Strawworking heritage
Straw has been grown in Orkney since the earliest farmers cultivated the fertile land over 5000 years ago.
The mild climate
and sea air together produce long, fine golden straw which is perfect
for Orkney chairs.
The back of each chair requires about 3 sheaves of straw, 200 stitches, 30 hours of labour…and a ample amount of skill, commitment and passion.
As each back is hand stitched, each chair will be as unique as you are.
The chairs can be treated as features in your home but they are meant to be sat in and are very comfortable. Perhaps our forefathers were ahead of their time with the design of the Orkney chair: it encourages it’s occupant to sit upright, protecting the back and spine. Indeed some customers have bought Orkney chairs purely for this purpose.
Not
only did the chairs protect backs, they also kept the sitter warm. Orkney’s
houses in previous centuries did not benefit from the luxuries of modern
heating systems and the old traditional stone cottages could be both draughty
and cold, particularly during the windy Orkney winters. The Orkney chair’s
strawback curves round allowing the occupant to remain cosy inside.
Straw was used in times gone by simply as it was a readily available
material. Communities were independent and self-sufficient and accustomed
to using whatever came to hand to meet their daily needs. The Orkney
Chair was piece of furniture within everyone’s means yet as fine
a piece of furniture as any found in the manorhouses and castle of the
day.
It’s strange to think that the Orkney chair is now anything but
the poor man’s chair and can be found today in any manner of building
and is even cherished by the royal family. The late Queen Mother was
a great fan of the Orkney Chair and had various chairs in her own residence,
the Castle of Mey in Caithness, North of Scotland. A Orkney chair was
also gifted to Prince Charles on the occasion of his first marriage
to Lady Diana Spencer…probably unimaginable to the crofters who
originally were simply trying to furnish their humble homes.
Within Orkney it is a popular wedding or wedding anniversary present or retirement gift.
It has become a treasured heirloom, handed down generation to generation.
Beside chairs straw was originally used for baskets, rope, mattresses and even shoes!
Today all except the baskets have been superceeded by more modern material and methods.
Crofting Heritage
This is Marlene's family taking a well earned cup of tea: from the right: her father beside the dog, grandfather, two aunts and uncle
The Orkney Chair belonged to a lifestyle which gradually disappeared as modern farming methods were introduced. Throughout the centuries until the just after the second world war life remained little changed. Indeed stone cupboards very like those built into the walls of the Skara Brae’s 5000 year old houses can be found in traditional Orkney crofts of the 19th century.
Crofting was a subsistence lifestyle with each family growing the crops and keeping the animals they needed to keep body and soul together and make a small living.
A croft would typically consist of about 10-30 acres, would grow oats and barley, root crops such as turnips and potatoes and keep a few cattle, sheep, hens and a pig. It was free range and virtually organic production with many of the animals as much pets as potential food sources.
Jackie's family working on the island of Eday: Jackie's
mother and grandfather with the horses; second picture from right: Jackie
great aunt, grandfather, mother, father and cousins.
Straw came from the oat crop. The process began early in the year with seeds being sown, around September the oats would be cut originally with a sythe and later with a binder into sheaves. These sheaves were then ‘stooked’ or leant against each other to allow the oats to dry and ripen further before before finally carted home and build into scroos. Sheaves were then taken from the screws as they were required, the oats of course being carefully separated and used to feed both the family and the cattle while the straw was to an ingenious variety of uses as chairs, baskets, rope, mattresses and even shoes.
To get the long strong, golden straw preferred by Jackie for his chairs Keith Smith cuts early in the year, around August before the wind has time to damage the stalks. Unlike the people in times gone by it is the straw we are primarily interested in rather than the oat crop. For them it was the other way round, the oats were the most important, with the straw turned to every use conceivably so nothing was wasted.