1867
At a Criminal court in Cupar on Tuesday – Sheriff Taylor presiding – When Wm Muir a fisherman from Cellardyke pleaded guilty to having on the 26th October assaulted a publican named David Wilson, for which he was sentenced to pay the fine of 20s or go to jail for fourteen days.
1868
During the last fortnight the weather has been unsettled and stormy; but on all possible occasions our fishermen have busily plied their arduous labour. This week the Cellardyke fleet, which now numbers only twenty-eight deep sea going boats, have made two trips to the fishing ground, and have landed takes ranging from two to seventeen hundredweight of haddocks, which on Tuesday sold at 11s 6d per cwt., and Thursday at 10s 6d per cwt. The fish are steadily improving in quality, and the prospects of the market, it is gratifying to note, are day by day becoming more encouraging, although the sales on Thursday were somewhat below the previous sales in the early part the week.
Railway Survey.—ln the course of the last week Mr Wood, C. R., Colinsburgh, has been making a survey for the proposed extension of the railway to Anstruther harbour. The plans, which are thus being prepared with the report thereanent, will be submitted Parliament in order to obtain the necessary authority to construct the line, which it is now understood will take the of the Dreel burn, with new bridge for the turnpike road. The scheme, however, will only brought forward in connection with the proposal to extend the new harbour by the construction of wet dock, and the success of the one so involves the other that it is only in the event of a Treasury grant being obtained for the harbour, that the Directors of the Leven and East of Fife Railway will proceed with their part of the undertaking.
The Late Storms— Royal National Lifeboat Institution. —Yesterday (Thursday) meeting of this institution was held at its house, John Street, Adelphi, London —Thomas Chapman, Esq , F.R.S., Y.P., in the chair. Rewards amounting to £258 were voted to the crews of lifeboats of the institution for various services during the heavy storms of the past month. The lifeboat at Broughty Ferry rescued nine men from the barque Betty and Louise, of Hamburg. The lifeboats of the society at Stromness, Anstruther, Padstow, and Porthdinllaen assisted in bringing the following distressed vessels and their crews into port:— Schooner Victor, of Grimsby, 5; fishing-boat Active, of Cellardyke,……………………..
1869
On Saturday—before Sheriff Horsbrugh —Robert Pattison, ploughman, was sentenced to twenty days’ imprisonment for stealing hay from the farm of Easter Pitcorthie. Pattison was at first accused along with Wm. Pattie and John Elder, labourers, Cellardyke, but then absconded, and latterly gave himself to the police. The latter two were tried on Tuesday before Sheriff p
Bell The case against Elder was not proven, but Pattie was sentenced to twenty days’ imprisonment.
The reports as to the herring fishing in the Clyde are now of a very encouraging nature. Saturday and Monday the fishing was very heavy, and several of the Cellardyke boats seem to have fairly participated in it. The price averaged about 21s, and several of our local curers make purchases in order to manufacture herring into blotters. Monday morning some arrivals of fresh herrings took place our railway station, and on Wednesday Messrs Sharp and Murray received about 90 crans, which with the consignments for the other curers, made total of about 150 crans. The fish were of good quality and reached here in fine condition. From Yarmouth the accounts are very satisfactory, some of the Cellardyke boats are said to have already grossed from £150 to £203, and on some nights the fishing was so heavy that crews had from six to nine lasts, last being 10.000 of herrings, or about 12 crans.
1870
A Mother Assaulted By Her Son.—At the Burgh Court of Kilrenny on Tuesday—Bailies Sharp and Watson the bench—Alexander Smith, carter, was charged with assaulting his mother, Penelope Barclay or Smith, by striking her on the knee with a piece of coal on the 15th October last. He pleaded guilty, and was sentenced a fine of 10s or ten days’ imprisonment in Cupar jail. The same panel was next charged with assaulting Thomas Muir, fisherman, by striking him with his whip on the shoulders, this offence being likewise committed in Cellardyke on the 15th ult. The panel denied this charge, and as none of the witnesses were present in Court, the case adjourned till Thursday.
1871
“THE STEAM AND IRON SHOEMAKER” IN CELLARDYKE. (By our East Neuk Rambler.) There is a story told of the good and great Bishop Kennedy, of St Andrews—so remarkable for his princely hospitality—that one day his chamberlain took upon him to remonstrate with his lordship on the folly of so wasting his fortune, and concluded offering to make out a list of the persons who might dine at pleasure at the Bishop’s table. What names would your lordship wish me to put down then asked the chamberlain. “Begin with Fife and Angus,” was the laconic reply of the Bishop, meaning those counties, “and as many more as you please !” It was this large-hearted prelate who built the fishing town of Cellardyke, that his table might be better plenished with fish than when his boats sailed from the tempestuous bay of St Andrews; and we all know how well, through the blessing of the good Bishop and the industry of the’ people, it has risen, and is rising, into prosperity and fame. Many one during the last years that the town has existed has gone the errand of the famous cobbler, Tarn the Gallanter, of whom it is recorded—
“Fu’ aft he gaed to Cellardyke,
To get a caller skate to pike.”
But our concern in the meantime is not with Cellardyke as a great fish mart, but the seat of certain manufactures which are destined to a new celebrity.
