Sutherland is interesting as there is plenty of other evidence that he died at Waterloo - see my blog 14 September 2014. My hunch is that Alexander Gunn made a slip-up here using 'Spain' but it is worth taking note of his comment. 

Ancient Ausdale

Ausdale aka Ousdale

To set the scene for some Badbea history there are a few nearby locations that it is helpful to know something about. The first of these, several small hamlets and a farm, called Ausdale in early citations, but changed to Ousdale in later times. Ausdale, in the Latheron Parish, Caithness, Scotland, has been a place of habitation for thousands of years.
There is still a well-preserved Iron Age broch from the 2^nd – 3^rd centuries there. 

Ousdale broch showing the main entrance.

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/7409/details/ousdale+burn/  

Photo: Duncan Kennedy

Ausdale appears (centre top) on the Roy Military Survey 

of Scotland, 1747-55.  maps.nls.uk

Ausdale was noted in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland 1892-6.

httpwww.electricscotland.comhistorygazetteervol1page92htm

 Ed Francis Groome (1892-6)

Note the close proximity of Ousdale to Badbea. 

OS six inch to mile maps 1840s to 1880s maps.nls.uk 

This map includes the Grey Hen’s Well showing the proximity

 to Badbea. Ousdale is just off the bottom left of the map. 

Ousdale farm is still a well farmed property today. The old stone houses are long gone. Google earth shows the Ousdale farm near the A9 between Helmsdale and Berriedale. The farm has been productive for at least several hundred years but those who have lived off it have changed significantly.

Ousdale farm in 2009 from the A9

 Zooming in on Google Earth it is possible to see the old 

stone remains of enclosures and dwellings probably

 late eighteenth century if not earlier. 

NB: The straight lines are modern transmission lines. 

The birth records for the Latheron Parish show births to Sutherland families and others at Ausdale from 1760 although it was well settled before the keeping of the parish records.

Ausdale was part of the Langwell Estate which had belonged to the Caithness family of Sutherlands since the seventeenth century. At that time Ausdale had a meal mill, an inn, a busy whisky distillery and a productive farm with ample living for the eight families, which included some Sutherlands and McLeods. Some members of these families became leaders in the Badbea settlement after they were cleared from Ausdale. Stories of their struggle for survival will follow.

The Bishop takes breakfast at Ausdale

Bishop Pococke accompanied by the Rev. George Innes visited Caithness during 1761 and wrote a general view of life and conditions then prevailing at Ausdale:

‘…when we came to the top of the Ord, how much were we surprised to see it all flat country before us, there being not one mountain or hill in all Caithness…We came to Ausdale an Inn, and the first house you came to in Caithness. ‘Good Morning Landlady’, said Mr Innes, ‘We have a good mind to take breakfast here if you can give us tea?’

She answered, very briskly, ‘Pray Sir, what kind of tea do you desire?’ Looking about to me he winked, and said ‘That’s so far good and promises well.’ Turning again to the Landlady, ‘Well good woman, what kind of tea can you give us?’ ‘Why Sir,’ she replied, ‘I can give you green tea, Bohea tea or coffee.’ ’Upon my word that is good sense truly,’ said Mr Innes, ‘Come, let us alight and get a good breakfast even in the wilds of Caithness.’

We then called for a sight of both kinds of tea and the green looked so well we made a choice of it, and very good it proved. We could not have had better in all the city of Edinburgh. We asked if we could have good milk…

‘You shall have plenty of that, Gentlemen,’ said the Landlady. Accordingly she had the servant fetch us a large cog of milk, and set it upon the table with a large spoon, and then said, ‘Here is the milk, Gentlemen, and skim off ye cream for yourselves.’

And indeed, it was the very best of milk, fresh and cool, clean and in good order; and never was there better fresh and powdered butter than she regaled us with, which spread upon good oatcakes made a noble repast. Till the tea kettle got ready I stepped out the door to look about me and see what I could spy, when, behold, I saw two women moving towards the house in a most leisurely way, step by step, each having a large vessel or broad cog of milk between her hands taken instantly from the cows. This induced me to return immediately to the house and ask if they had any farm here?

‘Yes Sir,’ said the Landlady, ‘We have a farm for which we pay six hundred merks Scots a year.’ (About £35 sterling). This makes a very large farm in Caithness of wide extended bounds….’

Source: Roydhouse, A. 1977. ‘Background to Badbea’, John O’ Groat Journal 

The Sutherland Lairds of Langwell as proprietors of Ausdale engaged a tacksman or leaseholder to manage the property and secure the rent from the crofters for the owners. Ausdale was well managed. But Robert Sutherland fifth Laird of Langwell, eccentric and a heavy drinker, was divorced by his wife and  forced to sell the Langwell estate in 1775 to a William Gray recently from Jamaica.  In 1788 Lady Diana Sinclair the wife of Sir John Sinclair the agriculturalist and statistician acquired the Langwell estate. Sir John Sinclair was an enterprising man who was very interested in agricultural improvements. He was also considered to be well meaning and humane in his consideration of his numerous tenants. But it was not long after the Sinclairs acquired Langwell that the news of improvements turned to ‘evictions’. The nearby tiny coastal settlement of Badbea, perched on treacherous cliff tops high above the sea, was soon to become one of the most notorious locations to receive dispossessed and evicted Highlanders from nearby villages including Ousdale. Farming improvements were not perceived compatible with the traditional small scale crofters. The way of life at Ousdale, described by Bishop Pococke was coming to a miserable end. The days of relative plenitude were fast vanishing, at least from the hearths of nearby tenantry.

The Highland Family, by Sir David Wilkie, 1824