Castlecatt Cottage Industries, Aky Walker
Castlecatt Cottage Industries, Aky Walker
These photographs were kindly submitted to the Uncharted Histories Project by Frank Scott.
They show ‘Aky’ Walker, chauffer to Mrs Denny of Ballylough House.
Mrs Denny was a member of the Trail family and established a cottage industry at Castlecatt in the early 20th century, which provided employment for local people. People from the area worked together at The Basket House, Castlecatt, to produce baskets and other crafts that would have been for sale across the area. Mrs Denny even sent apprentices to England to learn new skills and bring those skills back to the Causeway Coast.
These photographs are held by Mrs Sarah Scott, Frank’s wife. They were taken in the 1920s or 1930s and came to her from her older sister Elizabeth Grey (nee Walker), Elizabeth and another of Sarah’s older sisters worked for Mrs Denny, as did their father Aky Walker.
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- Handwritten note from Frank, identifying a newspaper article in The Coleraine Chronicle by W. ‘Speedy’ Moore from 1990 about Castlecatt Cottage Industries.
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- Aky on flat-bottomed boat (cot) in water, cutting bulrushes to supply Castlecatt Cottage Industries, with an unidentified woman just visible at the righthand side of the photograph.
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- Handwritten note in pencil identifying Aky, his activity and his location. Frank is unsure of where Strahamm Water lies, suggesting it might have been drained in the decades since the photograph was taken. His best guess is that it was near Dervock or Stranocum.
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- Aky on flat-bottomed boat (cot) in water, cutting bulrushes to supply Castlecatt Cottage Industries.
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- Handwritten note in pencil identifying Aky and his activity.
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- Photograph of Alec (Aky) Walker, in uniform, standing beside a car outside a big house. The house is not identified, but Frank knows that Aky served Mrs Denny as a chauffeur, and suggests he may have taken her to visit someone in the house on view
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- Photograph of Alec (Aky) Walker, in uniform, standing beside a car with numberplate visible, reading DZ 2702.
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- Photograph of Alec (Aky) Walker, holding a horse by the bridle. Frank says this is Aky, though it could be a different man, judging by the other photographs labelled with Aky’s name.
This record was collected as part of Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust’s Uncharted Histories of the Causeway Coast Project. Please click here to learn more about this project.
Place
Archive Attributes
Collection:
Uncharted Histories of the Causeway Coast
Owner:
Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust
File Type:
Added to archive:
04-04-2023