RESURRECTION

Across the length and breadth of Coll, lying in old byres, field corners and sometimes apparently in the middle of nowhere, are old and forgotten pieces of agricultural machinery: relics of a time when the agricultural base of the island was much broader than it is now; a time when hay was regularly made by all farmers and oats and corn were grown in the fields.

Neither was it all that long ago. Corn was last grown by the Galbraith family at Cliad in the early 1970s. Hay is still grown by some farmers on Coll, only the machinery is now more modern.

The threshing mill which until recently lay abandoned in one of the byres at Cliad is well remembered by both Neil and Nancy Galbraith, whose family last used it about 25 years ago. Neither Neil nor Nancy could say how old the mill was though, it had been there at Cliad as long as they could remember...

In 1995 however, that once loved and cherished piece of machinery presented a very sorry sight: crushed under the roof of the old byre its' collapsed and dejected state would have caused many a man to send it to the dump without shedding a tear.

How fortunate then, that it was discovered by Jock Robbie who, when he saw that the roof had finally fallen on top of the thresher, knew that he just had to get it out.

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Jock, a man of many parts, spent much of his early working life amongst similar machines in the North East of Scotland. He worked on an estate made up of five farms. In the winter one week in every month was spent travelling around the five farms, threshing oats and filling the barns with straw for the cattle.

The threshing operation which Jock worked on was a big one and required a great deal of manpower. The mill itself measured 8 metres by 2.5 metres and it was stationed in the stack yard where the stacks, each holding about an acre of oats, were built in fours.

The mill was pulled by a tractor and seven men worked on it whilst a further 6 men carried the straw to the barn and trampled it down.

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This early experience engendered in Jock a love of machinery, with special affection for those abandoned pieces that even today still exhibit the mark of a craftsman.

The old threshing mill was soon removed from Cliad to its new home - the workshop at Acha and Jock began the long and painstaking job of renovation. "All the bearings were seized and parts of the elevator were rotten; a new cover was needed on the air fan". He had to strip and dismantle it, then put the whole thing back together again.

The effort was worth it. The threshing mill is now restored to its former glory and stands proudly in the centre of Jock's workshop. It is once again fully functioning and Jock cherishes a plan or two to put it to use in the fields once more.

Other items of machinery have since found their way to the workshop at Acha: a horse-drawn mower which was lying at Lonban dates from the 1920's; a bruiser, for crushing oats before they were fed to cattle, from Breacacha and also from Breacacha, another threshing mill, although not in such good condition as the last one.

It takes gallons of lubricating oil, a great deal of patience and an enormous amount of vision to tackle such jobs. Not everyone will do it - well done Jock!

A.M.