Tub Boats to Wrockwardine

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@mikehaldane4061 7 ай бұрын

Good evening Andy, it's funny how history comes and ties into your life. I was sitting back enjoying your vlog on the tub boats, Norbury Junction was where my wife and I hired a narrow-boat to see how we would get on before we took the plunge to buy into a share ownership boat. So you went away on your tangent but with quite a bit of detail and lo and behold you came out with the Duke of Sutherland I did a double take. Now if I hadn't been paying full attention to the vlog, I was now. So George Leveson-Gower as the Marquess of Stafford was, infamously involved in part of the Highland Clearances. However history is perhaps not being entirely kind to him, another view of the Clearances is that of the "Improvements". My involvement was that I worked at Clynelish Distillery at Brora in Sutherland for a period in the early 2000's and the original Clynelish Distillery, that has reopened very recently as Brora Distillery, was built by the Marquess and was originally opened in 1819. He had a vision and the Distillery did not come into existence to operate in a vacuum. The Marquess was aware of the fact that there was coal in Brora and so was involved in the improvements made at the Mine, the Distillery needed the coal for its power and distilleries are power hungry. The coal was also used for the production of bricks, for a period. The distillery had a co-product of draff (the spent solids from the mashing process which is where the starch and enzymes that produce the sugars for the fermentation process are removed). Draff was used and still is as animal feed. Indeed there are medals at Clynelish Distillery of medals won by cattle from the Distillery Farm in the 19th Century. The distillery farm is on good land near to the coast and its not difficult to invisage the entire circle. The farm produces Barley, which the distillery processes into Malted Barley and then produces Whisky using the Coal from the nearby mine. The co-product draff is used to feed up the cattle. Clearly the farm, mine and distillery would have required a workforce! (Housing was provided but how many people were cleared is not something I know). The Industrial Revolution truly touched every corner of Britain. Another excellent series of Canal Hunter by the way. Regards MikeH

@lifeat2.3milesanhour57 7 ай бұрын

Fascinating stuff Mike - they were not all robber barons! To be honest, the whole clearance / enclosure thing raises mixed emotions, you get the feeling the rich did a bit of a land grab but then the old ways of doing agriculture couldnt carry on. Glad you are enjoying the series - like last year I am struggling to find days of good weather!