Stromness Hometown | South Pier

Voices of the past and the present weave an oral history of the town. This entertaining soundscape told by people of Stromness will lead you from the pier head to the cannon beyond Stromness Museum. In this first episode we start our journey at the South Pier. Find out how Stromness began, hear some fishing tales, visit Orkney Fisherman's Society and get on board the Hamnavoe ferry.

Narrator: Bea Watson

Featured speakers in order of appearance:
Ingirid Morrison 2011 / Eric Flett & Ian MacInnes circa 1990 (BBC Radio Orkney) / Tom Wishart & Ernest Marwick 1967 (Orkney Library & Archive) / Walter Leask 2002 (Orkney Heritage) / George Sinclair 2011 / Stewart Crichton 2011 / Willie Mackay 2011

Music: 1. Sandy & Ally Windwick ‘Partans in his Creel’ / 2. Jennifer & Hazel Wrigley ‘Orcadia’, ‘Orkneyites’ / 3. Barbara Firth & Adrian Stewart ‘Partans in his Creel’

Track 1 & 3 courtesy of the Ernest Walker Marwick Sound Archive Collection 1960-75 Orkney Library & Archive

What is Stromness Hometown?

10 years ago an audio journey called Stromness Hometown was created, where voices of the past and, what was then, the present told the history of the town. The original version was available on headsets to listen to while you walked. We’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of Stromness Hometown by releasing it on all your usual podcast platforms, so that you can still listen while you walk, but also listen wherever you happen to be. 8 episodes plus a bonus track will be released daily from 16th December 2022.

Things were different 10 years before Stromness Hometown and they’ll be different 10 years from now. What’s valuable about Stromness Hometown is its blend of archive and contemporary recordings, which themselves have now become archive material. So roll back the clock and enjoy Stromness Hometown two thousand and twelve, the anniversary edition.

Download a map and find out more about Stromness here: https://welovestromness.wordpress.com/

NARRATORS: Bea Watson / Jake Watson
GUIDE: Erik Park
INTERVIEWERS: Mary Duncan / Diana Leslie / Alasdair Flett / Ingirid Morrison / Savannah Taylor / Mark Jenkins
EDITOR: Mark Jenkins
PROJECT TEAM: Lynn Campbell / Kathleen Ireland / Mark Jenkins / Diana Leslie / Cary Welling / Trustees, Staff and Friends of Stromness Museum
CO-ORDINATOR: Rebecca Marr
ARCHIVE RECORDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Orkney Library & Archive, BBC Radio Orkney, the Estate of George Mackay Brown, Orkney Heritage

A Stromness Museum community project supported by the Scottish Government and the European Community Orkney LEADER 2007-2013 Programme and the Stromness Townscape Heritage Initiative.