Interviews of Betty Stuart aged 86

Biographical interview with Betty Stuart (aged 86) who was born in Whithorn and, apart from living in Glasgow for a while after she married, has spent most of her life there. Betty starts by reading her own testimony of her life. Included here is information about home life, schooldays, play, helping with land tasks (hoeing turnips and harvest time), picking berries, health, local shops and lodging houses, tramps and travellers, working life, marriage, family and coping with loss. The interview then returns to Betty's early life and she describes her childhood home and the daily routines. She recalled being knocked over by a car when she was about to start school. The driver brought her a doll which her granny promptly put up on the wall and Betty was never allowed to play with it. She also describes life at the local smiddy, the nearby shops and the role of the church in community life. Betty was Free Kirk but could remember going to the Catholic Church parties and said that the Catholic priest, Father Clerk, was a great man, a legend in Wigtonshire.

Betty also talks about her working life. She went into service from school, following her older sister, but didn't like this. Later she worked as a conductress on the buses and in a tea-shop. She also talks about the impact of war and could remember the Whithorn boys going off to recruit. Other subjects covered include: recreation and dancing; how hard her mother worked; food at home and special Christmas treats; halloween and New Year celebrations; estates and estate work; tramps and travellers (Scotch Jimmy, Snib Scott, Robert John Connin); law and order; street parties on Saturday nights; the interior of the local pubs and welfare. (DG4/8/1/1 is the first of 2 audio files containing the output of one interview).

DG4/8/1/3 Part 2, follow up interview.

In the second part of this interview, Betty talks more about the available welfare before going on to talk about the local economy. People knitted and sewed some of their clothes and they could also buy clothes locally. A local woman, Eleanor Spencer, also taught sewing. Kinnear's offered a 'tick' system for paying weekly. Traders who went round selling included Sandy Caldwell and Mrs Jones and Betty remembered that they could bring anything, including school items before the new school year began. In terms of food, there was quite a bit of poaching and lifting veg from fields. Local people, such as Jimmy Maxwell of the creamery, also operated market gardens and David Doughty and Hale's the butcher had vans which travelled around the area. Betty also recalls World War 2 and the activities around Garlieston, Burrow Head and Kidsdale. It was at this time that she met her husband, when he was working with Wimpey on local contracts. Other subjects touched on include: funeral customs; the fancy dress parade at Hogmanay; recreation, food and drink; domestic sanitation and the scavenger's cart which took away the human waste.