Old Travel Photograph Priory Place Craigie Perth Scotland

Old travel photograph of a horse drawn Tram, houses and people on Priory Place in Craigie, Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. It was on September 17th 1895 that the Perth and District Tramways Company officially opened the line from the rapidly expanding village of Scone to Glasgow Road, Perth. The trams were drawn by pairs of horses, the service ran at half hour intervals and the fare was 3d for the complete journey from Rose Terrace to Scone. The service was sufficiently successful for the frequency to be soon increased to once every twenty minutes and within a year new tracks were constructed to Priory Place in Craigie via King Street, and St Leonard’s Bank to Cherrybank from Rose Terrace, and to Dunkeld Road via Barrack Street.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph Airth Shetland Islands Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of Airth, a village on the Northern coast of the West Shetland Mainland at the southern end of Aith Voe, some 21 miles west of Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland. The modern settlement occupies an area originally named Aithsting during the period of Norse occupation. The surrounding Parish is still known as Aithsting. John Nicolson, from Airth, was a late 19th century writer and political activist. His first book entitled Sprigs o' Aithstin Heather was published in Lerwick in 1898. He wrote the words for The Galley Song which is sung annually at Up-Helly-Aa.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Hepworths Shop Cromwell Street Stornoway Scotland

Old photograph of the Hepworths Shop, people and cars on Cromwell Street in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Joseph Hepworth was the clothing manufacturer who founded Joseph Hepworth & Son, a company which grew to become the United Kingdom's largest clothing manufacturer and which is now known as Next plc. Joseph was born in 1834 at Lindley in Huddersfield, England. He left school at ten to join George Walker's Mill in Leeds in 1844. In 1864 he went into business with James Rhodes, his wife's brother, as a tailor in Leeds. By 1881 their factory in Wellington Street employed 500 people and, unusually, made all three pieces of a gentlemen's three piece suit. In the 1880s they innovated further establishing shops to sell their suits direct to the public. By 1890 they employed 2,000 operatives who sold their stock through 107 shops. Hepworth married Sarah Rhodes in 1855 they went on to have three sons and four daughters. Joseph Hepworth died in Harrogate in 1911 and within 6 years of his death Joseph Hepworth & Son was the largest clothing manufacturer in the United Kingdom



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Coladoir River Isle of Mull Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Coladoir River on the Isle Of Mull, the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The river rises in Glen More and flows west to enter the head of Loch Scridain. In the 6th century, Irish migrants invaded Mull and the surrounding coast, establishing the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata. The kingdom was divided into a number of regions, each controlled by a kin group, of which the Cenél Loairn controlled Mull and the adjacent mainland to the east. Dál Riata was a springboard for the Christianisation of the mainland; the pivotal point was AD 563, when Columba, an Irish missionary, arrived at Iona, just off the south-west point of Mull, and founded a monastery, from which to start evangelising the local population. In the 9th century, Viking invasions led to the destruction of Dál Riata, and its replacement by the Norse Kingdom of the Isles, which became part of the crown of Norway following Norwegian unification. After the collapse of the Lordship in 1493 the island was taken over by the Clan MacLean, and in 1681 by the Clan Campbell. During the Highland Clearances in the 18th and 19th centuries, the population fell from 10,000 to less than 3,000. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Walking Path St Michael's Bridge Dumfries Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the walking path to St Michael's Bridge in Dumfries, Scotland. The river Nith runs through Dumfries and there are several bridges across the river in the town. This bridge carries St Michael's Bridge Road across the River Nith to the South of the suspension bridge. The river here forms the boundary between the parishes of Troqueer, to the West, and Dumfries to the East. St Michael's Bridge was built in 1927 by engineer J B Brodie. A 4 span, reinforced concrete bridge 233 feet long with 3 segmental arches and a smaller semicircular arch over a roadway. Faced with sandstone. There are triangular cutwaters.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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