More Uniroyal: Megeve, 1981

Following the success of the Andrew McQuistin team at the 1980 Uniroyal World Junior Curling Championship, see here, Scotland's representatives at the 1981 competition in Megeve, France, came again from Stranraer. Wilson's team had beaten the McQuistin side to get to the Scottish Junior Championship finals. And in Megeve, Scotland came out on top of the world, for the second year in a row. That's the winners on the podium: (L-R) John Parker (lead), Roger McIntyre (2nd), Jim Cannon (3rd) and Peter Wilson (skip).

Thanks to Norman Brown who preserved a VHS tape of a BBC Television broadcast of the official Uniroyal promotional film, we have a visual record of the event. The first part of the film was a summary of the first six years of the World Junior Championship, which has already been mentioned on the Curling History blog. That link is here.

In the semifinals, Scotland beat the USA, skipped by Ted Purvis, but most of the film is about the matchup between Canada (Denis Marchand, skip) and Sweden (Thomas Norgren, skip). Watch this here.

Part 3 is the Scotland v Canada final. To watch a thirteen minute summary, go here.

Bob Picken narrates in each clip.

All the details about the competition, including the names of the competitors and the results, can be found in the World Curling Federation's Historical Results site, here.

The result was well received back in Scotland, coming as it did on the back of the 1980 success. There was even an open topped bus for the team at the airport!

The Scottish Curler magazine in September 1981 featured the team on the cover, Marlene Dawson making a special presentation to the four Stranraer curlers at the Annual Meeting of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

The top photo is from the April 1981 Scottish Curler. The photographer is not named.

The Origins of World Junior Curling

Anyone interested in researching the origins of the World Junior Curling Championships will easily find the records which say that the first event, for junior men, was held in Toronto's East York Curling Club in 1975. The World Curling Federation's 'historical results' pages give the names of the nine competing teams, and the results of all the games, see here.

But a competition like a world junior championship does not 'just happen'. That first event went ahead as a consequence of a number of significant things that took place in the preceding years. I can find nothing online which describes these events, so this post is an attempt to provide some of the information, and expand a little on this summary: "A bonspiel for young curlers at the East York Curling Club was inaugurated in 1968 'to provide curlers under 21 years of age with a highly competitive competition of meaningful stature'. It grew thereafter, as the organisers sought to improve the event each year until it evolved into the Uniroyal World Junior Men's Curling Championship in 1975."

The above is a simple and politically correct statement. Yet it hides a stormy adolescence!

Canadian Bob Picken tells some of the story in chapter 33 of Doug Maxwell's book 'Tales of a Curling Hack', 2006, Whitecap Books, North Vancouver. Bob describes how he was asked by the East York organisers to see if he could get teams from abroad to take part in the competition which had already been running as a local bonspiel for a few years. He was initially 'politely rebuffed' by Robin Welsh, the secretary of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. He went then to Chuck Hay, who got in touch with Norman Smith, the chairman of Glasgow Young Curlers Club. Through Chuck's and Norman's efforts a Scottish team travelled to Canada to compete in 1971. At East York, the team was looked after by the organising committee. The Canadian bonspiel now had the wished for international component!

The photo above shows the Scottish team that took part in the 1971 International Junior Masters: (L-R) David Kelly, Jim Stirling, David Manson and Alfie Cron. They were all members of Glasgow Young Curlers Club and competed under the title of 'University of Glasgow Champions'. Norman Smith accompanied the team.

The programme for the event was a simple folded sheet of A4 paper. The competition took place April 9-11, 1971, and was sponsored by Thorn Press.

The programme comes from David Kelly's own collection of memorabilia, and I am grateful to him for sharing this, and for lending the photos of the team to be included here. (Alfie Cron, one of the great characters of the sport sadly left us far too early. David and Jim are still competing in the senior ranks. If anyone has an update on David Manson please let me know.)

Who were the other competitors? The rear page of the programme (above) shows that the event had a team from West Germany and two from the USA amongst the ten taking part. Where are all these competitors today? And who won this 1971 competition?

The members of the organising committee are also listed.

Here is the Scottish team in action at East York in 1971. Manson is in the head and Kelly and Stirling are the sweepers. It is noted on the back of this photo that it was from the first game the Scots played against the local East York team. The skip and third of that team are listed as Barry Mitchell and Steve Wroblewski, and that could be them watching behind.

The following year there was a playoff at Crossmyloof to see who would go from Scotland. Alfie Cron, Dave Manson, Philip Moore and David Kelly beat Jim Stirling, Ronnie Peat, Kerr Graham and John Halley in a best of three series. Sweden also sent a team that year.

In 1973 Alfie Cron again skipped a Scottish team with Colin Baxter, David Halkerston and David Kelly. Norway and Switzerland became involved.

