Interviews of Jim Wright aged 74

Biographical interview with Jim Wright (aged 74) who was born and brought up on the Lagafater estate where his father was the gamekeeper and his grandfather served as a shepherd. The interview covers the working of the estate and especially the family kitchen, the food his mother cooked and associated activities such as laundry and peat cutting. Jim says that the peat work was 10 days work and he describes the process of transporting and storing the peats. He also recalls that there were 4 sheep farms on the estate and for a week from Hogmanay there would be a party in each house, with music and singing.

In the family home, his mother did most of the cooking and nothing was wasted. Foods discussed include: hare, rabbit, salmon, trout, pigeon, pheasant, haggis and (using the same process) sweet haggis, butter-making, pig and mutton (in brine) and hams, which hung from the ceiling. Jim also describes the meal ark, the contents of which were used for scones, pancakes etc. The local grocer, from Glen Luce, delivered once a week and the draper came every three months. Jim remembered that with both, a penny stamp was used (which his mother had to sign over) to authenticate payments by both the grocer and the draper.

There was no bath in their cottage but they had a tin bath and hot water came via a tap (a spicket) from a boiler to the side of the range and then, later, hot water fed straight into the cottage. The washing was done in the back kitchen (scullery) with washboard and mangle. After leaving school, Jim worked on the estate until he married. He then moved to Glen Trool to work with the Forestry and stayed there until retirement. He describes a little about the cooking he did in his own home, noting that he believed chipolata sausages provided the best stock for soup.