One of the highlights of working for the Smith family at Berry Farm that first year, 1967, and subsequent years was the meals prepared by Mrs Smith. After a morning in the fields, taking in the harvest, I could not believe my luck when lunch time came I was to eat with the family in the Berry kitchen. I was, and still am not blessed with culinary skills so my solitary life living in my caravan was quite basic on the food front to say the least. The food served up to me at lunch and tea in the Berry kitchen was a god send, lunch was always three courses and the finest cuisine, (after all they did own the village butcher shop). After lunch I was invited into the front room to rest from all the food! Jim would often tell me his stories about Berry, his inventions, and in particular his war years. Jim was fourteen when war broke out in 1939 and promptly joined the war effort by joining the local home guard. Some of his stories of this time resembled the television programme Dad’s Army. One such story was about a retired army major, I have forgotten his name. Their military exercises, naturally, took place around Berry as there was an army camp on the farm so it was a fitting venue. One particular manoeuvre involved taking an artillery piece on wheels up to the top of Berry Hill. Jim volunteered one of the Berry Shetland ponies for the job and they successfully reached the summit.  On completion of their exercise, the descent proved more difficult Jim suggested they could go down at an angle using the pony however, the major disagreed and ordered that the artillery piece should free wheel down the hill. This it did, despite protests from Jim, and the gun took up speed and ended up in the small loch at the base of the hill!

In the early years after the outbreak of war Jim volunteered for the Royal Air Force and eventually was posted to the Far East, Singapore if my memory is correct. While in Singapore Jim built a single valve wireless and would tune in to the local radio stations and listen to their music. Jim told me his job was mainly transport related; driving a mobile crane and picking up aircraft parts. On one journey in the middle of a busy town and at a crossroads, Jim became aware of the locals shouting and waving at the mobile crane. He glanced in his mirror and to his horror saw a traffic policeman hanging from the end of the crane’s jib. The policemen normally stood on barrels at busy thoroughfares and Jim had hooked this one off the barrel!

Jim returned home to work on Berry Farm and what would have been complete peace after his war time exploits in the Far East. His mind was always in overdrive, it was if he needed a greater challenge than basic farm work, building his speed boat and such like. He built a rickshaw which he and his friends would travel around in, he would tell me of chatting up the ladies and taken them for a run.

 He told me he always had an interest in flying; this was only natural after his work in the Royal Air Force and the war years. I forget the exact date, it could have been early 1950 when he built a plane at Berry Farm, using basic tools and equipment; I think it was powered by a Volkswagen engine. I asked “Did it fly?” “Yes,” he replied, “but only for a short time as I misjudged the height of a fence which I hooked and crashed!” I am pleased to say it has been restored and his now in the Scalloway Museum.

 I remember Jim once asking me out to Berry Farm as he had something interesting to show me. Arriving there I thought it would be possibly one of his gun collection. He had shown me some interesting antique pieces, a colt .45 handgun, a Mauser rifle from the Boer war. He told me the story of the Sten gun he had in his possession. In the early hours on a lovely summer’s morning returning home from a country dance and a few drams, he was trying to sleep but this crow sitting outside his bedroom window was making a terrible racket. Jim opened the window aimed at the crow, missed and the whole magazine of ammunition emptied down over Scalloway, he had forgotten to put it on single shot. Jim said come into the barn, I felt it hard to believe, and in all my years at Berry I had never seen that barn empty of rubbish and clean. Only one item of note remained, up against a wall was the remains of his first plane!

Jim explained about how he built and fashioned the propeller and other parts, he talked about his crash which of course did not meet with approval from his family however this did not deter him. It was unfinished business; Jim successfully built another plane, again at Berry Farm. After a few years of construction it was transported to Sumburgh Airport, and was first flown and tested by one of the commercial pilots from British Airways. After gaining his pilot’s licence Jim would often fly from Sumburgh Airport. Jim told me he sold the plane on to one of the British Airways pilots who flew passenger flights into Shetland.

