Objects from Auchindrain’s Gypsy-Traveller collection: Remembering good times and celebrating what matters in life

www.auchindrain.org.uk

2020 was a difficult year for many of us, but it was also a reminder of the importance of friends, family, and what makes you happy. To celebrate GRTHM this year, Auchindrain Township have asked members of the Gypsy/Traveller community to reflect on objects from Auchindrain’s Gypsy/Traveller collection, remembering good times and celebrating what matters in life.

Edith Townsley

Left, a Gypsy/Traveller’s driving license from the collection of Auchindrain Township, ACHDN.2019.0078. Right, Edith Townsley with her niece at Appleby

For Edith Townsley, her way relax is travelling, “Put me in a car and I’ll go… the longer the drive the better” she says. Based at Duncholgan, the Lochgilphead Traveller Site, during the winter, Edith says her enemy is routine and as soon as she can she’ll travel across the country to see friends and family with her two dogs – sometimes to see her nephew in Durham, sometimes her daughter in Aberdeen, sometimes Ireland, sometimes Skipness, and always Appleby in June. Wherever she ends up, she’ll pitch up a wee two-man tent, and she’ll still take her chitties, still use her griddle and pans, cooking in the way her family did when she was younger. She says that by always shifting about, everything around you is new, and there’s nothing better than a nice piece of green grass for a pitch.

With three daughters, nine granddaughters and one wee grandson, it’s a chance to teach the grandweans some of the skills she learnt as a kid – everything from how to climb trees, to which sticks in the hedgerows are good for the fire and how to twist paper to use as a firestarter, “anything to keep [the lifestyle and knowledge] going”. Some of these things have an impact on their daily life too, such as learning how to fish and gut their catch, and learning where their food comes from. The hope, she says, is that they’ll take after her, experiencing the best of both lives.

Neenie Reid

Left, Neenie’s pot, and right, members of the Williamson,Townsley and Reid families cooking a family Sunday dinner. From the collection of Auchindrain Township, ACHDN.2019.0086 and p.ACHDN.15.07.2014.5

For the late Jean ‘Neenie’ Reid, we are told by her sister Kathy, happiness and relaxing meant being outside. Neenie had six children, and within Auchindrain’s collection is the pot that she raised her family with – she owned it for almost 41 years! Neenie loved cooking for everyone but especially her grandweans, and Kathy remembers she would always force food on you. As well as always having pots of meat, stews, mince, soup, puddings just in case, she would offer to cook anything you’d like too. This pot was so versatile, and after being out hawking all day in this pot she could cook soup, tatties, sausage brew, and the most amazing vegan soup.

Neenie was at her happiest when she was outside cooking on the fire, or with the weans, or when selling her swag and stock at houses. She’d walk and pick flowers with the children, teaching them the ways of the land, and tell them stories about the magic and the fairies who lived in the woods. All weans followed her like she was the pied piper, even if they weren’t family. And when Neenie got together with her mother they’d cook and feed the whole family.

John Townsley

Left, fishing weights and right, Margaret Williamson in front of bow camp with fishing rods in the early 1980s. From the collection of Auchindrain Township, ACHDN.2019.0082 and p.ACHDN.15.07.2014.9

For many Gypsy/Travellers, fishing was a way to both relax and provide food. Here the late John Townsley is remembered by his daughter Kathy, “He loved fishing – he said it got him away from the women and weans!”.

John’s fishing rods were tied on to the inside walls of his car, or sometimes underneath the trailer, anywhere they wouldn’t get damaged. Kathy remembers it was special fishing gear and her Dad wouldn’t allow anyone to touch or clean it in case they broke it.

John usually fished burns or lochs as, with the exception of the Tay, the family wouldn’t usually camp beside big rivers. And he would guddle all of the Argyll burns for troot and salmon too. He would lie on his belly on the bank near a pool, tilt his wide brimmed hat back, and be silent, watching and waiting for the troot to move from behind the stones in the burn. If he saw one, he’d put his hands in quickly, catch it by the tail and flick it out on to the bank. Sometimes he might use a gaff too, or a copper wire snare, or sometimes lay with his hands in the burn. It had to be done on a calm day though, in a calm pool. Kathy was taught these skills by her father but says she was never good at guddling, she was just never quick enough.

John usually cooked his catches by the burn, using a small pocket knife to get the guts out. He’d get a stick and stick it in the fish through it’s mouth, cooking it on an open fire. Some wives didn’t like fish in the tent because they made the whole thing smell but Kathy and her mother never minded. Sunday was a cooking and cleaning day for Kathy’s mother, so her Dad might go off fishing then. And they fished at night too – clear summer nights were a good time.

Jimmy Donaldson

Left, Jimmy’s model wagon, from the collection of Auchindrain Township, ACHDN.2019.0085. Right, Jimmy and one of his grandweans making something from wood

This wooden, painted model of a Gypsy/Traveller wagon and camp was made in 2016 by James Duncan ‘Jimmy’ Donaldson, and here his daughter Rose remembers how important making things was to him throughout his life.

When Rose was small the family would go and pick the berries, or the tatties – each season they’d do something different. She remembers that when she was wee her father was always making things, and he built stuff in the back of the lorry they had, or he’d make a table to work on using anything to hand. He was never without his tool kit, and always had things in the boot of the car. For a school project in P6 or 7, Jimmy helped Rose build a miniature Highland crofthouse in detail for a project on the clearances, using straw for the roof, and making the cardboard look like stones – she remembers that everything had to be precise as he had a passion for good craftsmanship. He taught his grandweans too, here’s a picture of him making something in wood with his Grandson. And he was precise about his tools – he’d always know if Rose or her brother or sister had moved anything from it’s spot and would always need to know, ‘why were you moving it?!’

Jimmy took ill in 2012 and it was 5 years before he passed away from cancer. Before his illness he was always on the go, always busy. Rose says that making models really got him through a lot of it, keeping his mind off the illness, and it kept him focused on something else. This is one of the last models he made, but he modelled trucks, trailers, cars and other wagons too because throughout his life he loved to work on and deal in motors. And Jimmy’s artistic spirit is still found within his brothers and sisters who have all got an artistic side, and Rose too, “I put my hand to anything” she says.