More of "Any old iron..."

When I was little the rag and bone man used to come down our road with his horse amd cart (as per Steptoe and Son) and shout "Any Old Iron", except that it came out as something like "Ennnyoayennnn". In Stornoway there is plenty of old iron but in this case it is rather special.
The Museum in Stornoway has an exhibition all about cast iron and its manufacture on the Scottish mainland. Considering all the rest of its exhibitions are about the Island and the island way of life this came as something of a surprise until I read that Stornoway has one of the most extensive collections of domestic cast iron in the country. As soon as I had read that in the exhibition I began to notice all the railings, gates and other examples of iron casting. GB told me that some of the railings are actually listed so I did a blog posting about them. Here are just a few of the examples of the cast iron gates that I photographed in town…

Cast iron railings

 

I mentioned on my Hebridean blog the other day that I had been down Matheson Road, Stornoway, photographing the railings. That would appear a strange thing to do. Had I not been to the Stornoway Museum the other week I would have agreed. But the museum had a big display about the manufacture of cast iron and the fact that Stornoway has one of the best 'collections' of domestic cast iron in the country. It cited Matheson Road and Goathill Road as examples of places where they could be seen. Once one's consciousness has been alerted to the fact, it becomes obvious but until then I had blithely passed by these remarkably different railings and gates each day without noticing them.




These ae just a few samples of the railings, some of which are covered by Protection Orders to safeguard them from being removed.

















Some other time I'll do a separate blog on the cast iron gates.