I was frequently called to Berry usually to help out on the farm. One summons in the early 1970s, he asked their farm labourer and me to come to the workshop. We had to lift these two rusty axles onto wooden supports. I asked, “What’s this?” “It is the remains of my 1953 M.G. car which I allowed to rust away. I am now going to rebuild it,” and true to his word he did, he even allowed me to take it for a drive.

Another visit was to see another maritime invention, this time a request from a shell fish farmer to see if Jim could make a machine that could take the arduous work out of opening ropes and inserting plastic pins about a foot long and a distance apart on the vertical rope. The machine successfully opened the rope and inserted the pins, and I believe the machine is still now successfully manufactured.

There were other lesser inventions, he almost finished a greasy wool press for packing wool, but he received one from a wool merchant before his was completed. He built a working lift in the wool store as well as yarn winding aids. Another favourite hobby was restoring old engines; he had a fairly extensive collection each with a story to tell.

I could go further, however my next blog will be about the Berry Shetland Pony Stud and involves both Jim and Eva. 

In 1967 I first became aware that Papa was not the only island the Smith family owned, there were another three Islands; however Eva always said Jim had bought them and he was the sole owner. The lambing season would see Jim travel north through Shetland to his island Uyea, lying to the south of the island Unst, the most northerly part of Shetland and in fact the U.K. The island was now uninhabited however there is evidence of the first settlers dating back to the Bronze Age.

Jim told me he had bought Uyea in 1961 from Sir Basil Neven Spence, he was Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland until he lost his seat in 1950 to Jo Grimond. His family were prominent land owners in Shetland and also owned Busta House in Brae where Sir Basil set up home after leaving Uyea.

I was invited to join Jim for the lambing in 1968 but my boss at the wool store said he had work for me to do and J&S paid my wages. Much later on, in the late 1970s, Catherine, myself and our bairns spent a very enjoyable day on Uyea in early May. Jim picked us up at the nearest village of Uyeasound on the East side of Unst; we travelled a short distance across the sound before landing at the Uyea pier. Jim explained it was quite exposed here in Uyeasound with a strong tidal current; he of course, had a solution he adapted a motor bike to winch up the boat onto the pier.

I was most surprised to see a vehicle at the top of the pier, (which Jim had in fact built) and even more surprising was the road up to the farm house. Jim explained that the former owners were more or less self- sufficient on the isle they even had their own orchard. The land was very fertile and in past years carried a variety of farm animals, sheep, cattle, pigs, and poultry and of course, horses to pull the gigs. The actual farmhouse Jim used while staying for the lambing was dwarfed by the much larger “haa”; a laird’s house. Jim had taken the windows out, if my memory is correct, in order not to pay taxes. At one time Jim explained Sir Basil had servants and a teacher would come and stay to tutor his children. In fact, I was to meet up with an elderly lady, a former teacher who came to live in the north road close to my work and she would tell me stories of her time living and working on Uyea.

Jim told us a story about two servant girls who lived and worked on Uyea. Part of their chores was to row across to the smaller neighbouring island of Half Gruney to the north of the main island to milk the cows. Even though it was summer in Shetland, squalls could come on fast and with little warning and after milking the cows and journeying back to Uyea, they got into difficulty when one of the oars broke. Their small boat drifted eastwards in the gale and several days later, after surviving on the buckets of cow’s milk they approached land. They landed safely in south west Norway and eventually news arrived back to Uyea that the girls had not perished but were safe and well! They married local men in Norway and Jim met with some of their descendants who came to Uyea to see for themselves where they originated from.

As the years passed Jim felt the strain of travelling to Uyea and being away from Berry for a month. It was time to ease back and he was very happy when he sold Uyea to a local family from Uyeasound.

More special memories of my time working for the Smith family in another blog to follow.

Continuing my appreciation of Jim a Berry’s achievements, and having  dealt with some of his inventions based on a nautical theme, I now wish to showcase some of his agricultural achievements and stories that he shared with me.

