The Orkney Image Library
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This is a Tom Kent postcard (PC104), the caption on the back is : ORKNEY'S FIRST STEAMROLLER c1900 (Mfrs Aveling & Porter, Rochester, Kent).
Picture added on 10 October 2012 at 00:14
Lots of external combustion going on here! All four men seem to have tobacco-pipes on the go.
Added by Ian Hourston on 11 October 2012
The date is probably a bit later than 1900 as the man standing below the funnel is Willie Spence, born 1893 at Corston, Harray. Later the blacksnith at the East Holm Smiddy.
Added by Herbert Mackenzie on 13 October 2012
The handsome gentleman on the left is my great-grandfather Willie Spence.
Added by Ian Tait on 19 October 2012
I believe the driver may have been a man called Ben Grassick. He lived in a small house called Cairntoigh, which still stands up at the top of Bignold Park Road in Kirkwall.
Added by Anon on 23 October 2012
Interesting comment above as the cul-de-sac just past Cairntoigh is called Grassick court
Added by Ian Tait on 28 October 2012
When I was briefly a member of the Municipal and General Workers Union in 1952 I'm pretty sure Ben Grassick was a secretary, shop steward or official of some kind in that union.
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Added by Ian Hourston on 18 November 2012
Kirkwall
