Historical Curling Places

There is hardly a community in Scotland that does not have somewhere - a custom rink or pond, a loch, a river, or even part of a flooded field - where curling was played outside in past years. Documenting these places was initially a lone effort by David B Smith, co-author of this blog. David gleaned information from archives, Royal Club Annuals, and club minute books to create a list of Scottish 'curling places'. This list was originally a Word document, but thanks to Lindsay Scotland, and more recently Harold Forrester, the information has been put into a database and via that database into a map. The map entries link to the underlying database which records the original references, and where possible there are links to photographs and old maps.

We have talked about the project in this blog before, see here. Until now the information has all been hidden away deep in the layers of the old Royal Club website. Today's post is to advertise the fact that 'Historical Curling Places' now has its own identity at historicalcurlingplaces.org. Click on the link to visit, and zoom into where you live! There is a tips and hints page if you are new to the interactive site.

Lindsay and Harold would love to hear from you if you can add any information to what they have on file about any curling place that you know or is near where you live.

I was fascinated to see that the mapping exercise has expanded to encompass a database and map for England. It is often said that the sport of curling in the nineteenth century stopped at the Scotland - England border. Not true, as the English Curling Places map shows.

And a similar exercise is underway to document all the ice rinks and curling rinks that are now closed. This project has just recently begun. Why not get involved with it?

Curling places in England screenshot.

Parliamentary Curling

One of the features of curling throughout its history has been that it is what social workers of the present day would call 'socially inclusive'. You might be the laird and provide the pond on your land but unless you could curl well you couldn’t aspire to skipping a rink.

We historians of the game like to emphasise its egalitarianism. There’s the famous story – perhaps even spurious – about the poacher and the sheriff, both members of Peebles Curling Club in the early years of the nineteenth century. They played in the same rink. The poacher was the skip because of his skill on the ice. Sadly, from time to time it fell to the sheriff to have to jail him for unlawfully taking red fish during the summer. The story goes that during one bonspiel the poacher skip shouted down the ice to the sheriff, “Shirra, do you see this stane?” “Aye”, said the sheriff. “Weel, just gie it sixty days!”

I was delighted recently to come across two newspaper reports that showed that even far from home the Scot took what opportunity he could to indulge his passion for his favourite, national game.

The first appeared in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal of February 7, 1895.

“Parliamentary curling is at present popular among members of Parliament. Mr Graham Murray, at the Crystal Palace, has won the point medal with a capital score of 23. The Parliamentary players include Mr G. Whitelaw, Mr William Whitelaw, Sir John Kinloch, Mr Cochrane, Mr H. Anstruther, Mr Thorburn, and Mr Ramsay.”

The second appeared in the pages of the Glasgow Herald of February 12, 1895.

“A curling match between certain members of the House of Commons and the curling club was held at Wimbledon on Saturday. Of two Parliamentary rinks one was composed of Mr Bruce Wentworth, Sir John Kinloch, Mr William Whitelaw, and Mr Parker Smith; while the other consisted of Mr Graham Murray, Mr J.A. Baird, Mr Anstruther, and Mr Graham Whitelaw. But the Wimbledon Club won by three points.”

The lake at Wimbledon, which still exists close to the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s headquarters, had been used for some time by curlers, mainly of the expatriate Scots type. The Wimbledon CC had joined the RCCC as recently as 1893, but the Crystal Palace CC had been on the go since 1870.

Of the Parliamentary curlers:-

A Graham Murray, was MP for Bute,
William Whitelaw was MP for Perth City,
Sir John Kinloch was MP for East Perthshire,
Thomas Cochrane was MP for North Ayrshire,
Henry Anstruther was MP for St Andrews, and
Walter Thorburn was MP for Peebles and Selkirk,
The Hon. Charles Maule Ramsay was MP for Forfar,
Bruce Vernon Wentworth was MP for Brighton, and
John Parker Smith was MP for Partick.
The geographical spread is notable.

