{"id":6005,"date":"2020-10-05T17:03:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T21:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6005"},"modified":"2020-10-05T17:03:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T21:03:44","slug":"episode-133-skeoch-wood-rothsey-isle-of-bute-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6005","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 133 SKEOCH WOOD (ROTHSEY, ISLE OF BUTE, SCOTLAND)"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 133    SKEOCH WOOD, (ISLE of Bute, Scotland)<\/p>\n

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SKEOCH WOOD \u2026 north side of  ROTHESY, ISLE  OF BUTE, SCOTLAND<\/div>\n

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SKEOCH  WOOD<\/div>\n
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SKEOCH WOOD, CIRCA 1900<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Oct. 2020<\/div>\n

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\u201cCan I help you, lad?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, do you have an empty prison cell?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy, son\u2026looking for a place to sleep?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo need to sleep in jail\u2026let me see what I can find.\u201d<\/div>\n

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It was early September, 1960, and  I had just got off the Scottish  ferry to Rothesay on the<\/div>\n
Isle of Bute.  My money was almost gone but I dearly wanted to see the Skeoch Wood, a<\/div>\n
forest on the northern edge of the holiday town of Rothsey.  Somewhere I had  read<\/div>\n
that local police stations could provide emergency  shelter.  <\/div>\n

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Just getting to Rothsey was a shot in the dark as the expression  goes.  My job doing a mining<\/div>\n
geophysical survey  on the south coast of  Ireland was over and I was  slowly making my way<\/div>\n
to Prestwick Airport for the flight home to Canada.  This  was a grand  adventure for a 22 year<\/div>\n
old Canadian so I tried  to cram in as much family history as possible.  Mom told me she<\/div>\n
found the Skeoch Wood  on an old post cart.  <\/div>\n

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Was this forest connected  in any way with our family name?  I thought so.  But how do I<\/div>\n
interview a tree?   Actually I felt lost when I found the Skeoch Wood.  It was not the forest<\/div>\n
I expected. <\/div>\n

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\u201cGot a place for you \u2026 just down the street, very reasonable<\/div>\n
bed and breakfast.  Better than a jail cell.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cToo bad about the forest\u2026One hundred years ago you could get lost\u2026could<\/div>\n
hide in there.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/div>\n
\n
 “Two World Wars and  The Great Depression… removed a lot of trees.\u201d<\/div>\n

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And no one  I spoke  to Knew anything about the name Skeoch.  Someone must know but<\/div>\n
I had no luck.  Rather a disappointment but the Skeoch Wood was a kind of<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
namesake.  Maybe  Skeoch is both a place name\u2026and a family name.  The best <\/div>\n
meaning I got for the name was Geilic for \u201cHawthorne\u201d or that a Skeoch was \u201ca hawthorne<\/div>\n
branch thrown across a field opening as a gate.  Who knows if that is true. Does relate to<\/div>\n
trees though. So I left<\/div>\n
Rothsay, caught a bus to Prestwick and flew home to Toronto.  End of story.<\/div>\n

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Well not quite.  By pure chance in 1998 I came across THE TENTERS OF BUTE, an article<\/div>\n
written by Jenny Chaplin in The Scots  Magazine (Vol. 148, N.1, January 1998).  It was<\/div>\n
the subheading that caught my eye:<\/div>\n

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\u201cSKEOCH WOOD was  home to hundreds of  men, women and  children who, through<\/div>\n
no fault of their own, had no roof over their heads.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Rothesay once had  four large cotton mills that employed a lot of workers\u2026perhaps hundreds.<\/div>\n
Cotton processing boomed in Rothesay until 1835 when the market collapsed and all the<\/div>\n
workers were suddenly unemployed.   There was  no safety net.  The workers could not pay<\/div>\n
rent \u2026 could barely feed themselves and stooped to stealing turnips and whatever else was<\/div>\n
near at hand.   So, from 1835 until the  1920\u2019s,  nearly a century, these industrial workers<\/div>\n
and their children retreated into the Skeoch Wood.  Hidden.  They became known as<\/div>\n
the Tenters of Bute because they lived in makeshift tents and hovels.  No running water, <\/div>\n
no toilets.   The  Skeoch Wood became  a desperate  place.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe trek to the Skeoch  Wood had begun (in 1835). And throughout the  1800\u2019s and<\/div>\n
on into the early  years of  1900, the Skeoch Wood was home to hundreds of men, women<\/div>\n
and children who, through no fault of their own, had no roof over their heads.\u201d  (Jenny Chaplin)<\/div>\n