By 1974 the competition was recognised in the Scottish Curler magazine, which records that the Royal Club was taking an interest in the event. The February 1974 issue had this to say:

"The Royal Club staged a Scottish playdown for the Uniroyal Junior International Championship - in the East York Curling Club, Toronto, from 12th to 14th April. Norman Smith, member of the Royal Club's Scottish Young Curlers Committee, supervised the two-day event in the Scottish Ice Rink, Glasgow, this month. The winners of the five-rink round-robin were Colin Baxter (skip), Robert Kelly, David Halkerston and Gordon Muirhead. They finished ahead of rinks from Edinburgh, Aviemore-Inverness, Falkirk and Stranraer."

In the summer of 1973, Bob Picken recalls how he was approached by David Prentice, who had been chair of the organising committee in 1971 as that year's programme shows, to see if he could help persuade the International Curling Federation to endorse the competition as a world junior championship. The competition had already attracted Uniroyal as a sponsor. Bob's description of the the international curling politics of the time makes interesting reading. After much lobbying in 'back rooms', the proposal came in front of the ICF assembly in Bern, Switzerland, in April 1974. The proposal was favourably received by all but the Royal Club representatives. Their view at the time is stated in the Annual of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club for 1974-75 in the record of the AGM in July, 1974. The President, Adam Cockburn, was in the Chair, and he reported on the activities of the International Curling Federation, as he was one of the reps.

"A proposal to stage a Junior World Championship sponsored by Uniroyal was sanctioned. The Royal Club made representations against the title on the following grounds: (1) that the title 'World' should be limited to the existing World Championships for the Air Canada Silver Broom, and, possibly, to a World Championship for the Ladies, which, I believe, may take place some time in the near future. (2) That the approval of the World Junior title would open the way to future applications for a variety of world titles. We could have under 40's, schoolboys, over 60's and so on, which would tend, we think, to demean the World title itself. We voted against the new title but were outvoted on this occasion and accepted the democratic vote."

There was the matter of participants' age to be decided. This is noted in a further section of Adam Cockburn's report which continues, "After the new title was granted, the Federation's Advisory Committee, on which I myself was represented with Robin Welsh, had a long meeting with Uniroyal representatives and the difficulties of meeting an agreement on age qualifications became apparent."

One can only speculate on what these 'difficulties' were. Of course, the Royal Club's main junior competition was for the TB Murray Trophy which had run from 1959 for young curlers 25 years and under. It began to be called officially the 'Scottish Junior Championship' in the 1970-71 season.
However, the International Curling Federation in 1971 sought views on what the age limits for international junior play should be, and the Royal Club's Scottish Young Curlers' Committee was consulted. In 1972, at the ICF meeting in Garmisch, it was agreed that the standard rule for international junior play should be less than 21 years at July 1, prior to the season in which the competition would be played. This fitted in with the entry requirements for the East York competitions already in force.

Why there should still have been difficulties in 1974 in discussions with the sponsors remains to be explained. Did Uniroyal want an age cutoff different from 21 years? Surely not.

In any case, at the AGM on July 1974, the RCCC Competitions' Committee announced that the Scottish Junior Championship age regulations would be changed 'to conform with the international standard of 21 years for international tournaments to which the winners of our Championship, we hope, will go forward in future years'. The competition for the Murray Trophy was held earlier in the 1974-75 season than it had been in previous years, in December. The first Bank of Scotland Scottish Junior Championship was won by Peter Wilson (skip), Andrew McQuistin (3rd), Neale McQuistin (2nd) and John Sharp (lead). The rink's average age was just 16.

The Wilson team did indeed participate in the first official World Junior Championship in 1975 held at East York. Dave Prentice, mentioned above, headed up the organisation. The history page of the East York club's website (here) records his influence, "A significant highlight of the Club occurred in 1974. Under the direction of Dave Prentice, the East York Curling Club hosted the first Junior World Championships, sponsored by Uniroyal. We are proud to be known as the birthplace of the Junior World Championships. Even today, our most valuable Club member is awarded the Dave Prentice Award; in recognition of the tremendous efforts that Dave took to bring the Juniors to East York."

Note that the impression given here is that the first 'official' World Juniors was held in 1974. This may just be a typo, although Uniroyal did certainly sponsor the Junior Masters in 1973 and 1974, the competition becoming the Uniroyal International Junior Championship.

As already noted, nine countries participated in the first Uniroyal World Junior Curling Championship 1975: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and USA. The trophy was won by Sweden.

Winnipeg's Bob Picken was the distinctive voice of the Uniroyal promotional films of the world junior championships over the years. This was appropriate as he had been made 'honorary chair' of the International Masters in 1972 in recognition of his support for the event. According to this reference, Picken provided radio commentary on thirty-two men's and sixteen women's world curling championships, fifteen world junior championships, thirty-one Canadian men's and twelve Canadian women's championships. He served as the first media relations officer for the World Curling Federation from 1992-94. I first met him when I was a rookie reporter at the Royal Bank Ladies World Championship in Perth in 1980, and I had the privilege to work for him at the World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1994.

