How community spirit came to the fore during Operation Snowdrop
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
WICK VOICES: An update on the Wick Society's online oral history project by Doreen Leith
One of the most severe winters in the north of Scotland was in January 1955 when heavy snowstorms led to blocked roads and deep drifts of snow.
Memories of this significant event feature in many Wick Voices oral history recordings, as interviewees recall the community effort to support people living in isolated areas.
George Farquhar faced an arduous journey on foot from Spittal to Halkirk and back to collect basic supplies, while teacher Christine Davidson had the challenge of accommodating pupils from Lybster school in the Portland Arms Hotel. Photographer Janet McDonald recalled how her husband Ian, along with news reporter Magnus Magnusson, attempted to relieve Braemore.
Operation Snowdrop was the name given to the military operation to deliver food and vital medical supplies in the north during this relentless snowstorm.
Nancy Swanson explains how residents living near Wick Airport had to spread cinders in a huge circle on the ground, in preparation for the landing of helicopters, and Stewart Sinclair has memories of food parcels being dropped by helicopter on Stroma.
These audio clips, along with many others, feature in a Wick Voices video relating to this significant event. They capture the sense of isolation experienced as well as the great sense of community spirit as people became reliant upon each other. The Operation Snowdrop video includes photographs of snow scenes from the Johnston Photographic Collection as well as images of the 1955 snowstorm taken by photographer Ian McDonald.
This same great sense of community spirit has been apparent throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and is captured in a recent Wick Voices interview with Katrina MacNab, who has been the driving force behind Pulteneytown People's Project since it started in 2003.
As she prepares to stand down from her post as chief executive officer later this month, Katrina looks back at how PPP developed a wide range of multi-generational services to meet local needs and describes how staff and volunteers helped in the Covid-19 response as part of the wider Caithness resilience effort.
"The whole aim of PPP was to deliver services in the community for the community," Katrina explains.
She describes how PPP's HomeLink housing support service and the Care at Home team kept going throughout the pandemic. The Pulteney Centre's café, Telford's, had to close but PPP staff – with the help of a small army of volunteers – rallied round to deliver meals and activity boxes to elderly and vulnerable people.
"There was a real buzz and a real willingness to help," she says.
The Rev Andrew Barrie, minister of Pulteneytown and Thrumster Church, also talks about the great efforts made as people rallied to support the elderly and vulnerable. Andrew describes how, through the use of technology, he was able to launch a church YouTube channel, arrange Zoom meetings and expand the Pulteneytown and Thrumster Church website resources so that members of the community could tune in to online services.
Through conducting funerals, he became aware of the stresses and strains felt by families as they gathered in limited numbers due to Covid restrictions.
He talks of the impact felt by families as they were unable to meet, and this was particularly apparent at Christmas. He explains that there was a determination to avoid a sad version of normal, therefore drive-in carol services were arranged at the East Caithness Community Campus car park.
Although the Wick Voices interviews cover a wide range of topics, the real sense of community spirit permeates throughout the collection which can be found at www.wickheritage.org