In my previous blog I mention the fish gutting machine and the initial secrecy around it, with him saying “The workshop is out of bounds.” Jim told me the reason for this involved one of the most time saving agricultural appliances, this was the “neap” (turnip) lifter. In a previous blog I told of my having to harvest the leftover turnips by hand from one of the huge East Voe fields. This being back-breaking and very physical work, Jim decided to overcome this by inventing a mechanical harvester. He succeeded with this venture and carried out trials in the East Voe fields; he kept the finished version in the workshop and was in the process of applying for his patent. “A government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention”. Due to pressing work on the farm Jim had not finished the patent paperwork. On a day Jim, Eva and Magnie were all absent from Berry Farm leaving only the elderly Mrs Smith alone in the house. A stranger called asking for Jim by name and he was from the press and would like to interview Jim regarding his inventions. Mrs Smith said he was away at present and innocently offered to show the individual around the farm and, of course the workshop. She remembered she had something on the stove and excused herself and asked the man to see himself out. Some time later a company from down south patented the very machine that Jim had invented. Jim told me the manufacturers name and it was one at that time I was familiar with. A severe lesson learned and with his future inventions Jim made certain few people knew about them until they were his patent.

When the wool season finished in 1967, instead of paying me off, Sheepie suggested I could work on Berry farm as I had some experience from Douneside and Craibstone. Berry at that time had a fair herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle and in the winter months were naturally kept in the byre. When I first went into the Berry byre and started work with the cattle I was very impressed when it came to cleaning the muck from the “ runnick” (drain) which held the cow dung. This was unlike Douneside, and Craibstone byres, where we wheeled the muck out by hand and barrow. Berry had a Jim invention; a mechanical shovel which took the dung from the drain and straight to the muck spreader.

There were other subtle mechanical aids which took a lot of the work out of the heavy workload on Berry Farm, Jim told me he constructed a wind turbine on the “knowe” (hillock) at the back of the house and he succeeded in producing electricity, unfortunately it blew down in a gale!

 His last invention was on or around his eightieth birthday and was an apparatus to assist sheep feeding in the winter months by putting the feed into the feed troughs straight from a hopper attached to the tractor, thus saving a lot of manual work.

Jim was also a great story teller and could capture your attention and imagination on the telling of the story. You gathered from his stories that Berry appeared to play an important part in local history and folklore, perhaps it was to do with its proximity on the outskirts of the village, and it was always a very prosperous farm. I remember fencing with Jim on the hill above Berry and in fact the village of Scalloway. When digging to insert fence posts Jim showed me what he called “ess” (ashes) which he said was the remnants of the site where in years gone by witches were burned.

 Berry Farm House, Jim said, originated from the time of Earl Patrick Stewart who resided in Scalloway castle. “The house was built for the castle hangman, or so they say,” was how he would finish off telling a story.

There were many stories but the one that stood out was one I heard Jim tell many times and captivated his audience. In 1588 a former resident of Berry Farm, Andrew Umphray, a farmer and merchant of some standing in the community, was requested by the authorities to rescue the survivors of the wrecked Spanish Armada flagship the El Gran Grifon which had run aground on the remote island of Fair Isle, between Orkney and Shetland. Umphray dispatched a small vessel he owned to Fair Isle, the survivors were then transported to the south mainland of Shetland where they stayed until Umphray could arrange a ship to take them to Dunkirk where they eventually arrived safely back home. Umphray had reputedly been rewarded by the Spanish, some say in land but Jim said Umphray was given a small cask of gold for his efforts. Jim would then pause and continue, the gold was supposed to have been hidden on Berry Farm, another longer pause then “Perhaps I found it or it is still there!”

I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs the skill of the late Tom Simpson of Brora and his ability to tell stories. Catherine and I were fortunate enough to have been in the company of both Tom and Jim at dinner one night, and I may have been biased, but Jim came out on top in the story telling!.

