Tour Scotland short 4K travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Leverburgh, Scottish Gaelic: An t-Òb, on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to the Island of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Britain, United Kingdom. In his 30's, English businessman William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme had taken a boat trip and fallen in love with the Western Isles of Scotland. In May 1918 at the age of 66, he bought the Isle of Lewis for £167,000, convinced that he could resurrect the fishing industry. But his investment floundered in 1919 when servicemen demobilised from World War I and promised land, started occupying plots on the Isle of Lewis. Leverhulme protested and took legal action against the people he considered squatters, but the Scottish Office took the side of the ex-servicemen, leaving Leverhulme's plan in tatters. Still looking to develop his fishing plan, in late 1919 he purchased the South Harris estate from the Earl of Dunmore for the sum of £36,000. Taking in the fishing village of Obbe, derived from a Norse word for a bay, he planned to turn it into a consolidated major fishing centre, with product distributed through the 400+ Mac Fisheries fish monger shops. He chose the site because it gave equal access to the waters of The Minch and the Atlantic and his boats could always find sheltered fishing waters. In 1920, Obbe with local consent was rebranded Leverburgh, and 300 men started work on a new pier and seashore infrastructure for processing the product from 50 berthed fishing trawlers. William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, lived from 19 September 1851 to 7 May 1925. More usually referred to as Lord Leverhulme, he was an English industrialist, philanthropist and colonialist who, amongst many other ventures, for a time owned the whole of Lewis and Harris and had a profound and lasting influence on the island. William Lever was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1851, and educated at the Bolton Church Institute. His working life started in his father's wholesale grocery business. In 1886, Lever established a soap manufacturing company called Lever Brothers, now part of Unilever, with his brother James. It was one of the first companies to manufacture soap from vegetable oils, and proved enormously successful. Lord Leverhume died of pneumonia after a trip to Africa in May 1925. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs
No comments:
Post a Comment