Township history for Cornaigbeg researched and written by Hector MacPhail.
Information about prominent people in Cornaigbeg – Rev Archibald Farquharson, Charles MacGregor Whyte, the MacLeans, MacEacherns, MacCallums and Campbells.
Click here to view 1998.44.3
Photocopied letter from the Superintendent of the Edinburgh Met Office dated 13/6/1925 to the Air Ministry Met Office in London about the guarantors required by the Post Office in respect of the extension of the telephone line and replacement of the headmaster of Cornaig School when Mr Ross leaves.
Click here to view 2003.10.10
Photocopied letter to the Director of Education, Argyll County Council, dated 26/5/1925 from the Superintendent of the Edinburgh Met Office proposing that the headmaster of Cornaig School is employed as the observer for the weather reporting station at a rate of £50 p.a. The equipment and duties involved are listed.
Click here to view 2003.10.7
Photocopied letter to Mr A. H. Ross, headmaster of Cornaigmore School, dated 14/4/1925 from the Superintendent of Edinburgh Met Office about delaying the telegraphic weather reporting station on Tiree until guarantors can be found to bear 40% of the costs required by the Post Office.
Click here to view 2003.10.6
Policeman`s baton.
Wooden baton with leather wrist strap originally belonging to Colin MacPhail of Crossapol who was a special policeman for many years around the 1930s.
Photocopied letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 16/11/1898.
Letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 16/11/1898 to the Duke`s chamberlain about the Campbells in Balinoe who lost their stock and are in rent arrears, Hector Lamont of Kirkapol who is requesting assistance to put a roof on the barn he`s built and the reasons why the cash balance for October is not as large as it appears.
MacDiarmid’s Report on Applicants for Allotments November 1893
Transcription of Hugh MacDiarmid’s report on applicants to the County Council for small holdings and allotments in 1893.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In November 1893 the Tiree factor for Argyll Estates Hugh MacDiarmid reported on a hundred and seventeen islanders who had applied to the County Council for small holdings and allotments under the Small Holding Act of the previous year.
The Council was required by the Act to investigate whether a petition for small holdings was ‘presented in good faith and on reasonable grounds’ and to inquire into the circumstances of the petitioners. Most of those assessed in MacDiarmid’s report had little or no means.
The Act allowed councils to let small holdings, instead of offering them for sale, where ‘persons desirous of themselves cultivating small holdings are unable to buy’ and the land did not exceed fifteen acres in extent.
Information on Middleton, Sandaig, Kilkeneth and Greenhill by Hector MacPhail.
Township histories for Middleton, Sandaig, Kilkenneth and Greenhill by Hector MacPhail.
Click here to view 1999.8.1
Knickers made from a flour sack
Photograph of a pair of knickers made from a flour sack.
These women’s knickers were made in Tiree from a flour sack in the first quarter of the 20th century. The isolation of the crofting community on Tiree made it necessary to make do with the materials to hand.
The knickers were sewn by machine with flat seams and decorated with hand-made tatting round the legs. The waist may have been elasticated or tightened with a drawstring.
Flour was purchased in 140 lb (65 kg) sacks made from closely woven cotton. The seams would have been unpicked and the material plastered with black soap (‘siaban dubh’) to remove the printing before putting it outside to bleach in the sun. The flour producer’s name, Harter, is still visible.
Red ensign flag from the MV Loch Seaforth.
Red ensign from the CalMac ferry, MV Loch Seaforth, which sank at Tiree pier in the 1970s after scraping the rocks in Gunna Sound.