I will continue with further exploits of this remarkable man in my next blog.

My blogs are now approaching a time in my life of great change and, with that, challenges due to the departure of the Smith family from the company. Before moving on to the next chapter in my wool journey, I feel I cannot let the opportunity pass, to acknowledge my old boss; one of Shetland’s finest entrepreneurs and inventors. Not only was he a skilled, self- taught engineer he was also a highly respected individual and a great story teller. I have been very proud and privileged to work for the Smith family for almost forty years. I have taken part and benefited from some of these creations and have been told by Jim of how they came about and listened to his storytelling first hand.

I will endeavour to put in writing some of his notable achievements and some of Jim’s stories however I can never do him justice in my writing!

When I received the Berry Farm archive photos from the Smith families’ relatives, the Hepburn family, when I told them of my plan to write this blog and when browsing through the images my attention was drawn to a speedboat. A favourite past time as a child in my home village of Hamnavoe on Burra Isle was fishing from the “big” pier, a relatively safe location due to the proximity of  Halcrows’ shop (which was situated at the head of the pier). It was in the late 1950s a group of us children were fishing from the pier one fine summer night. An unusually fast boat approached the pier slowed down and came alongside the smaller pier. Aboard were a smartly dressed man and woman. The man made fast the boat to the pier and proceeded up to the shop, returning with a selection of chocolate bars which he laid out on the “taft” seat. He then started up the motor and set off out past the pier. I found out later from the shopkeeper that it was in fact young “ Sheepie” Jim a Berry. Jim told me stories about how he had built the boat, and it was used in Scalloway harbour for water skiing as well as trips around the isles.

In order to make life easier when landing on the beach at Papa to tend the sheep, Jim built a boat similar to a landing craft with a square sloping bow it was ideal for loading and unloading the lambs. I had quite a few journeys with that boat; the most memorable was being stuck in Papa in the early 1970s when the boat broke down carrying a load of sheep back to the mainland.

The landing craft did not hold many sheep so Jim decided to upgrade to a larger vessel. He acquired a boat that had been used in the island of Fetlar as a flit boat to carry goods to and from the island to the inter- island ferry, the Earl of Zetland. This vessel called along the larger offshore islands to transport goods to and from the islands. Jim took the boat to Berry farm around about 1970 where on he used the wooden vessel to make a fibreglass mould. Jim took the mould off and ended up with a very practical seaworthy vessel, which carried livestock to and from the Island of Papa for many years.

Possibly his greatest achievement was to build a fish gutting machine; a local fisherman had pointed out how labour intensive gutting by hand was and could Jim help. My own memories of this project will never be forgotten, when I first went to help out on Berry Farm I would notice this particular individual coming up the farm road every now and then, he would be carrying a poly bag in each hand and disappear into the barn. I followed him one day and he went into Jim’s workshop. I asked the farm worker, the late Magnie Smith, what was in the bags; he told me, “We are not to ask questions and entry to the workshop is out of bounds.” My curiosity took over and I waited for my chance! Jim and Eva were away, Magnie had gone for his break, and Mrs Smith was in the house. I opened the workshop door and the first thing I noticed was a foul smell and a hen sitting on the workbench pecking at something. When I approached the smell, I found it was a rotten fish and it turned out to be one of many. In the middle of the floor was a circular contraption with pieces of metal welded to form a shape that could hold a fish. The smell was overpowering, so I made a quick retreat outside for fresh air. Once I had settled into working for the Smith family and they appeared to accept me Jim invited me into his workplace and introduced me to his prototype fish gutting machine. I managed to look surprised and enthusiastic saying this would fairly help the likes of my father on their boat. I was not at all surprised when some time later a deputation from the white fish authority paid a visit and approved of the invention. I think I am right in saying that my Grand Uncle’s boat, the Responsive, which fished out of Scalloway was the first vessel to carry out trials with the machine. For this invention Jim a Berry was awarded the M.B.E. for his service to the fishing industry.

