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 1884. 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 Hardman 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 (Bridget) 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?

The 1980 Uniroyal

Bob Cowan writes:

The young team on the cover of the April 1980 issue of the Scottish Curler magazine is the focus of this post. Dick Adams, Hugh Aitken, Norman Brown and Andrew McQuistin (skip) won the Uniroyal World Junior Curling Championship in March 1980 at Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. The Scots beat Canada's Mert Thompsett and his team of Lyle Derry, Joel Gagne and Mike Friesen in the final. It was a significant victory, the first gold medal performance of a Scottish team at the World Juniors.

The other teams in the competition, and all the results (well, not quite all, see below), can be found on the World Curling Federation's website here.

The Scots lost their opener against the Canadians, then won eight in a row to qualify for the semifinals. Their third round robin game was against Switzerland, skipped by Rico Simen. McQuistin won the toss and blanked nine ends, scoring a single in the tenth for a 1-0 victory. The Scottish Curler editor, Robin Welsh, described this as 'the most remarkable result in the history of world curling'. It certainly had many traditionalists at the time shaking their heads!

Interestingly, this score is not recorded in the World Curling Federation's Historical Results, see here. Perhaps the person who compiled this database did not believe the score? However, other results from Round 3 are also missing.

Dick Adams, Hugh Aitken, Norman Brown and Andrew McQuistin on the podium. From the April 1980 Scottish Curler.

Perhaps you are too young to remember 1980. But some of the names may be familiar. You see, Hugh, Norman and Andrew are members of the David Hay team which won the Scottish Senior Championship recently and will represent Scotland at the World Seniors in Fredericton, New Brunswick, next month. How time flies!

Third player Norman Brown has been singled out for praise for one shot he played in the final game back in 1980 - a triple takeout which turned the end, and the game, on its head. Indeed, for many years, whenever Norman was mentioned in the pages of the Scottish Curler and elsewhere, there was always an accompanying reminder of his triple takeout!

More than thirty years later I wondered if any recording of the actual shot existed. To my knowledge, the promotional 16mm film of the event (I believe there is one) has not been digitised. I asked Norman about this, and he loaned me an old VHS tape which contains part of a recording of a 1980 episode of BBC's Sportscene. The TV programme contains footage of part of the ninth end and the whole of the tenth end of the Uniroyal final game, in a segment presented by a very young looking Dougie Donnelly! The televised footage had come from CBC's coverage of the game. The late Don Chevrier and Don Duguid were the commentators.

I have digitised the footage, and uploaded the last end of the game to YouTube, see here, or click on the screenshot below. Fifteen minutes of curling history! Norman's triple is six minutes in. The quality of the video is not very good, but hopefully the clip will take those interested in the development of curling back thirty-three years. And it is great to be able to listen to the two Dons again. Enjoy.

Many thanks to Norman Brown for supplying the original VHS tape.

Have a look at all the Stranraer 'Curling Connections' in this article by Louise Kerr.

A Curler's Buckle

David B Smith writes:

At a recent auction sale at Bonham's in Edinburgh there was offered a most unusual lot.

This is how it was described in the catalogue and online: “Of curling interest; a William IV silver belt buckle, maker's mark IR, Edinburgh. Of rectangular form, each corner with curling stone, the long sides with crossed curling brooms encircled by laurel wreaths, the short sides with foot irons, length 11.5 cm.”

None of the trustees of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club Charitable Trust had ever seen such a buckle before, and after some email consultation among them in Scotland and Sweden (where the European Curling Championships were taking place) it was decided to try to buy the object for the nation and add it to the Trust's collection.

I am happy to report that the trustees' bid was successful.

The buckle looks even better than its description. When it was made by IR in Edinburgh in 1830 he was thinking four and a half inches and not 11.5 cm. That is a tall buckle and its weight is commensurate with its size.

The decoration is bold. Each of the curling stones has the smooth flat top surface that one expects from a stone of the 1830s. The brooms are roughly in proportion to the stones.

The last element of the design which appears top and bottom is an arrangement of 'crampits', or 'foot-irons', or 'tramps' which were iron, spiked devices made to be strapped to the instep of the curler's shoe and give him a more secure footing on the ice.

Since such devices are beyond the ken of curlers of the present day the photograph shows what they were like.

By the end of the nineteenth century their use had been abandoned in most of Scotland except the south west. The Rev. John Kerr, in a remarkably sour series of Curling Reflections in the Glasgow Herald of 21 May 1902, said: “In the same tournament (viz. The Waterlow Cup at Lochmaben) I was much disappointed to see the antiquated and barbarous 'tramps' still in use in a good many cases. These are bound to the feet, and their spikes, which, of course, are intended to keep the curler firm on his feet, do much damage to the ice. I thought it had been decided to forbid and forgo them altogether They are what C-B would call 'methods of barbarism' not worthy of civilised warfare.

(The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations answered the question of who C-B was. In a speech at a dinner of the National Reform Union on 14 June 1901 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, said : “When was a war not a war? When it was carried on by methods of barbarism.”)

These two crampits are from Lochmaben, late nineteenth century. From Curling: An Illustrated History by David B Smith, John Donald, Edinburgh, 1981.

Top photo © Royal Caledonian Curling Club Charitable Trust

On the Lake of Menteith 1963

Bob Cowan writes:

Fifty years ago this week, on Wednesday, January 16, 1963, the Royal Club's Grand Match was held on the Lake of Menteith. The results of 180 games are individually recorded in the Annual for 1963-64 as Grand Match Results, and a further 27 games took place in the President v President Elect Match. This indicates that 1656 curlers took part in the play on the loch that day fifty years ago, but there may well have been other games taking place on the ice which were not included in the 'official' matches. Indeed, the Report of the Grand Match Committee in the Annual suggests that some curlers had turned up hoping for a game even though they had not entered. There had also been some late cancellations. Some 230 rinks had been marked out on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15, a major feat as snow had to be cleared from the surface of each sheet, as the photo above shows. The chairman of the Grand Match Committee was Willie Murray, Glenfarg CC.

The Scottish Curler of March 1963 records that the youngest participant was 15-year old John Gill from Alness, and the oldest, at 86, was Alex Simpson of Largs Thistle.

The match was declared 'on' on the fifteenth after an early morning inspection of the venue which showed there was at least five and a half inches of ice everywhere and six inches in places. The forecast was for continuing cold weather with some snow overnight, and clear weather on the day of the match. The forecast was accurate, and the match went ahead, the cannon sounding out at noon to start play, and again three hours later to signal the games to stop.

For the record, the North beat the South. The Bishopshire club won the Challenge Trophy.

The official reports of the match were all positive as were descriptions of the occasion in the media. This was the first time the Lake of Menteith was a venue for the Grand Match. The previous Grand Match, in 1959, had been on Loch Leven. The Lake of Menteith would be the venue again in 1979.  Only these three Grand Matches have been held since 1935.

It is well recorded that the winter of 1962-63 was a severe one. There was so much snow that outside curling was restricted elsewhere! However, the Vale of Menteith was one area which received less snowfall, and this allowed the Grand Match to happen.

The photo is credited to Gerry Cranham of the Observer, and was reprinted in the Royal Club Annual and in the Scottish Curler magazine. It shows more than half of the games being played on the loch.