Bob Picken won the World Curling Freytag Award in 1987.

You can listen to Bob Picken's narration on this video covering the history of the first six years, 1975-1980, of the Uniroyal World Junior Championship. Click on the image above, or go to the link here. The recording is originally from the 1981 promotional film, which was then broadcast by BBC Television. It has been rescued from a VHS tape of that broadcast, now in the possession of Norman Brown. The quality is not the best, but it does give a flavour of what international junior curling was all about in its earliest years. I particularly like the trousers worn by the Robb King team in 1975, the brooms - both corn and synthetic, the Paul Gowsell sequences, and of course seeing Norman Brown's triple takeout in 1980, in colour this time!

This post has been all about the junior men. What about the girls? Their first official world junior championship did not take place until 1988 in Chamonix, France. The origins of that competition remain to be discussed another time.

Bob Cowan

Thanks to all who have helped me research this article. Please contact me, or comment below, if you can add more detail to the early history of world junior curling, or if you find any errors. The images from the 1971 International Junior Masters are from David Kelly's archive, and are stamped 'Tosh. Dennis Hall Associates Ltd, 233 Richmond St. W. Toronto 2.'

Curling at Midsummer

David B Smith writes:

While my colleagues have recently been spending time and energy finding the precise – and not so precise – locations for curling places in England, I have been wondering about the earliest machine-made ice used for curling in that part of these islands. I refer, of course, to the Glaciarium at Southport in Lancashire.

This ice rink was opened in 1879 and provided ice for skating and curling. From the start 'the Roaring Game' was encouraged by the presentation of a handsome silver shield for which the first competition took place over three days in September 1879. Of the twenty-two English clubs that belonged to the RCCC in 1879, twelve played in the opening competition with two rinks each. Glasgow Lilybank also fielded two rinks and were beaten in the final by Manchester. The Glaciarium did not, however, fulfil the hopes of its proponents and it closed its door after about ten years, despite the efforts of the Royal Club to patronise it by holding their AGM there in July 1885.

That the game and its traditions had passed unchanged into the foreign soil of England is pretty well evidenced by the following poem, which comes from George Hull's The Poets and Poetry of Blackburn, 1902, and was written by Joseph Jardine. The surname betrays his Scottish parentage, though he was born in Blackburn; he was the president of the Burns Club and honorary secretary of Blackburn Caledonian Curling Club. Here is his poem.

CURLING AT MIDSUMMER
Blackburn v Preston
 
They say that wonders never cease – and, faith! I think it's true,
For there's scarce a day that passes but we hear o' something new.
The electric light will banish night – so Edisonians cry;
And now to crown the wondrous list, we've curling in July.
 
And here I am constrained to tell – methinks no trifling theme -
How at the shore our gallant boys met Preston's chosen team.
Fully equipped wi' broom and stane, they started in full glee,
With buoyant hearts and courage high, intent on victorie.
 
For skips – there was Ayrshire Willie, a gey auld-farrant chiel,
The whom nane better lo'es a joke, or a guid roaring spiel;
“Gie me but Connell.” and he says, “Whatever may betide,
Be it drug or keen, or rough or smooth, I'll whip the countryside.”
 
The next was Yates, the quiet man – a true man all the same -
And though he taks it quietly, his heart is in the game:
Well known and well respected, and, though he will not boast,
A keen, keen curler, and a skip who's always at his post.
 
Last but not least was brave Buckley – to gie him his just dues,
He's a chiel that always likes to win, and always hates to lose;
But he pulls his grim moustache at times at sic a fiery rate,
Spectators in amazement stand, and tremble for its fate.
 
Arrived – Tam told the Preston men “their skill would be no use,
As he'd wi' him the finest rink that Blackburn could produce.”
But when Preston gained an end or two, poor Tam grew unco still,
All stared at him, and all agreed he looked strange and ill.
 
“Look ill! Look ill! Wha tell't ye sae?” Tam answered wi' a frown,
An' Then he swallowed lemonade to wash the paleness down,
But 'twas in vain; and stronger stuff, it wasna to be had,
So Tam made shift wi' lemonade, but swore it was too bad.
 
The Glaciarium, Lourie says, “It is an awfu' spot,”
For though his feet were cauld as ice, his head was hissing hot,
And raised a mist that grew so thick, Gibson began to hog,
And swore he “couldna thraw his stanes through sic a drenchin' fog.”
 
Then Jamie Yates and wee Kit Wells, they couldna weel agree;
Yates, he declared “that Kit wad stand naewhere but on the tee”;
In vain he prayed, in vain he stormed, Kitty just jumped and roared
That if they had taken his advice Preston wad ne'er had scored.
 
I needna gi'e ye mair details: suffice it then to say
They played a weel-contested game, and Blackburn won the day.
The sun had set an hour or mair, the stars shone clear and bricht,
When the Blackburn Caledonians arrived at hame that nicht.
 