I will continue on with some more of Jim’s inventions in my next blog.

Again I would like to thank the Hepburn’s for allowing me to look through their family photos and tell Jim’s story from my perspective. He truly was an inspiration to me from a young age, and still to this day.

As I mentioned in my first blog “Island Life”, I was blessed to have been brought up in my early years in my beautiful island home. It was when I travelled to mainland Scotland and, as a student, worked inland with no sea in sight, that I realised what the sea meant to me. Settling down to work and live in the old North road in Lerwick I am but a stone’s throw from the sea. One of my first sights looking out our window usually passing 7am in the morning, is the Northern Isles ferry boat preparing to dock just below our house.

I feel it would be appropriate to share with you some of my experiences and images from in and around our harbour. Lerwick, the capital of Shetland, originated as a fishing village and continued as such until the 19^th century, when it became one of the major herring ports of Britain. I have talked briefly in earlier blogs about the drift net era of the herring industry and my family’s involvement with the fishing. The drift net herring fishing industry as I knew it came to an end in the late 1960s, being replaced by pelagic herring fishing.

Lerwick was a thriving location for the Eastern European fishing fleet in the 1980s and early 90s. A wide range of vessels including trawlers, factory and reefer transport would call to the anchorages in Lerwick both south and north to tranship fish between their vessels and load from the UK and Irish fishing fleet. The number of these vessels could get up to about 200 at the height of the busy herring or mackerel season. With the vessels brought an influx of visitors to the island, and it was a common occurrence for the people off the vessels to trade with locals both on goods they took into the UK and also buying items locally, even thing like cars were bought and sent back to eastern Europe.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and clampdown on marine regulations in the UK saw the market die off in the late 90s. Over 15 years, as many as a 100 factory ships from Eastern Europe had tied up just outside Lerwick harbour for eight months of the year to buy from the fishermen. Local shopkeepers suffered a mini recession with the departure of the Klondike fleet. We had a frequent visitor at the wool store; a gentleman who came from Poland. He would exchange goods with us and I remember him baking a cake for us on their departure. It was not just their money that the people of Lerwick missed but also their friendship.

I was very fortunate to have a close connection with the Klondike era as our son began his career as a shipping agent servicing the Klondike fleet. At this time we as a family enjoyed trips off in and around the harbour with my late father in law’s boat and I was able to capture images of the industry, similar to the drift net herring industry now confined to history.

I would like to thank our son Adrian for sharing his experiences of this era, a major part of Shetlands fishing history.

The year 2000 did not start well. Hunters’ yarn quality was nothing like what we had been used to in the past, and although they tried to rectify this, it simply was not to be.

They only supplied yarn on cone as they had stopped supplying yarn on Hank; this was a major blow to us as our business was supplying customers yarn in hanks. In order to help us solve this problem Hunters sent us up their huge reeling machine which it took the yarn from the cone and on to hank. This meant a lot more extra work for us as well as taking over most of the middle store.

 In early 2001 I took another devastating phone call, the receivers had been called in yet again. New owners took over at Hunters with little success and sadly in 2004 the mill closed for good, ending 100 years of trading wool and yarn with Shetland.

I was told the reason for this was because the market was badly depressed, and due to competition from third world countries, as I mentioned in an earlier blog the likes of Mauritius was producing a so called “Shetland” offering it to trade at a ridiculous price. Our own thoughts were they had changed the way of spinning yarn and had lost their way. 

My thoughts were with the community of Brora who now faced life without the mill and the loss of many jobs directly and indirectly.

It appeared to be the end of the road for us as well due to having no spinner or outlet for our wool but the Berry resolve was not to be defeated, as in 2001 we found a new spinner. We also were fortunate one of the companies had a lot of experience in working with Shetland wool having been already buying some wool from us, and had in fact been responsible for the Papa Island project I mentioned in my last blog. They now took over from Hunters of Brora as the major buyer of wool from us.