One these—the extensive boot and shoe manufactory Mr Gilchrist —has just been rendered singularly interesting by the introduction of that wonderful contrivance, “The Blake Sole Sewing Machine.”
The old monks devoutly loved the fish creels of Cellardyke; but what would the good Bishop Kennedy have thought if he had been told that his fisher town would one day boast a machine that within ten hours could furnish shoes for a little army of six hundred men, and yet, extraordinary as it might appear, this is simply the fact as to what the “sole sewer” can accomplish in the hands of an experienced and dexterous operator.
About midsummer we had occasion notice some interesting things about Mr Gilchrist’s establishment, but within the last few weeks his premises have been considerably enlarged to suit his rapidly increasing wholesale business. A spacious gallery has been erected over the long range of workshops, which may be described as the “machine room” of this wonderful factory. Here some eight or nine sewing machines work away as busy grasshoppers in autumn, in stitching together and binding the “uppers” of boots and shoes, though, of course, the “admired of all admirers” the beautiful American invention for sewing the soles.. It is simply impossible to describe this eminently ingenious contrivance, which is, perhaps, the most complicated and elaborate machine at present in use. It consists of fewer than 265 pieces, but we cannot illustrate their indefinite and complex arrangement better than the following little anecdote Gilchrist has a singular aptitude for mechanics, but when visiting— many others have done—the curious machine, we were struck the close and riveted look on his shrewd and expressive Scottish countenance. “I can never examine it,” said he, “without noticing some new and unexpected movement unthought of before.” The working principle, however, may admit of this general description. The boot or shoe, after the sole and upper has been fastened together, is withdrawn from the last and is then put upon a horn-like projection, which, besides serving the place the human hand, also contains the sewing thread, which is kept saturated with ”wax” or “rosin.” The needle, which is barbed like a crotchet pin, pierces through the soles and brings up the bight of the thread which is thrust forward a tongue-like slide, so to embrace the next movement of the needle, when as the thread is a second time drawn out of the horn, a loop is formed, and as by a two-fold action the machine at once presses the leather and tightens the stitch—the result a seam of extraordinary strength and durability, and of no less neatness, as the loop is simultaneously with the stitching concealed in a groove or channel cut in the sole. So quickly is this done, and so readily does the machine accommodate itself either to the thin waist or to the thick forepart that the sewing on of the sole of a stout walking boot is done little more than half a minute.
This magic-working invention is gradually spreading over the country, and we believe that though for the first time introduced into is the seventh in Scotland. It costs about £100, but more considerable still, the manufacturers using it have to pay royalty of fivepence for every one thousand stitches, or fully more than penny on every pair of shoes, which is registered much in the same way ordinary gas-meter.
Mr Gilchrist’s enterprise, however, has not stopped here, for a powerful machine has also been fitted up in his establishment, which, while working the principle of an ordinary sewing machine, can stitch with waxed or rosined thread, and will this way be serviceable for the heaviest class of work. ……… Steam power has been for some months employed Mr Gilchrist s establishment, and no difficulty intervened in applying it as in the case of the many other machines—the sewing, the sole cutting, and sole beating, and edge dressing apparatus—to the propulsion of the new interesting comer. There are at present about fifty persons employed Mr Gilchrist’s boot and shoe manufactory ; but, notwithstanding the large extent to which machinery is used, and here it has reached a degree of efficiency not exceeded Scotland—the reputation of the establishment is sustaining itself so well despite the keen competition the times, that instead of lessening the demand for manual labour, it has increased it, or use favourite maxim its spirited proprietor, ‘ Every improvement the father of its own success, and, as rule, machinery will be found to open a far larger market in one direction than it closes in another, so far as steady and attentive workmen are concerned. And this appears to simply the fact in Cellardyke, as every new machine followed by an increase the number of hands.
“Preserve’s a’, whaur’s the feet come fae to wear so mony shoon,” exclaimed old Lizzie, as she stood behind her little counter, and rubbed her spectacles in wonder over the news the machine, and while the forty or fifty workpeople were leaving the premises at dinner time. These Cellardyke made boots and shoes, however, are sent thousands pairs to all parts of Scotland, and also to Australia; but the following genuine little anecdote will show the vast growth in the demand for shoes even in the home market
James Moncreiff, the laird Sauchope, was the greatest man in the world—that is, in the thinking of the good folks of Crail, and such was his ascendancy, even in the Council, that when a doubtful point came to the vote, the burgh dignitaries would do so in the very convenient remark, ” I’ll just say as Sauchie says.” It so happened that this great man had six daughters, one of whom was a sort of pet with poor ill-fated Lady Mary Hay, the first wife of General Scott of Balcomie. The little maiden was one day playing the roadside, when Lady Mary stopped her carriage and took her favourite to the castle.
“Awa to Balcomie!” cried the Lady of Sauchope,.when she heard of the incident, and sweating with mortified pride and vexation, “Awa’ to Balcomie, and the lassie barefuted ! Mysie Somers, rin for gudeske to the soutar’s and bring her shoon, dune or no dune.” The squire s daughter had only one pair of shoes, and these being at the shoemaker’s for repair she was consequently barefooted when taken up by the noble lady of Balcomie; but we all know how much the world has changed since then, when the poorest of the land can now boast “a shift o’ shoon,” or what even a squire’s daughter could not boast of, “a pair aff an’ pair on.”