Swimming costume at the ready

©Calum Davidson

Gladys Shepherd, nèe Parsley, was born in Hull in 1939 and moved to Cromarty with her family in 1952 when her father took up post as Coastguard. Apart from three years living and working in London after leaving school, and a few months in the USA in 1983, Gladys has lived in Cromarty ever since.

We used to live in Hull and often went across the Humber to Cleethorpes, which was lovely. The tide went out for miles and miles and the ferries there were huge car ferries. We came to Cromarty in 1952, travelling to Invergordon by train. And when we got there they said we had to get the ferry to Cromarty. There were six children and my Mum and Dad, so there was quite a pile of us. And we got to the harbour and my Mum said to the harbour master “Is the ferry for Cromarty coming, or is it here?” “Oh”, he said “there’s it out in the sea”, and you could see it going up and down like this and my Mum said “I’m not going on that coggie boat”. (Coggie meant a little rowing boat, not a ferry as such.) My mother couldn’t envisage a ferry being such a little boat.

But we did go on it, and Albert used to go across to Invergordon three times a day and he would bring the papers and the mail and the supplies and he used to take all the rabbits from Cromarty that used to go to Hull on the freight train from Invergordon. It’s funny, we used to go into the city (Hull) on a Saturday morning to the markets to get the fish and the rabbits and everything that came from Scotland and we’d buy rabbit because it was a Sunday lunch for us: it was a treat, we loved it. And here were piles and piles of boxes down by the harbour in Cromarty to go over to Invergordon. That was so amazing! And I remember going up to Davidston and all the rabbits were running wild and we thought we could catch them, there was that many of them. I don’t know who used to kill them and freight them but they were all piled up. There used to be Jock the trapper, he would have been the one. He lived in Allan Square.

We used to go over the ferry and my Mum would say: “Oh you’re not wise, you want your brains washing out, going on that ferry”. It would be disappearing in the waves, but we used to go and get our hair done in Invergordon and I got my ears pierced over there and my father went mad, but I mean it was all across water and it was lovely.

The Eagle and the Ark Royal used to come into the firth regularly when I was young. They’d anchor off Cromarty on a Sunday and we used to go out and get a guided tour and they would feed us: beautiful food all laid out – salmons and that. Catriona Gillies, Maggie Reid, all that age group, used to go at night – to big buffets and things, you know, the officers used to entertain them all – they had a wonderful time. We used to love going out to the big ships.

The sailors would come into Cromarty – the dances we had with the sailors, oh, there were dances every Saturday night. The local boys used to get mad: there was always a punch up because the girls were dancing with all the sailors! We used to have some fun. The sea was a big thing then.

Like the rigs nowadays the ships would come in here for service because it’s a deep port. They would anchor just off Cromarty and we loved it when they came in. And then of course there was the Prince Louis, with the boys from Gordonstoun. It anchored off Cromarty and the boys would come in, in the little rowing boats, and the girls would all be waving. I was about 13 or 14. And we’d be standing in the classroom looking out to sea. “Oh, the Prince Louis has come in”, we’d say, and it was a Mr Mackenzie who was our teacher then. “If you’d like to stand, girls, you can stand for the rest of the day, but in the corner”, he’d warn.  But you couldn’t see out of the window then.

And then of course my Dad was the Coastguard and if it was more than 5 or 7 force gales the cone would go up and he would go up to a lookout at the top of the Sutors – they would look out for SOS signals and all that, doing about a four-hour watch and then the next one would go up. My Dad had one of those motorised bikes with an engine on it. We used to go up with him sometimes and just stand and watch what he did. He’d keep a log of things that were happening in the water and boats that were coming in. The lookout has been pulled down now, I think, but the sheds are still there. People used to live in them, looking after the pigs that were owned by Colonel Ross.

The first year we came, at the first regatta, there were all the races: swimming across the harbour basin, relay swimming race, the greasy pole and things, and my sister and I entered for the races with swimming caps and we were the only ones there – nobody else went in! Even my ex husband couldn’t swim and he’d lived in Cromarty all his life. They used to jump off the shed in the Vee, you know, down the harbour; we used to all go swimming there and it would be choc-a-block with young ones learning to swim, and then there were quite a few came up that were getting lessons and we were all swimming then. The regattas were good. Eventually some older ones used to go in for the ‘greasy pole’: they would hang a salmon on the end and if you got to the end of the pole, you got the salmon! It was really good fun.

We used to go out on the sewage pipes, you know, and swim! When you think about it now…but I kept my mouth well shut!  I suppose it never did us any harm. If we saw anything nasty, we’d move away from it. I remember walking out on the sewage pipes, they were quite slippery. We’d go on them when the tide was out, to see what we could see on the beach.  Also we used to go and collect mussels. A lot of people collected mussels and winkles as we called them. They don’t call them that here.