Our  Shetland wool, which was purchased from Shetland crofters and farmers and had been hand sorted by us and held in a wool “bank” which we owned we now moved down to Bradford where it was held in storage before being scoured and used by our new spinner.

We refocused on the way forward, our spinner was almost identical to that of Hunters former mill and the owners had been spinning wool for five generations. The down side was that our new spinner had to match up all our shades as we were unable to procure the recipes for the various dye lots required in producing the yarns. The batch lots were also larger meaning we had to hold on to a larger volume of yarns.

This was a very difficult time for us and our customers; the recovery time stretched into years before we were able to make up lost ground, and it would be fair to say we did not fully recover.

I paid a visit to Brora several years later and met up with some of my old friends, however I was very aware that something serious was missing, the magic, which Tom Simpson had invited me to come and see all that years ago had gone!  One of the saddest moments in my working life!

A very positive and much needed piece of wool marketing took place at this time. We were asked by one of our main wool buying customers on the U.K. mainland if we could select a typical Native Shetland flock to represent the hill wools of Shetland in their totally natural environment of heather, peat and sea shore (void of any fertiliser); in fact an “organic” setting. The story of this flock and images of the sheep and its location would be used to showcase all the attributes of Shetland wool in an in-house promotion in a prestigious textile store in the Far East.

“What better example than the Smith’s family island of Papa because of its isolation and environmental status would be ideal,” I suggested.

 Papa is perfect for controlling the breeding of purebred native Shetland sheep with no risk of outside interference. Its flock provides the foundation stock for the much larger Berry Farm. Particular attention is paid to the wool quality the ewes produce; the soft springy fleece with a unique handle suitable for the spinning of high quality knitting yarns. The isle, like the rest of Shetland, is completely disease free. The sheep graze on the native pasture of coarse grass and heather. They also supplement their diet by eating the sea weed in the ebb tide, thus supplying them with extra vitamins.

 The only other residents on Papa are numerous sea birds, otters and seals which play in the crystal clear waters.

Papa is not only a beautiful place, it is also a perfect home for the hardy native Shetland sheep, which – except for dipping, shearing and taking the lambs of the island – can care for themselves year in year out.

This portrayal of native Shetland sheep in their own natural environment was used by the customer in marketing product made from hill Shetland sheep. It is a typical example of how native Shetland sheep have evolved over the centuries.

As the main buyer of Shetland wool over 80% of the local wool clip, it is our responsibility to seek out new markets and add value to the wool clip. It is this type of marketing which should have been applied to the marketing of the finished Shetland lamb. Sadly and for whatever reason that has not been the case; as is shown today with the price of Shetland lambs being practically worthless!

In writing this blog and others I am drawn back to memories of my younger self working for the Smith family. One memory in particular makes me smile even all these years later.

At the same time as the Native Shetland Papa project, I recall an incident which occurred and thankfully, a good humoured one at that. I mention in a previous blog of being marooned for several hours on Papa. A similar situation arose in 1999 when again I was once again marooned on Papa; however this time with Jim & Eva and two helpers. We made a mess of gathering the sheep into the pen and this added hours on to our task. When Jim went to check the boat he found it was “ebbed” up at the pier. Eva roared, “That cannot be, do something!” We tried pushing with no success. Eva asked, “How long till the tide turns?” “About eight hours,” I replied. She again expressed her annoyance at the situation, to which I replied, “Even King Canute could not turn the tide!” We left Papa about seven hours later. 

In 1999 I was asked by Jim and Eva to represent J&S at the Royal opening of Hunters of Brora new wool mill to be opened by H.R.H. Prince Charles. My first viewing of this new enterprise was its vast size and modern machinery. It was very unlike the old mill I had visited. The day of the opening everything appeared to be in order; lots of people in suits, the managing director met me briefly and said he would see me later. I went through to the warehouse where I met my old friend, Biba. He showed me around and showed off some of the new cloth and such like. I remember a tannoy announcement somewhere in the distance later followed by a lady running towards us; it turned out I was to be at the front door to meet the Prince and I was holding up proceedings; news to me! But as Catherine always says I only listen to part of the conversation. I made it just in time and joined the end of the queue and shortly was introduced to H.R.H and answering his questions he appeared to be very well versed in Shetland and its sheep.

