Fiona Scharlau Knihy

A fascinating selection of archive images accompanied by informative captions

Evocative pictures of Arbroath's fishing community give a realistic portrayal of what life was like for the children and adults who depended on the sea for a living. There's fishwife Liza Swan carrying her heavy creel and children with bare feet sitting on the ground baiting lines. Elsewhere in the book Arbroath is featured at play with children enjoying a ride on one of Kerr's miniature trains and crowds at the former open air swimming pool. All sorts of events such as the arrival of the first German plane to crash in Scotland during the Second World War and a fund-raising day for Arbroath Infirmary are included along with myriad pictures of rural industrial and commercial life in this historic town.

As did many rural villages in Scotland, Monifieth was transformed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from a sleepy farming hamlet into a bustling industrial town with the advent of Low's foundry and the jute weaving trade. The twentieth century brought less sweeping but more deep seated change as industry in general declined. Monifieth Foundry finally closed in 1980, a victim of the demise of much traditional British industry during that period.Phjotographs are featured here from both era's and include spectacular images of motor bike racing on the sands (serious sport in the 1930s), the Monifieth fire brigade with helmets beautifully polished, standing with their equipment on Hill Street in 1900, top hatted dignitaries posing for the cameras at the opening of the tramway to Dundee and an early twentieth century group of young foundry apprentices obviously enjoying a day out in Dundee.

There are pictures of everything from a cattle market taking place in the High Street to elephant tightrope walking in our book on Forfar. Blacksmiths, shopkeepers posing outside their shops, weavers from Boath's works and an elegantly dressed wedding group in front of one of the town's co-op's are among the subjects that have been selected. George Brodlie's ropeworks and the Strathmore Woollen Company's works illustrate the town's manufacturing history, while all manner of pictures show lost streets and buildings, along with events and personalities from the town's past.