Orkney Image Library

They didno' seem tae be very good at stookan!!

Jim I have heard that so many men worked on Holland and at Housbey that they had a football team at each farm. Is that correct?

Have not heard that John but they could have as there were so many workers. Housebay used to employ an extra seventy workers for the harvest. The story goes that one time a salesman was going to Housebay and when he came ower the brae he saw a large number o people just leaving the farm. Thinking it was a funeral company he decided to hide behind a dyke till they went past. He waited a while and when nobody came he decided to have a peep and discovered that it was just the Housebay men going oot to single neeps. At one time between six and seven hundred acres were taken off Housebay and sold to the neighbours. There was a change to more livestock and less grain then too but still fifty men in the harvest field. There were seven teams of seven and the grieve

My great-grandfather, John Wards, was grieve at Holland at around the time this photo was taken.
They had so many horse that they had their own smiddy to keep them shoed. The smiddy, along with a lot of the old equipment - forge, bellows etc., is still in existence. Maybe a good project for Orkney Museums or similar.

Nearly all the big farms had their own smiddy. Still a few o them around