Next, we had to walk around the mill behind the Prince. I found this very interesting and at one machine actually saw some of our Shetland natural undyed yarns being spun which was very encouraging. In the early evening I had to attend the gala opening dinner minus H.R.H in the Marine Hotel. The guests gathered in the cocktail lounge prior to the meal, I looked around for someone I knew but to no avail I felt a bit uncomfortable everyone else seemed to know one another. My gaze fell upon this very attractive youngish blond lady sitting on a sofa by herself. I introduced myself and asked to sit with her; like me she seemed to be alone and glad of the company. She was herself into textiles and had two stores in Paris I explained about our company and Shetland in general. She knew a bit about the Isles, we were deep in conversation when a waiter politely asked us to join the rest of the people at dinner.

I was shown to my seat and lo and behold the lovely lady was seated across from me, we had an enjoyable meal and after the speeches people started talking amongst themselves. My attention was drawn to a raised voice opposite me an elderly gentleman was staring at me I then realised he was addressing me. He raised his voice and the room went quieter. “I repeat,” he says, “Shetland is like Bosnia without the guns.” “Excuse me?” I replied again he said the same phrase and added that Shetland people “…were always bickering fighting and back stabbing one another.” I replied, “I take exception to your choice of words in your description of people in Shetland it is simply untrue and you must have been ill advised.”

“It is true,” he said, “I have experience of the Shetland textile companies attending fashion shows in Milan and Paris and they speak ill of one another”. I replied “I work with the vast majority of Shetland crofters and farmers; perhaps a 1,000 people and they all get on and work together as does the majority of the community.” He did not respond to this and thankfully nothing more was said.

It was while in the bar after the meal I was talking to this American textile manufacturer, Hunters managing director approached us, “What was with the rude guy at the dinner table?” asked the American. The M.Ds replied “what do you expect; the blond lady Oliver was chatting up is the man’s mistress! He is well known in the textile world and he bought her two stores in Paris!”

Another lesson learned it would be safer if I took Catherine with me in the future!

My impression of the new mill was it was far too big and elaborate. The machinery was modern and was nothing like the old mill. Talking to some of the older staff at the mill they felt unsure about the future but time would tell. I thought of Mr Simpson’s comment all those years ago, “You must come and see the magic.” I feared that somehow the magic had waned! 

The depression which affected our Shetland wool and especially the lower grade qualities was gradually improving, however this did not apply to the native Shetland coloured wool. As I said previously, wool mills preferred dyeing the white wool, to quote one mill, “We add a touch of dye to standardize these ‘natural’ colours.” The result of this was that natural coloured fleeces were rendered worthless, and if used at all by mills was over dyed into darker shades.

I recall us having a backload of bales containing coloured wool stockpiled in the wool store. The price we offered was only pence, producers simply dumped the coloured wool. Our only market was in the summer months to hand spinners visiting Shetland on holiday. We also had some interest in the U.S, Canada, and Japan but government trading disagreements and introduction of strict animal health regulations ended that avenue of sales.

In the summer months we would have many visitors to the wool store. One of these visits I will never forget, as it not only brought forth a positive change for native coloured wool, it also would help me in the future develop Shetland products. The lady was Betty Lindsay, co-owner of Yarns International, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A, on holiday with her husband Joe Lindsay. Inspecting the natural coloured fleece with the wide variety of shades, Betty enquired what were they used for, when I told her, she was horrified and said she would do something about this.

