Timespan in Helmsdale launches community cinema with screening of archive films celebrating the life and work of Scottish herring gutters
Timespan Heritage and Art Centre, Helmsdale, launched its community cinema on Saturday with archival films celebrating the lives and work of Scottish herring gutting girls in Yarmouth, Eyemouth, and Wick, writes Jacquie Aitken, heritage and digital curator at Timespan.
These free film screenings are part of the People’s Mobile Archive community wellbeing initiative funded by the Gordonbush Community Fund, Community Regeneration Fund, Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
The balanced mix of archival and contemporary international films has been sourced from the Moving Image Archive and Take One Action Film, bringing communities together to harness the transformative potential of film and storytelling for collective change.
The audience came from as far as Caithness and Ross-shire and from the local area to enjoy the collective film experience.
Timespan's archive image of herring gutters at Helmsdale sparks international interes
The films dating from the early 1900s to the 1950s captured the speed and skill of the herring gutters and packers at work, and the lively atmosphere at the fishing ports during the landing and shipping of the fish worldwide.
The Scottish gutters were collectively known as the backbone of the Scottish herring fishery, and the fishermen and curers were only too aware that without this highly skilled, itinerant workforce, they could pull up their boats and call it a day.
They travelled in their thousands, by foot, boat, bus, and train along the east coast from Shetland to Yarmouth, following the herring and the fleet of fishing boats, moving ever south.
The Scottish gutters were greatly sought after at the southern ports and were renowned for their unsurpassed eviscerating or gutting skills. The curers would happily pay their fare from Wick and Helmsdale to Yarmouth, to ensure they got the best gutters for the job.
The herring gutters moved along the coast like a large drift net through the North Sea, gutting every herring in their path and then migrating to the next port to start again.
As soon as the herring catches were landed, the girls, working in teams of three - two gutters and a packer - got to work and didn’t finish until the last herring was gutted, brined and salted, and carefully placed in the barrel.
The season was short, from July in the Moray Firth, July and August in Northumberland, on the Yorkshire coast from August to September, and from October to November on the Norfolk coast before returning home.
There was money to be made but the work was hard and laborious, the girls worked long hours, and there was little in the way of home luxuries, and mostly below-basic living conditions.
An engagement fee or "arles" was paid to the gutters and a set price per barrel filled and packed. It was classed as piece work and later casual or seasonal labour.
In the early days of the herring fishery there was no such thing as insurance and the seasonal pay fluctuated depending on the success of the herring season.
The fisher girls were a figurehead for the suffragettes, and the Newhaven Fisher Girls Choir was often paraded in the Houses of Parliament.
After World War I, the decline of the herring fishery resulted in many gutters returning home, but their independent spirit opened up new opportunities in other areas of employment.
The audience was treated to a display of old photographs showing the herring gutters at work in the curing yards along Shore Street, in Helmsdale from the 1920s to the 1950s, and the Herring Queens adorned in crowns and capes covered with herring nets and corks.
This age-old tradition brought a promise for the ‘Lammas Drave and Winter Fishing’.
The objects on display included a beautifully gansey-style blanket, hand-knitted by the Timespan Knitting Group and recently displayed at an international exhibition in Spain, representing Scotland’s famous knitting industry.
After each screening, an informal gathering took place in Timespan’s newly refurbished Library Lounge where attendees could share stories and memories, relax, read a book, or view photos.
The next screening is on Saturday, August 24, featuring a great selection of films about the Scottish flax and tweed industries and the short-lived history of the Helmsdale Carpet Factory, which opened in 1905.
Timespan is appealing for photos and objects related to the Helmsdale and East Sutherland herring gutters for an upcoming exhibition. If you can help, please contact them at enquiries@timespan.org.uk or call 01431821327.