As Connell and Archie arm in arm walk'ed down Ainsworth Street,
Baith were sae glad that they had won, they couldna help but greet;
Their brooms did them such service then as they'd ne'er done before,
As solemn and slow they marched till they reached the elder's door.`
 
And there they stood. Said Archie then, as he held out his hand -
“Willie, we'll play aught there is in this or any other land.
Play them! ay, whae'er they be, Scotch, English, a' the same,
On real or artificial ice, for ony sum they name.”
 
And here Gillespie joined them, who led sae weel that day;
They quieted Archie doon a bit, and led him safe away;
Then 'twas agreed they'd a' adjourn to a neighbour's hoose awee,
To talk the day's proceedings ower, and taste the barley bree.
 
They sat them down in richt good trim – weel oiled, their tongues grew loose,
They joked and laughed, and sang, and quaffed, and soon got unco crouse;
But when they rose to dander hame the nicht was weel-nigh through,
And the bottle it was empty, but the boys were roarin' fou.
 
Thus ended this eventful day; but ane thing weel I wot,
The stanes will roar o'er ice galore ere this bonspiel's forgot.
Then fill the glass, round let it pass – nae heel-taps, drink it fair;
Here's to the game that bangs them a', and to curlers everywhere.

The curlers named in the poem were all members of the Caledonian CC, as can be deduced from the RCCC Annual for 1880-1881.

'Ayrshire Willie' was William Ferguson, the vice-president; 'Connell' was ordinary member William Connell; 'Yates' was ordinary member James Yates; 'brave Buckley' was Samuel Buckley, the club secretary; 'Tam' was probably Thomas Ferguson, member of the committee; 'Lourie' was T P Lowrie, committee member; 'Gibson', the 'hog', was ordinary member William Gibson; 'Kit Wells' may have been extraordinary member C Wills; 'Gillespie' was Thomas Gillespie, ordinary member, but who 'Archie' was is not clear.

This is how the Glaciarium looked. The ice hall extended back from the facade. The illustration is from this website.

Top: Curling at the Southport Glaciarium is from the Illustrated London News, 1885. You can see more of what the rink looked liked inside, from a letterhead in the Holden archive, in the special collections of Bradford University. This shows skaters using the facility, see here.

Mapping England's Curling Places

by Bob Cowan

Last year I was excited to find evidence of curling at Leamington Spa, in England, in the early years of the twentieth century, see here. An old postcard kindled an enthusiasm for finding out more about our sport south of the border, so I joined the 'team' that has been working on the English Curling Places map, which can be found on the Historical Curling Places website. Skip is Lindsay Scotland and vice is Harold Forrester, both bringing their own special expertise to the project. The front end, and head of the 'supporters', is John Brown who, as secretary of the English Curling Association, is committed to promoting research on the sport in England. Coach of course is David B Smith, fellow Curling History blogger, who started things off compiling a database of Scottish curling places some twenty years ago.

The number of places on the English map has grown considerably in past months to over seventy sites, and is still a 'work in progress'. As on the Scottish map a green dot indicates a place that can be precisely identified. A red dot says that the location is as yet imprecise. And a blue dot locates a place where curling is currently played on a regular basis. There is only one such dot on the English map - Fenton's Rink, in Kent. It is planned that supplementary web pages, containing additional information, will link to the map locations.

How is information about curling places tracked down? There are a number of ways. Firstly, there are references to games taking place, with venues indicated, in national and local newspapers, in books, and in the Annuals of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club. As more and more old newspapers are digitised and put online, as here, and here, the social history of our sport is made available to any with the patience to search.

For example Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, an English weekly sporting paper published between 1822 and 1886, when it was absorbed by Sporting Life, had some coverage of curling in the later years of its existence. There were reports of the activities of the Malton curling club, and of the two Newcastle clubs (Newcastle and Newcastle Tyneside). In January 1886 there were three mentions of curling at Aske Hall, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, the home of Lawrence Dundas, the 3rd Earl of Zetland, and MP for Richmond, who would become the 1st Marquess of Zetland in August 1892.

The first mention is in the newspaper of January 20, 1886. This says, "Fashionable parties were skating on the Aske Pond. Later in the day the pond was swept and flooded for hockey matches and curling between Darlington and Keplin (sic) today (Wednesday)."

On Thursday, January 21, the newspaper reported (see above) that rinks had been laid out in Aske Park for a match between Darlington and Kiplin curling clubs, the spelling of of the latter club's name having been corrected. However, neither side turned up!

The match between Darlington and Kiplin did go ahead a couple of weeks later, and Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle duly reported the result on February 5. Each club was represented by two teams with Darlington being victorious in both games played, by 24-11 and 19-14. The names of the players is not recorded. However, Aske Park is now 'on the map' as a place where curling took place in the nineteenth century.