True to her word, along with business partner Bonnie Hassler, Betty decided they wished to create a market for this unique wool, something I had always wanted to offer a affordable natural coloured yarn from pure Shetland Native sheep. It was like a meeting of minds we both shared the same wish. The first step was to hand-sort and match up the 9 shades required by Yarns International, this presented little problem as we had quite a stock pile of natural fleece. We enlisted Hunters of Brora to spin up the wool and in a matter of months had the finished yarn. “The yarns natural softness made it pleasant to work with and extremely comfortable to wear, while the natural saturation of the colours gives the knitted piece richness and a depth unavailable in dyed yarns. Moreover, the absence of any dye or chemical processing yields an environmentally friendly product”, a quote from the testimony of Yarns International.

Yarns International produced several books of design and many patterns featuring these special yarns, such was the success of these yarns that it was no surprise that every- one wanted to follow suit.

Sadly Yarns International closed down several years ago however the legacy continues. The 2000 yarns, we now call Shetland Supreme jumper yarn and so retains all the key attributes of the original natural colour palate. Modern designers such as Kate Davies and other creative people have continued to produce patterns of stunning beauty. To quote the original designer Ron Schweitzer, “Shetland 2000 leads the knitter on an unmapped journey – into new ways of thinking about Fair Isle patterns and garment construction.”

Yarns International produced a design in natural shades called the “Sheep- Saver”, a fitting title for the late Betty Lindsay!

Life at J&S took an unexpected upturn in enhanced marketing opportunities when out of hundreds of U.K direct mail companies, we were shortlisted to go through to a grand finale of Direct Mail Order companies at a gala evening at the Gloucester Hotel London on 31^st January 1997.

 Judges from the Institute of Direct Marketing and Royal Mail selected the finalists’ entries based on the success of the mailing as well as its originality, effective communication, personalisation, creativity, and style. It came as a great shock to us all at J&S when we were informed that we were shortlisted in the final ten companies. We were one of two Scottish companies and one Irish company nominated, a great honour indeed.

Jim and Eva nominated Catherine and I to represent the firm at the event. It was the Friday morning, and the last week in January, just after Up Helly Aa, our all night long fire festival and I was not feeling the best after partaking in the event! We set off for Sumburgh and our flight to London, and the roads were treacherous and covered in ice. This was our first trip to London, and in itself a great experience to see it in real life. 

We arrived at Heathrow with no mishaps and eventually found our way to the Gloucester Hotel, our place of residence and venue of the event.

 On the Saturday morning we made our way toward the smell of bacon to a room laid out with all kinds of mouth-watering food on making our way toward the breakfast buffet we were stopped by this gentleman and told politely this was in fact the venue for breakfast for Scotland’s rugby team visiting to play the old enemy, England.

 We had some time to spare before the presentation event at night and so hit the streets of London. No surprise we visited many clothes shops in one of these establishments Catherine pointed out the designer of Lady Diana’s wedding dress I suggested to Catherine she seek advice from him to advise her on a dress which went down well!

At 6pm we made our way to the presentation venue, passing a display of the finalists marketing information and there was our distinct logo and shade card on the display board. I think it was then I realised, this was for real.

 Entering the function room we were shown to our table which turned out to be the top table and included the after dinner speaker Lance Percival, past actor featured in the Carry On films. The Chief Executive of Royal Mail, no less, also another 3 companies one of which was an Irish online hearing aid director and owner, and for me the star of the entire show- his mannerisms and jokes calmed me down completely. When it was announced we had been placed third in the whole of the U.K. it came as no surprise to me, as we had been doing mail order since the 1960s and it seemed natural to be acknowledged by Royal Mail.

Our reward was a glass trophy and also an all expenses trip for us to attend a Royal Mail Direct marketing seminar in Birmingham. I was very pleased with this, however I had a request it would be of great benefit to Shetland companies if the marketing seminar could be held in the Islands and I was very pleased when the Chief Executive agreed.

 I was extremely delighted the event took place in Shetland and approximately 1 dozen local companies attended. This was J&S being true to its philosophy of being fair to all.