Graham Murray was, perhaps, the most distinguished of these curlers. He became an advocate in 1874, and his career blossomed. He was appointed an Advocate Depute in 1888-90, Sheriff of Perthshire in 1890-1, QC in 1891, was Member of Parliament for Bute from 1891 to 1905, Solicitor General in 1891-2 and 1895-6, Lord Advocate 1896-1903, Secretary of State for Scotland 1903-5, Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, 1905-13. He was created a peer as Lord Dunedin in 1905, and was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (that is, a judge of the House of Lords) from 1913 to 1932. In fact, he is regarded as one of the most important and famous of Scots judges.

Despite these onerous offices he kept up his interest in curling. In 1897 we find him writing the Sport of the Month article, on curling, in The Pall Mall Magazine. Until he moved to London in connection with his Lords appointment he was an active member of the club which was the successor to the ancient but defunct Duddingston Curling Society, namely Coates CC. He was a member of Crystal Palace CC.

When he was made president-elect of the Royal Club in 1908-9 the editor of the Annual wrote: “It is also pleasing for us to have as President-elect at such an interesting juncture, the Right Hon. Lord Dunedin, who throughout his career of strenuous activity in the profession of which he is now the honoured head, never missed a day on the ice when a game was available, and as a ‘keen, keen curler’ discarded his ‘briefs’ for the nonce when he heard the curlers’ war-cry and the sound of the channel-stane.”

In the next year he succeeded Lord Strathcona as the Club’s President.

As for the other Parliamentarians’ curling connections in the year 1895, so far as I have been able to find them:-

William Whitelaw was president of Perth CC,
Sir John Kinloch was a member of Strathmore CC,
Thomas Cochrane was a member of Dalry Union CC,
Walter Thorburn was vice-president of Peebles CC,
The Hon. Charles Ramsay was a member of Brechin Castle CC,
Bruce Vernon Wentworth was vice-president of the family club, Dall CC, at their estate of Dall on Loch Rannoch, and
John Parker Smith was a patron and member of Partick CC.

David B Smith.

Top: Curling on Wimbledon Lake, January, 1891, from a private album.

Graham Murray, also known as Lord Dunedin, as president-elect of the Royal Club. From the programme of the dinner held by the Royal Club to honour the first team of Canadian curlers to visit Scotland in 1909.

A sketch from The Penny Illustrated Paper of January 14, 1893. The accompanying article commented on how seldom the Scottish game of curling could be played in the south of England and also remarked that Wimbledon because of curling had become a sort of Scottish colony.

All illustrations are courtesy of David B Smith.

Greenacres 1987

Here is a short videoclip from the final of the Greenacres Junior Ladies Invitation in 1987. The game matched Diane Lyle's Inverness team of Jane Calder (3rd), Karen Smith (2nd) and Lorna Matheson (lead) against Eva Andersson's Swedish side. Eva skipped and played third, Katarina Oberg played the last stones, with Maria Karlsson (2nd) and Malin Linquist (lead).

The YouTube link is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bffThrY04sM

or simply click on either of the images above which are screenshots showing the two teams in the final. Richard Courtney, of sponsor Goudies Garage, is in the photo with the Swedish girls.

There is no commentary. The background music was on the original tape. And who filmed this? Image Video Production was by Ron and Jen? Who were they? Can you help?

(Added later: Gordon McIntyre has been in touch to say that the couple that were involved with the video were Ron and Jen Graham from Bishopton, who were later to video weddings with their Image Videos business. Thanks Gordon.)

See if you can spot Jane Sanderson and Elizabeth Paterson-Brown watching in the gallery.

The second video is of the presentation ceremonies. Look out for many well known junior curlers of the day including Marion and Janice Miller, Kirsty and Karen Addison (to name just four) and future Olympians Debbie Knox and Margaret Morton, and a certain Rhona Howie. I wonder what future she would have in the sport!? Christine and Hugh Stewart as well as Kerr Graham from the organising committee are there. If you were around at the time you will recognise others I'm sure, such as Gordon McIntyre who became the Greenacres ACDO for many years.

Yes the 'master of ceremonies' with all the facial hair is indeed me, Bob Cowan. Apologies about that. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that this was twenty-four years ago. There was a great surprise in store for the runners-up!

The link is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVbYDdy880

or just click on the image below.

Was Prince Albert a Curler?

