The local road gang in 1936

  • The local road gang in 1936
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The local road gang in 1936

Photo: Annie McRae © PPHA

The local road gang in 1936, Alasdair MacCallum remembered some of them.

"This is my brother Robert. He had a lorry you see and he was taking quite a number of them from Ardfenaig to where they were working. They weren't employed all the time, just when they were doing up a bit of road. They'd come in with tar and they'd need a big squad to get the tar off. It was all by hand in these days. They hadn't got the equipment we've got nowadays. I remember when they upgraded the Pennyghael road in 1937. They were tarring the road from Tolls right up to Kinloch Hotel.

They'd be under Johnnie Peigi Airds (John Maclean) all the time, he was a foreman of the County Road Squad. There was Tommy Carney from Ardtun, who came here as a child during the 1st World War. There's Dougie MacFadyen, (Archie Baldy Gribun's cousin) down at Creich ; and that one's like Donnie Ritchey – his son was Donnie too."


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