We had a local fisherman, Big Robert, Jimmy Mallaig’s brother. He had his own little boat and he used to go out fishing twice a week and he had a push barrow and would go round selling this fish. My Mum used to buy the fresh fish and my Dad would do it on the fire with batter on it. Fish was a big thing then. They used to catch everything: cod, haddock, flatfish, occasionally crabs and lobsters. Every Friday we got our fish, you know, everybody ate fish on a Friday.
Of course my son-in-law, Bob Maclean, has swum to Nigg, was it two or three years ago, and Pete Clunas and Fraser Mackenzie. I’ve never swum to Nigg but my sister June might have done. I was always quite frightened of the deep water and I hated seaweed round your legs and the thought of an eel round your leg, ugh!  I mean, I love looking at the sea and I love walking on the beach.  I do love swimming, but I prefer to go to a pool than in the sea. Mrs Middleton of Rose Farm used to go in the sea a lot. She had her own steps and her own caravan. She was marvellous.

We used to go to Nigg for Sunday School sausage sizzles. Even when I was married and had children we used to go across to Nigg for a treat. We would take a picnic and then go to the hotel for soft drinks and lollipops for the bairns. The beach was absolutely beautiful. It’s still there (to the east) but I mean the sand was the whole way along and right round the bay. It was just like being abroad, you know, I mean it was famous – just like a holiday resort. We used to pray for good weather and get ready on the Sunday. We’d put the bairns to Sunday school and then when they came back we’d get their costumes and everything and over we went. They’d be in and out of the sea all day. We didn’t come home till late. The boat used to go back and fore, I think it was about a shilling (5p) in those days.

The lifeboat used to take people out on trips quite a lot. They used to charge pennies and take you right out the Sutors and there was an RAF one from Invergordon: I think it was a pilot boat for the big boats coming in, and it took you right out the Sutors as well. And there were loads and loads of yachters used to come to the hotel on a Sunday with their boats, from Invergordon, Saltburn and all around that coast and from Findhorn. Every Sunday they’d come to the hotel for their lunch and they would have the presentations of the prizes for the races in the hotel.  All this was in the 50s and 60s. All the boats would come in – Cromarty was great and there were more shops then. But it’s nice to see yachts actually from Cromarty in the bay now. When they’re out in the summer, it’s lovely.

When I lived in Bayview Crescent you’d get up in the morning and you’d see all the ‘tumblers’ as we used to call them. Probably it was dolphins, I don’t know, perhaps porpoises: millions of them, they used to be in their droves. There was never a day that you didn’t see them. They’d be jumping right out the water, beautiful. I used to love that. And you could see Ben Wyvis from across the water – in fact, my relations used to come up from England and they’d say “it’s like a 5-star hotel here”, you know, the view. You don’t appreciate it when it’s on your doorstep. I appreciate it more because I have no view here (in the Hugh Miller Institute flat). I’ve been here over 20 years now. But you can’t see the sea from here, which is a shame.

Betty Hogg and some of us used to go in the sea every summer, just from the beach. There was loads of us used to go in from the beach. It was a regular thing. You’d hear “Are you coming? Get your cozzie on!” I remember a day quite recently when Doris (McCann) said to me “Would you like to go for a swim?” I said, “I’d love to go” (thinking she was going to Dingwall baths). I said, “I’ll get my cozzie on” because it’s quicker when you get there. And then she stopped down the road and took out a flask. And she makes beautiful muffins and here we were on the beach! It was freezing. She put her toe in, I put my toe in and “Och, to heck”, I said and I got in and she said, “You’re brave”, and then she came in and we were in and out for ages and it was lovely. J

Jellyfish? I didn’t see any. There used to be, when we were young – used to be millions in the Vee. It used to bother me a bit, swimming amongst them – I didn’t like it. I’ve never been stung with one but a few people were. And then standing on them on the beach sometimes! I saw the crabs and things, you know, and I used to think you’d get your toe pinched.

I remember being interviewed for television, asking about the oil rigs and what difference it had made to our lives, the rigs being in Cromarty, and I said it did make a big difference to money. But the men just went mad with it; I mean it didn’t really benefit the families. My ex husband and all his family and his friends got huge pay packets but the wives never saw half of it. I said on that interview, it made a difference because we got £6 a week when he worked for Colonel Ross on the farm, and he gave me £50 when he went to Nigg, which was big money. But they were getting about £150-£200 a week or more and he gave me £50 and that was for all the children and everything, you know. The standard of living did improve, although I spent every penny on my children, food and the house.

I used to love picking up shells, you know, pretty shells, when we were young and we used to make necklaces and things. When we were very young we were always at the seaside, I always associated the seaside with rock and humbugs and fish and chips.

I don’t think the young folk feel quite the same way about the sea – there are too many computers, too many other things. My grandsons love sport: golf and things, and they go to the gym. They don’t seem to use the sea like we did.