It is well known that the Grand Caledonian Curling Club in 1842 sought royal patronage from HRH Prince Albert and that the prince graciously condescended to bestow that honour upon the young club. The Annual for 1843 records the gift to the prince of a 'splendid pair of Curling Stones, made of the finest Ailsa-Craig granite, most beautifully finished and ornamented, the handles being formed of silver, and bearing an appropriate inscription'.

The presentation was made by the Earl of Mansfield, then president of the Grand Club, at his home of Scone Palace, 'and with a view to illustrate the explanations that were given to Her Majesty by Lord Mansfield, the polished oaken floor of the room was summarily converted into a ‘rink’, and the stones were sent ‘roaring’ along its smooth and even surface.' So impressed was the Queen that she next year granted the club the privilege and honour of using the term 'Royal' in its title.

I long had thought that that was likely to have been the only use ever made of these special stones. My efforts to trace the stones were unsuccessful until early in 2003 when, as I described in an article in October 2003 in the Scottish Curler, I discovered that the stones were in Frogmore House in Windsor Park. Why they were there no one was able to tell me.

My continuing researches recently unearthed a couple of articles which may give a clue. It now seems possible that Prince Albert actually used his presentation stones at Frogmore.

I found in the newspaper John Bull, of January 2, 1847, this exciting piece:

“At the conclusion of the presentation of Her Majesty’s new year’s gifts in the New Riding School, at the Royal Mews, the Queen, His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and a party of upwards of twenty, proceeded across the Home-park to Frogmore, and paid a visit to her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. The Prince Consort and the gentlemen of the Royal Household amused themselves for an hour and a half at the Scotch game of curling upon the lake, the ice being in a most excellent state for the enjoyment of the sport. The Royal party afterwards retired to the mansion, and partook of refreshment with the Duchess of Kent, and returned to the Castle at two o’clock.”

The next account appeared in the Glasgow Herald of January 4, the same year:

“The Court still remains at Windsor, and the Queen is engaged in the agreeable occupation of dispensing the hospitalities of the season… Directly after breakfast on Thursday morning, her Majesty, accompanied by the Duchess of Sutherland, and attended by all the ladies of her court, rode to Frogmore in the pony phaetons, and promenaded for several hours in the beautiful grounds surrounding that mansion; whilst His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, and all the gentlemen in his suite, amused themselves by skating and playing at ‘curling’ (as our Scottish neighbours call this fine game) on the ice of the lake…”

Whether the two accounts are speaking of the same game or two separate ones is not clear.

And Prince Albert seems to have passed on his enthusiasm to his second son Prince Alfred, for we see in The Scotsman of 29 February 1864:

“…On Saturday the party [H R H Prince Alfred, Earl of Home, Earl of Dunmore, Lord Henry Scott, MP., Lord Schomberg Ker, Hon. F. Charteris, Sir John Marjoribanks, Colonel Cathcart, &c.] at present sojourning at The Hirsel [the home of the Earl of Home near Coldstream] betook themselves to the loch, where two or three hours were spent in curling and skating…”

David B Smith.

Top: A picture of one of the single-soled, common Ailsa stones presented by the Grand Caledonian Curling Club to HRH Prince Albert.

Part of the inscription on the silver handle. The whole inscription is: “Presented to His Royal Highness Prince Albert. By the Grand Caledonian Curling Club on the occasion of His Royal Highness’ First Visit to Scotland. Edinburgh, 1st. Septr.. 1842.”

The maker’s hallmark is that of the firm of Robb and Whittet.

The photographs of the Prince’s stones are by courtesy of The Royal Collection, copyright 2003, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

The 1962 Scotch Cup

The Scotch Cup international series of matches in 1962 involved four countries. The first and second series of games in 1959 and 1960 had matched Canada and Scotland against each other. The USA became involved in 1961, and in 1962 a Swedish team took part for the first time. The competitors were:

Scotland:
Bobby Young
Sandy Anderson
John Pearson
Willie Young (Skip)

Canada:
Wes Richardson
Garnet (Sam) Richardson
Arnold Richardson
Ernie Richardson (Skip)

USA:
Nick Jerrule
Terry Kleffman
Fran Kleffman (Skip)
Dick Brown (Fourth)

Sweden:
Arne Stern
Per Ivar Rydgren
Knut Bartells
Rolf Arfwidsson (Skip)

The four teams played a double round robin, the first games at the Falkirk Rink and the second round at the Haymarket Rink, Edinburgh.