The Darlington club had become affiliated to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club in 1878 and in later Annuals it is noted that it had been instituted in 1860. So where did Darlington curlers call home in 1886? Pierremont Park is one possibility, and this webpage has a photograph of curlers on the lake in the 1880s. There are other places for you to explore on the map in and around Darlington where there is evidence for curling having taken place.

The reference to a Kiplin curling club is intriguing. It does not seem that a club with this name ever became a member of the Royal Club. Do any records exist for the club? Was it connected with Kiplin Hall near Catterick? Can YOU help? It is mentioned alongside other north of England clubs such as Newcastle, Durham, Darlington and Malton in old newspapers, but further research remains to be done.

There were certain conditions that a curling club had to fulfil before it could become affiliated to the Royal Club. From the 1850s the General Regulations of the Royal Club stated that "Any Local Curling Organisation shall be admissable into the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, if it consists of at least eight Members, have a designation, and sheet of Ice for its operations, and be governed by Office-Bearers under a code of regulations." (My emphasis)

This implies that all the English curling clubs (as well as those in Scotland) that are listed at various times in old Annuals must have had a 'curling place'! This requirement that clubs had to have their own ice to play on remained in the Royal Club regulations until the 1936-37 Annual, but disappears after that. By this time of course most clubs were curling indoors in ice rinks, although some still maintained an outdoor pond, as indeed some clubs still do even today.

So, do we know where each English club listed in old Annuals had their own pond? No, but the question can be a good starting point for research. You might ask, "Why was Wigan and Haigh so called?" The club was formed in 1861 and admitted to the Royal Club in 1863. Haigh Hall was the English home of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, and indeed Lord Lindsay is listed as a Patron of the club in the 1874 Annual.

This screenshot of a 1894 map, from the very useful Old Maps website, clearly shows the curling pond in the grounds of Haigh Hall. It still exists. It is mentioned on a recent leaflet describing a walk around the restored windmill in the grounds, which can be downloaded from this article, which says, "Continue past the junction with new road, through the trees on your right is the Curling Pond, constructed in the 19th Century for use in winter for the sport of Curling." All evidence for another 'curling place' that can be precisely located.

Aside from information in newspapers and old Annuals, there are other sources of curling lore. Personal recollections are an example. John Brown has been in correspondence with Ray Smith, who was a member of Blackburn CC, sadly now defunct, and knows much about the club's history and where the members played. (Incidentally, Ray has donated a wonderful old trophy, in the form of a curling stone toddy kettle, to Blackburn museum, see here.)

I've been communicating with a local historian, Maureen Fisher, whose interest in Frizington has helped reveal the existence of a Frizington curling club, and indications of where the Cleator Moor club might have played. Such help has led to new curling places being identified and being put on the English map.

Sometimes lady luck plays a part in discovery. I came across by chance on a dealer's website this postcard of 'Curling on the steelworks reservoir', sent from Barrow-in-Furness, on Jan 1, 1908. The Barrow-in-Furness Caledonian curling club was founded in 1878 and admitted to the Royal Club in 1984. It was still listed in the 1909-10 Annual. And the reservoir can be seen clearly in the Barrow steelworks in maps of the time. Another 'place' for the map.

The photo itself is interesting. Just one game seems to be in progress. There are skaters in the background, and at least two of the spectators are wearing skates! It is not the most attractive of photographs, and surprising that it has been overprinted with 'Season's Greetings!' It was sent to a Miss Cole in nearby Millom and says, "Wishing you a very happy New Year from D Dawson." I wonder why he (I'm making the assumption) picked a curling photograph to send to Miss Cole?

A spot on the map is, of course, just a doorway to finding out who played there, and what life was like for the curlers of the time. For example, the Liverpool curling club had its own pond at Rainhill. It was near the railway station and could host up to four matches at the same time. I've learned recently that the curlers used the railway to get to and from the pond. Some curling occasions raised funds to help those less well off. Whereas Scottish clubs are often recorded as providing 'meal and coals' for the poor (see the mention in this post), the Liverpool curlers provided lobscouse (a local stew) and clogs.

Of course, these nineteenth century curlerswere not without their frustrations. It is recorded (in The History of Curling: and Fifty Years of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club by John Kerr, (David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1890), in the chapter on 'Curling Furth of Scotland'), that an entry in the club's minute book reads, "July 11, 1872. The secretary was instructed to write to Mr Roby, Rainhill, respectfully to request him to keep his duck off the curling-pond." A hazard that, fortunately, curlers today do not have to face indoors! Kerr's book has been digitised, and you can find that reference online here.

But the mention of curling club minutes raises the question. Where are they? All clubs would have kept minutes. Have these priceless records of curling all been thrown away? Or are they still waiting to be found in cupboards or dusty attics, or even in local archives? Can you help?

Lindsay Scotland's email address is here, if you can add anything to the Historical Curling Places database.

