In my last blog I talked of coastal erosion, and how the recent storms had undermined and buried the winch that once hauled fishing boats out of the sea, and onto Bervie beach. Today we walked into town, and there, standing proud once more, if a little further back, was the winch.
The effort involved in recovering it must have been considerable. Even if it was craned out there was a lot of stone to shift to get it out with its worn wooden frame and rusted attachment brackets intact, a lot of dirt to dig to set it upright again, a lot of energy and time for this decaying relic of times gone by. It makes sense.
The winch had stood for at least one hundred years. It appears to be visible in a 1914 photo of Bervie station and bay. It features on postcards from the 1950’s, looking old then, with children playing on it, and the Salmon boats it would have hauled beached below it. I haven’t been able to find when it was last used, but doubt it was in the current century. Nonetheless its presence had some resonance with the areas population. Enough that some saw fit to provide the labour and tools necessary, and others to applaud their efforts.
The built environment, be it houses, factories or tools, does more than provide us shelter or aid to our labours. It is also the marks we make on the world that show we were, or are, here, and as such can contribute to our sense of place. In Sheffield some were glad to see the marks of heavy industry swept away, some indignant at the change, and others simply indifferent to the poorly preserved relics of the city’s history. Here, as I did in Sheffield, I seek the past to better understand the present, learn the stories and walk the landscape to get a sense of where I am. I am glad to see the winch restored.
Rambling through an abstract landscape 