The Canadians were undefeated in six games, the USA lost twice to Canada, the Scots lost all their games against Canada and the USA, and the Swedes did not win a game in their first appearance in the Scotch Cup.

The Scotch Whisky Association produced a promotional 16mm cine film after the event. Leslie Ingram-Brown recently had this original film converted to DVD, and he very kindly gave me a copy for my archive. It runs beautifully on the big screen television. I already had a VHS tape, but this is so much better quality. I've edited the DVD content down to two YouTube clips, each less than ten minutes, concentrating on the curling action and discarding the social events and the trip to the Glenkinchie Distillery. It's in black and white of course, and a bit grainy. Commentary is from Doug Maxwell who was to become the executive director of the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship in 1968.

The first clip, of the Falkirk games, is here. And I bet you smile when the pipers lead the players on to the ice!

The second clip, of the Haymarket games, is here.

It is fascinating to watch our sport fifty years ago. Twelve end games! So many people smoking, even when playing and when sweeping! The old Scottish hack, and the crampit used just by Willie Young. It was the Richardsons who inspired me when I began to play in the early 60s, and I just love watching them even now, particularly with their corn brooms.

Have a look out for faces you might recognise in the crowd!

[IMPORTANT: These clips are on YouTube as 'Unlisted', ie, only those who know the links can view them. They are not searchable. If you wish to share these clips with others that might be interested, please link to this page which you are reading now (the address is:
http://curlinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/08/1962-scotch-cup.html)
rather than directly to the YouTube clips themselves. I think it important that anyone watching the clips knows where they came from, that they have been edited, and can read what is written above. Thanks. Bob Cowan]

The top image is of the Falkirk Rink, long since closed, and is a frame from the DVD.

When the Clubs Rallied at Stirling

David B Smith writes the following, with the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the occasion approaching, see here:

On June 24, 1861, crowds began to assemble early in the ancient burgh of Stirling. After years of talk and six years of fund-raising, the second step was about to be taken to make a permanent memorial to Scotland’s great patriotic hero, Sir William Wallace, knight, of Elderslie.

The first step had taken place on the same date six years before: a large concourse of patriotic Scots at a vast meeting in the King’s Park in Stirling had resolved to appoint a committee charged with the task of raising a suitable monument to Wallace and finding the money to do so.

The design chosen was the one we see today – the large Scots baronial tower with the gothic crown on top set upon the Abbey Craig, and the designer was the Glasgow architect, J T Rochead. Contributions poured in from Scots all over the world.

June 24, 1861, was the day on which the foundation stone was to be laid. That was the anniverary of the Battle of Bannockburn, in 1314.

The Rev. Charles Rogers, the committee’s secretary, invited all the right people, the provosts and town councils of the important towns and cities of Scotland, a large number of Masonic lodges, many companies of Volunteers, and seventeen curling clubs representing Scotland at play.

That it was curling clubs that were chosen is important for that shows clearly what an important place in Scottish society was held by the game. Said The Glasgow Herald, "At an early hour the town became crowded with visitors from all parts of the country; and, latterly, there could not have been fewer than 60,000 or 80,000 strangers in the place." There were "various decorations adorning the principal streets and flags flying in gay luxuriance from the most prominent points in the town."

A little after one o’clock the procession of 8,000 to 10,000 persons began to leave the King’s Park, led by two horsemen in ancient armour, followed by Lieutenant General Sir James Maxwell Wallace, a descendant of the hero, and an instrumental band. There followed seventeen companies of Volunteers from all over Scotland, many with pipers.

Then came the curlers, interspersed with more pipers and pipe bands. Gardeners’ Lodges, Oddfellows’ Societies and St Crispin Societies followed them; and behind came the civic representatives of Stirling, Ayr, Hamilton, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Musselburgh, Cupar, Lanark, Airdrie, Rutherglen, Inverness, Elgin, Dunfermline, Peebles, North Berwick, Rothesay, Helensburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Dumbarton.