A Curler's Family Tree

There cannot be many curlers who can point to an old photo from a hundred years ago and say, "That's my great, great grandfather!" Robin Brydone, a young curler from Perth, can do so. You see, the curlers in the photo above, which was taken around 1901, are named on the back as (L-R) J Davidson, G Jenner, J Liney, T McLauchlan and J Gordon. The middle figure is Joe Liney who is Robin's great, great grandfather. The building in the background is Fonab Castle, near Pitlochry.

Note that the curlers all have long handled brooms. Two crampits are side by side on the ice for both right and left-handed play. And on the left is a tee-marker, or 'dolly' (see here).

Lieutenant Colonel George Glas Sandeman bought the Port-na-Craig Estate in 1890, and set out to have a new home built there. Fonab Castle was completed in 1892. He was of the Sandeman family, the firm of George G Sandeman Sons and Company Limited, wine shippers and cotton merchants, having been established in London in 1790 by George Sandeman (1765-1841). From the beginning the founder specialised in wines from the Iberian Peninsula, notably port and sherry. Later the business expanded to include insurance and the export of British linen and cotton goods to the West Indies, Central America and Mexico, see here. It was a profitable business.

The Sandeman family had a property at Roche Court, Wiltshire. George Jenner was head gardener in the employ of the Sandeman family there. Joe Liney also worked on the estate. Joe married George's daughter Alice in 1890 in Wiltshire. Family knowledge says both George and Joe were given the opportunity to move the five hundred miles north to Scotland and work on the new estate. A story has been passed down that George Glas Sandeman particularly wanted Joe to move as he had been teaching one of his sons to bowl at cricket! Joe would have been in his late 20s when he moved to Pitlochry with his wife and family around 1893 or 94.

It is interesting that a curling pond was constructed in the grounds of the new house. The Brydone family history records the story that the trees beside the pond were planted by Joe and his father-in-law, see the photo above. George is also in this photograph. He's second from the left.

Most of the places where curling is known to have taken place can be found in the Historical Curling Places website. Tracing the history of these places can be done by looking consecutively at old maps, using all those that the National Library of Scotland has made available online, and coming forward in time. This is a great resource for the curling researcher in Scotland! The NLS maps website is here. As an example of what can be found, the screen above is of Fonab, with the curling pond, as shown on the OS 25 inch to the mile map from 1900.

This is another photograph from the Brydone family archive. It is not dated, but is probably post-WW1. It is likely to be of the Fonab pond, and, if so, the trees have grown! The curlers are now using brushes, rather than brooms. Again two crampits are in use, as well as the tee-marker. The curler on the left is Joe Liney. The others are not identified.

Joe Liney is on the hack in this photo. The four watching are not identified. Again, note the two crampits and the tee-marker. None of those in the photo is carrying a brush. It's almost as if Joe is demonstrating how a stone should be delivered. However, the presence of the stone in the bottom left corner of the photo suggests that the grouping has been set up for the benefit of the photographer!

Captain George A C Sandeman inherited Fonab in 1905, but upon his death in 1915 during WWI, his cousin and uncle by marriage Alastair C Sandeman inherited it. From 1915 to 1918 the house was a British Red Cross auxiliary hospital where 926 patients were cared for.

Colonel and Mrs Kinglake Tower succeeded to the property soon after 1928, and made it their home until 1946 when it was sold to the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, at which time the name reverted to Port-na-Craig House. After being on the 'buildings at risk' register for some years, it has recently been converted into a hotel which opened this year (2013), the Fonab Castle Hotel.

Modern roadworks seem to have obliterated any trace of the pond today.

Joe worked at Fonab Castle all his days and died in Pitlochry in 1943. His wife Alice outlived him and died in Pitlochry in 1956. They did not return to England. They had eleven children. One of them, Rose, who was born just before they moved to Scotland, married Archbald Brydone, who had a son, also Archibald, who fathered Tom Brydone, Robin's dad. Some reading this will know Tom who is often seen in the curling rinks around the country with his camera.

Tom tells me he didn't curl until after meeting his wife-to-be, Lesley, who was already playing the sport at Perth.

This is their son Robin, who's now sixteen, on the ice at the Dewar's Centre, Perth, last season. He has already made his mark as one of the country's top juniors. He is one of the youngest ever to have won the Royal Caledonian Curling Club's Rink Championship (photo here), and has even been on a team that has scored an eight-ender (see here). I am sure we'll be hearing more about Robin in the years ahead. After all, curling has been in his genes for five generations!

This article has been put together by Bob Cowan with considerable help from Tom Brydone. All the photos are © Tom Brydone.

A Grand Match Challenge Trophy Gold Badge

This is a general view of the scene at the Grand Match at Carsebreck on December 24, 1935, from the collection of David B Smith.

David writes:

December 24, 1935, saw the last Grand Match ever played on the RCCC pond at Carsebreck. It was also the largest, with three hundred and twenty two rinks aside. The North beat the South by 5102 shots to 4206.