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It might be expected that the occasional visitor to Rothesay, as I was in 1960, might take<\/div>\n
a nap in the Skeoch Wood to save a bit of money.  But it must have been startling to stroll <\/div>\n
through the Skeoch  Wood in 1835 or 1855 or 1895 and find hundreds of poverty stricken<\/div>\n
families sleeping \u2026 living \u2026deep in the forest.  <\/div>\n

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They were not even allowed to beg unless the had a \u201cBegger\u2019s Badge\u201d\u2026only 26 such<\/div>\n
badges were issued.<\/div>\n

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One elderly woman walked barefoot (I assume) to the Rothesay police station in hope<\/div>\n
of getting  shoes. When she  admitted she  was 69 rather than  70 she  was sent away<\/div>\n
\u201cwith tears streaming down  her face.\u201d<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
THE police in Rothsey turned this old lady away when she  needed shoes badly.<\/div>\n
The  police  in Rothsey, in 1960, found me a plae to sleep  other than a jail cell.<\/div>\n
These  stories just do not fit well.<\/div>\n

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Selling cockles and whelks earned a little money but when  too many tried to sell<\/div>\n
this low level  food they were rounded up and moved away from town.  Rag picking<\/div>\n
was another way to try to make a living. <\/div>\n

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Some  Local residents of  Rothesay referred to the Tenters as \u201cThe dregs of humanity\u201d\u2026and<\/div>\n
that was in 1899 when they were offered a trip to the poorhouse in Greenock which<\/div>\n
they refused.  Better to live  in a rag tent in the Skeoch Wood than enter a British<\/div>\n
Poor House.  Earlier, in 1878, The Society For  Assisting Poor Wives in Their Time<\/div>\n
of Need \u2026that was the full name, imagine that\u2026the  assistance was to \u201cLend\u201d<\/div>\n
a bagful of clothing for one  month.  Lend.  not Give.<\/div>\n

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Sympathy was felt by some\u2026rejection by others\u2026all focused on the Skeoch Wood.<\/div>\n

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 1885, a Plea for the Poor:<\/div>\n

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   \u201cHard times are at our door\u2026<\/div>\n
   We never saw before<\/div>\n
  Such deep distress through poverty<\/div>\n
  As many do deplore.\u201d<\/div>\n

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When  did it end?  When were the Tenters of Skeoch Wood dispersed?  There was<\/div>\n
no specific time.  They disappeared in dribs and  grabs.  A  goodly number left<\/div>\n
in the immigrant boats heading to South Africa, Australia, Canada, etc.  How  <\/div>\n
could they afford to do so?   Local people held bazaars, antique and  collectable sales<\/div>\n
as they do today.  It was in the interest of Rothesay to do so.  Rothesay had become<\/div>\n
a tourists town.  Tourists liked to stroll through the Skeoch Wood I imagine.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The police officer that I met in 1960 must have been amused.  Maybe, later,<\/div>\n
afer he had  found me a room rather than a jail cell, he had a pint with<\/div>\n
friends in a Rothsey Pub and  said.<\/div>\n

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\u201cGuess who asked to be  put in jail today?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOne of the original Skeoch\u2019s from the Skeoch Wood.  A kid.<\/div>\n
He did not even have a tent.\u201d<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
October 2020<\/div>\n

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P.S.. In time,  Some of the marbles began to fit.  Take the LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR<\/div>\n
of which less than five were built before the factory burned to the ground in<\/div>\n
the 1920\u2019s.  Some car buffs in Scotland are rebuilding that car.  Then there<\/div>\n
is the question of  St. Skeoch.  Who was he\u2026she?  A mystery that still<\/div>\n
remains.  How could  we be offspring of saints?  Wait a second, saints do not<\/div>\n
have to be celibate do they?<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n

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Skeoch is a rather odd surname.  Then again<\/div>\n
there are many odd surnames of people around the world.<\/div>\n
So , being odd, is noting special today.  But back in 1960 when I was  much younger I had the chance<\/div>\n
to look into ur family name\u2026to maybe confirm or reject the legends that circulated through the family.<\/div>\n

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THE LAST WORD<\/div>\n

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Keep this final note secret between you and me.  Some veterans of World War II told  me<\/div>\n
the Skeoch Wood was a great place for lovemaking.  I have no idea if  that is true.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 133    SKEOCH WOOD, (ISLE of Bute, Scotland) SKEOCH WOOD \u2026 north side of  ROTHESY, ISLE  OF BUTE, SCOTLAND SKEOCH  WOOD SKEOCH WOOD, CIRCA 1900 alan skeoch Oct. 2020 \u201cCan I help you, lad?\u201d \u201cYes, do you have an empty prison cell?\u201d \u201cWhy, son\u2026looking for a place to sleep?\u201d \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cNo need to sleep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}