Bringing up the rear were bearers of Wallace’s and equally ancient swords, and the organising committee.

The walk to the top of Abbey Craig took well over an hour and the ceremony involved important speeches before everyone dispersed.

The curling clubs involved, according to the Programme of Proceedings, were Cardross, Polmont and West Quarter, Shotts, Balmerino, Cambuslang, Meigle, Abercairney, Crossgates, Hopetoun, Partick, Strathendrick, Port of Menteith, Johnstone, Merchiston, Dollar and Devonvale, Drummond Castle and Lochgelly. Of the participant and surviving clubs only three have been able to provide to me evidence of the event from their minutes. I thought that patriotic curlers of the present day might like to share what was written.

Since it was what the Secretary of Polmont wrote that prompted this article I’ll quote him first.

June 24, 1861. “Seldom does it occur that curlers are called out at this flowery season of the year to enjoy themselves they being more appropriately turned out when the icicles are depending from the Boughs and all around in 'hoary cranreuch drest' but as this was an exceptional day and the object one in which every lover of liberty and of his country was called upon to do homage to departed valour our club turned out 16 of its number and had a very pleasant trip to Stirling to witness the inauguration of the Wallace Monument on the Abbey Craig.”

The Merchiston secretary recorded merely that on 31 May 31, 1861, “[he] laid before the Meeting A letter which he had received from the Committee of the National Wallace Monument requesting the Presence of the Merchiston Curling Club at the laying of the foundation stone of the Monument.” And that it was decided to send a deputation of two members “at the expense of the Club…”

Perhaps the Partick secretary entered into the spirit of the occasion best.
“In the King’s Park of Stirling on the 24th of June, 1861, about thirty members of the Club gathered and formed part of the procession of all denominations of their countrymen to march to the Abbey Craig, there to honour by their presence the name of their departed Patriot, The Noble Sir William Wallace, ‘The Hero of Auld Scotland,’ whose name was to the English as the Breath of the deadly ‘Simoon’ [a violent hot sand-laden wind] is to the Arab, or the Ravenous Wolf to the Russian or Lapland travellers, by lending a helping hand in the laying of a foundation stone of a monument to be erected on the Abbey Craig to his memory as a token of the high estimation in which his countrymen hold his departed worth, and as a remembrancer in all time coming of him who so nobly has gone before, being a tribute of respect so dearly won by him, who suffered death rather than submit to the ‘Power Seeking’ English, or prove a Knave to his country. The curlers were rallied round their handsome Silken Banner, presented to the Club by Mr. John Dunn and crowned by an imitation Curling stone presented by Mr. John White. The Partick Curling Club formed no mean part of the lengthy procession. The whole proceedings passed off with complete success, and the curlers wended their way home , no doubt much pleased and much edified by their journey north.”

(This article was first published in the October 2005 issue of the Scottish Curler magazine.)

Top: The early photograph by the famous Dundee firm of James Valentine must have been taken very shortly after the National Wallace Monument was completed in 1869.

Alloa Medals

David B Smith writes, " I have just had the rare pleasure of repatriating – through the good offices of eBay.com! – a priceless piece of curling heritage, a medal presented in 1860 to Alloa Prince of Wales Curling Club. How this ornate silver medal got to New Zealand is not known, but it is now back in the land of its birth.

As the illustrations show, the medal is of unusual design, for although oval medals are fairly common, they are usually taller than wide, whereas this oval is, as it were, lying on its side. That enabled the designer and silversmith to attach from the bottom rim a pair of crossed curling brooms which are balanced by two dangling miniature stones of granite with silver L-shaped handles. I know of no other medal with two dependent stones.

The suspension at the top is a casting of the Prince of Wales feathers, and the border is a richly worked casting of thistles.

I had often wondered why there were two clubs in the very small burgh of Alloa, the Alloa CC and the Alloa Prince of Wales, and why one of them was apparently named in honour of the Prince Consort. The donation inscription provides the answer. The donor was David Cousins 'OF THE PRINCE OF WALES HOTEL ALLOA': the club took its name not from royalty but from licensed premises!