The Annual for 1936-7 reports, “As the skips passed the Secretary's office they passed in their cards, which were taken to Edinburgh for the count in the evening. Soon the players were in the trains and setting out on the homeward journey – as jolly and good-natured a company of sportsmen as one could meet in any country. It made little difference to them that rain was beginning to fall. The frost had held just long enough to provide them with a memorable day's sport – one to be discussed, perhaps, for other five years until a great frost comes again to freeze Carsebreck Loch...”

“There were not a few women curlers. One rink consisted of four sisters – the Misses Carnegie, from Colinsburgh, Fife, skipped by Miss Pat. They are well-known players, and their play is on a standard equal to that of many skilled men... An interested spectator of the bonspiel was Mr. Ernest Brown, M.P. For Leith, and Minister of Labour. It was his first visit to Carsebreck.”

The list of results shows that the Misses Carnegie played as Hercules Ladies, and lost 27-3 to a Craigielands team.

Amongst the Royal Club regulations for the Grand Match was:

“6. The Challenge Trophy shall be awarded to the Club on the winning side having the highest average majority of Shots per Rink. There shall also be awarded to the Rink of the winning Club which has the greatest majority of Shots four Gold Badges to be retained by them...” In order to qualify for the Trophy a club had to put onto the ice at least two rinks.

The Challenge Trophy was commissioned by the Royal Club after the decision was taken at the annual meeting held in 1884 in Southport "to procure a Trophy, so that the energies of 'Keen Curlers' might be roused to friendly rivalry in Auld Scotland's 'Ain Game' for the honour of holding the Prize."

The reason for having the meeting in England was, of course, that Southport had a Glaciarium, on the artificial ice of which the curlers who came to the meeting were able to enjoy several games.

The magnificent, large silver cup was first shown to the members at the next AGM and illustrated as a frontispiece to the Annual for 1885-6. On the base of the trophy are two figures of curlers, one wearing Highland dress symbolising the North of Scotland, and the other the South. A quaint touch is that they are standing on a plate of glass through which some sphagnum moss is showing; the whole gives a nice impression of a sheet of black ice.

The club which had 'the highest average majority of Shots per Rink' in 1935 was Monzievaird and Strowan; their opponents, Duntocher CC, having been vanquished by scores of 46 to 2 and 24 to 11. The rink skipped by Major C.H. Graham Stirling, President of Monzievaird, having won by 44 shots, were entitled to be awarded, and 'to retain', the Gold Badges.

The reason for this posting is that one of these four gold badges was recently offered to and acquired by the RCCC Charitable Trust. It is of the design with which many curlers will be familiar, a crowned shield on the front of which is a representation of the Challenge Trophy. The Royal Club has also used the badge in gold and silver as a prize for at least the International Match and the RCCC Rink Championship.

On the reverse is the following engraving:

Challenge Trophy 1935
MRS. BOOTHBY
W. HOOD
D. McLAREN
MAJOR GRAHAM STIRLING (Skip)

Of these players Mrs Boothby was an occasional member of the club.

Not surprisingly, the two rinks who gained the Challenge Trophy had their photograph taken. Very surprisingly, I have discovered a copy of it in my collections and I reproduce it below. 

The two Monzievaird and Strowan rinks who won the Trophy; the badge-winning rink is seated in front. They are Mrs Boothby, W. Hood, D. McLaren, and Major Graham Stirling of Strowan. (From the collection of David B Smith).

Some curlers had travelled far to take their part in 'a whole nation at play'. There were two rinks from Aboyne on Deeside, and their preparation had included the making of a special teemarker. It is made of wood in the shape of a bottle, nicely painted. In addition to the names of one rink there is the legend: CARSEBRECK DEC. 24 1935.

From the collection of David B Smith.

Illustrations are © of the author.

On the Trail of the Keswick Curlers

A personal tale of 'curling research' by Bob Cowan:

'The Scotch game of curling, for which it would be difficult to find a nobler area, is also pursued with much zest'. This excerpt, from The Times of January 31, 1870, on page 12 in the News in Brief section, is evidence that our sport was played on Derwentwater in the north of England's Lake District. It is a common misapprehension that curling was exclusively a Scottish pastime within the British Isles in the nineteenth century, but this is just not true. More and more evidence is coming to light documenting where curling was played throughout England. The Historical Curling Places website now has a dedicated map for England, with much research to be done. Perhaps you can help with Lindsay Scotland's efforts? This is the story of my own attempts to clarify the location of one spot on the map!

This painting of 'Skaters on Derwentwater' is by local artist Joseph Brown. Note the group on the bottom right of the painting engaged in a curling match (click on the image to see it larger). This oil on canvas measures 7.1 x 11.8 cm and is in the collection of Keswick Museum and Art Gallery. It has been made available online through the BBC's YOUR PAINTINGS project, see here. Keswick's museum is currently closed for refurbishment but I look forward to being able to see the painting close up at some point in the future. It is suggested on the website that it was 'painted at the later end of the nineteenth century, possibly during the Great Freeze of 1895'.