The obverse bears the donation below a finely engraved version of Sir George Harvey’s very popular painting of The Curlers. On the reverse is a list of seven winners, of whom two won it twice, for this was a points medal, on dates from February 11, 1860, to February 7, 1873.

I find that if one addresses oneself to local librarians and archivists they are very ready to help; and so I sent an email about the medal to Clackmannan libraries, and asked if there had been any report in any of the contemporary newspapers of the presentation of this fine medal. Within hours I had scans of the three pieces in the Alloa Journal, which dealt with it.

The first reported thus:
“ALLOA PRINCE OF WALES CURLING CLUB. – Some kind friend of this club has commissioned one of the members to purchase another point medal. The name of the donor will be given when the medal is ready for presentation. Meantime the competition for its possession takes place to-day at two o’clock on Gartmorn Dam…”

It was next reported that “The Alloa Prince of Wales Club assembled on Gartmorn last Saturday, to compete for their newpoint medal. After a keen game, Mr Robertson of the Ferry Inn was declared the winner, having taken seven points…” Twenty one members competed and the scores ranged from zero to seven, although it must be remembered that under the scoring system current in 1860 the maximum score for a successfully played shot was one, and not two as at present, and there was no score for a partly successful shot.

The mystery surrounding the gift was dispelled shortly after the competition at a meeting of 'this flourishing club' held in the Prince of Wales hotel. “…After some routine business, the worthy host of the hotel stated to the president and the meeting, that he had much pleasure in presenting a medal to the club – that although the medal had been already played for, and honourably won by Mr Robertson, of the Ferry Inn, it had not as yet been announced , and he believed that it was, with the exception of two members and himself, a mystery regarding the name of the donor. He, however, had pleasure in stating that he was the donor. He had had in view for long the presentation of such , and especially now as he was advanced in years, and unable to take an active part in the roaring game; he therefore hoped that the club would accept of his heart-felt gift. The president, in name of the club, returned thanks to the donor, and thereupon put the ribbon, to which was attached the medal, round the neck of Mr Robertson, wishing him much enjoyment of it for the season. Mr Robertson made a suitable reply. The medal, we may mention, is most beautiful in design, and cannot fail to meet with the approbation of all who may have the opportunity of inspecting it. It can be seen at the hotel for a few days. The inscription on the medal is as follows:- ‘Presented to the Alloa Prince of Wales Curling Club, by David Cousins, of the Prince of Wales Hotel. Alloa, Feby. 1860. Gained by Wm Robertson, 11th Feby. 1860’”

One piece of mystery remained. Who was WJM’D whose mark showed that he had made the medal? My friend, George Dalgleish, Principal Curator, Scottish History, National Museums of Scotland, and a great expert on Scottish silver, told me there was a silversmith, William J Macdonald, sometime at 139 Princes Street, Edinburgh, who was probably our man. Using that information I looked in the Edinburgh Post Office Directory for 1859-60 and found him, described as 'working jeweller, 31 Castle Street', whose house was at number 12. That the National Library of Scotland has recently put all the extant Post Office Directories for the whole of Scotland online has made this sort of research very much easier.

The Prince of Wales curlers were not unique in possessing a beautiful and splendid medal. The older club, the Alloa CC, was also the owner of a marvellous specimen (above) given to them in 1844 by James Johnstone of Alva, a local laird. It is one of a very small group of very ornate medals which bear on the front surface miniature curling stones set among crossed brooms. In this case two stones are made of bloodstone and the other two of reddish hardstone.

The taste for fine medals continued. I have in my collection- one of my earliest acquisitions - a silver medal given to Alloa CC in 1868. It is a more straightforward medal: a suspension of crossed brooms from which hung formerly a diminutive silver stone, and within a buckled belt, an engraved contemporary curling scene."

Illustrations from top:
• Alloa Prince of Wales Curling Club medal, obverse.
• Reverse.
• The 1844 medal.

• Alloa Curling Club, medal. This photograph shows the engraved scene on the obverse and the border, detached. In my collection.

• The reverse. The medal assembled.

Images are © David B Smith