By that time, the curlers of Keswick had formed themselves into a club (in 1874), and the Derwentwater Curling Club was admitted to membership of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club in 1876. (There was no separate English Curling Association back then.) The Annual of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club lists members of the Derwentwater CC from 1876 right up until the mid-1960s.

It can be assumed that for a curling club to have been active over such a long period, its members must have had a place to play. Derwentwater itself, being a large mass of water, would freeze over infrequently. Was there a shallow water pond near Keswick?

My interest in Keswick curlers had been stimulated by the discovery of twelve photographs of curling in the Joseph Hardman archive in the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry in Kendal. You can find these online here. You can read about Hardman here. He photographed Lakeland life from the 1930s through to the 1960s. He died in 1972 and his collection of some 5000 glass negatives was given to the Museum by his widow.

The curling photographs show two games being played on a pond, with caravans in the immediate background, and distinctive mountain slopes as the backdrop. The photos are not dated, and James Arnold, the curator of the collection, notes that, "The glass plates that we hold in the collection do not have any of Hardman's original catalogue information with them so there are no accurate dates for the images." Nor was there any information on exactly where they were taken, other than near Keswick. He suggests that the curling photos date from the 1940s or 1950s. What do you think? Study them here.

I felt that I might be able to identify the spot by visiting Keswick town. But my first visit in January was unsuccessful. It had been a clear and bright day when I left Scotland, but by the time I reached the Lake District National Park it had clouded over. The Information Centre in Keswick was closed for refurbishment, as was the Museum and Art Gallery. I had printed out a low resolution copies of a couple of the Hardman photos and a helpful assistant in a local outdoor pursuits shop identified the mountain in the background as Skiddaw. He suggested that the pond might have been in Crow Park, near a present day caravan site. A further suggestion came from a local photographer's shop that the curling pond might have been in Fitz Park, beside the River Greta. By this time the rain was coming down heavily, and the mountains completely obscured, so it was time to journey home, no nearer to knowing the whereabouts of Keswick's curling pond.

Last month I mounted a second 'expedition', this time better prepared with an OS map, and a large Harman photo, purchased from the Museum of Lakeland Life. The weather forecast was good for the whole day. And this time I could not have been more successful!

This time the Information Centre in Keswick's historical Moot Hall was open. Two extremely helpful assistants listened patiently to my story and looked at the photograph. After some discussion, one of the women seemed convinced she knew where the pond was, and pointed it out on the large map on the Centre's wall. Burnside, just north of the town, had at one time been a caravan site, and was nearer Skiddaw than the two previous suggestions. This was now the favoured location!

The suggestion was made that I look in at the office of the local newspaper, the Keswick Reminder. I decided to do this before heading for Burnside. The counter assistant said she would ask the Editor, and a few minutes later Jane Grave appeared ...... carrying a curling stone! I was (almost) rendered speechless! The last thing I expected to find on my Keswick adventure was a curling stone whose provenance was known.

Here's Jane, holding my Hardman photo, and a photo of her maternal grandfather, Percy Watson McKane. Jane remembered him curling at Burnside, and indeed he is listed in the RCCC Annuals as a member of Derwentwater CC in the 1940s and 1950s. The club had fifty-five members in 1948. George McKane, Jane's great grandfather, had founded the Keswick Reminder in 1915 and Jane confirms he was also a curler. The stone is one of a pair which belonged to him.

Enthused by this discovery I made my way to Burnside which lies just off the A591. The geography of the area is complicated somewhat by the (new) A66 which was not built until the 1970s. However, I was able to match the slopes of Skiddaw with the background in some of the Hardman photos. Burnside is in the shadow in the dip in the foreground of this pic.

The caravan park is now a collection of timber lodges.

A marshy low lying area of a field to the south of the lodges, and flanked by a stream, is all that remains of the curling pond today.

But that's not the end of the story.

I subsequently found this photo online (here) of curling at Burnside at an earlier date than the Hardman photographs. Two, possibly three, games are taking place. It was posted by davidhume100 in his Flickr Photostream of family photographs. The caption states, "Burneside [sic], Keswick. John Hume (b1880) keen on curling, as was his father Francis. Stones at Woodend, Threlkeld. John (b1922) one of the lads at far right." This last information puts the date of the photo no later than 1930, probably a little earlier.

Knowing the location of a pond at Burnside allowed study of old maps of the area using this website, and sure enough, on the OS 1:2500 map of 1899 a 'curling pond' is indicated. However, tracing the history of the area and coming forward in time using all the available maps, it seems that there were TWO ponds at Burnside. The one shown on the 1899 map was built over when the area became a caravan park. A second pond, immediately to the south of the caravan park, is the one in the Hardman photos. The photo above may well be the earlier pond.

Of course, if the minute books of the Derwentwater CC have survived all might become clearer. I wonder if they exist somewhere. Perhaps someone reading this may know?