Midwinter Tales -The Berry Yards

Photo - Louie Pastore : Dark Side o' Inverclyde

Today, a wee excerpt from a longer work in progress...

We would go to pick elderberries and brambles most weekends in the autumn, then help squash them up to make wines. This year though, winter was mild, and so we had been able to pick berries much later than usual. I remember it was only just getting light as we left the house.

The best bushes were towards the east end of town, or in the wild fields between the bombsite gaps round the old mills and sugar refineries. Today though, my dad had another idea, the old railway track that ran along the back of the town, you had to walk up and under an old archway that didn’t have a building attached to it anymore.
‘Is this really an old track? I won’t get electrocuted like on the advert?’
‘I wouldn’t have brought you here if you could get electrocuted would I? Look,’ my dad threw his jacket down onto the railway line, ‘See? Safe.’
He climbed down into the sidings, and lifted me down after him, I was shoulder deep on the line, and now I could see the bushes the whole way over. Dad smiled and started wandering along, picking at the brambles.

It was a strange sort of silence there, not quiet like proper countryside. More just empty of the noise that I felt should have been there, on the railway line, behind the factories. I stared up at the empty windows of the refinery, rows and rows of cracked glass, distorting the shadows that swayed behind them, until I felt sure I saw hands pushing against broken window panes. Hoping my eyes were playing tricks on me and suddenly frightened that my dad was no longer nearby, I turned to look for him, starting to panic. As I turned, I caught sight of his jacket on the line, just where he had left it, only now, it was torn and shredded. I shouted out for him, and immediately he appeared around the bend in the siding.
‘What’s wrong? Are you okay?’
‘Your jacket,’ I said, pointing, but as we both looked, I could see that it lay just where it had been. Intact and undisturbed.
‘What about it? Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ I said, ‘just…don’t go far away.’
He nodded and patted my shoulder, ‘There’s some elderberry trees up here,’ he said, ‘I’ll be right there.’
He clambered up off the track and towards the trees. I stared at the jacket a little longer, just to be sure, then I returned to the brambles. Even though I knew my dad was nearby, I still felt uneasy, there was a…vibration? Like when there is a television or something left on in the house and you can feel it rather than hear it. I stopped picking again and peered up to where my dad was, making sure I didn’t stare back at the factory windows. He was still there, yellow plastic bucket in hand, whistling away. As I looked though, everything sort of flickered and greyed out, all the colour leaked away, and there was a whisper, right by my ear, ‘Train’s coming.’ I could feel the cold breath of the whisperer on my neck, but as I jumped, and turned to face them, no one was there.

The jacket lay on the track. Not knowing why, I pulled it towards me and stood in at the siding with my eyes closed. And the train came.

It seemed to go on forever, the old track squeaking and shrieking as the wheels battered over the top. It must only have been seconds until my dad grabbed me from above, holding me tight, crushing me in against the siding until it had passed by properly. The jagged bramble bushes were digging into me the whole time. Then it was gone. My dad lifted me up from the side of the track, he looked so strange, smiling, but, sort of crumpled. I know that look much better now, I’ve made it myself. It’s scariest that first time though, when you first realise that grownups aren’t always in control either.

My gran lived nearby, nearer than our own house, so we walked straight there, leaving the upturned bucket and all the spilled berries behind us. I drank sugary tea and listened to my gran shouting at my dad for taking us up there. He didn’t even try to argue, he just kept saying ‘I didn’t know they still used it.’
‘There’s been too many accidents up there,’ she said, ‘far too many. You’re lucky you’re not both under a train right now.’
I thought about my dad’s ripped jacket on the tracks and the cold whisper, but I just drank my tea. That was the last year he made wine.


True story. Though, rather than being a historically accurate depiction of early 80s Greenock, the reality of where we were on the old track and what I saw is muddled up in my head. But we did often pick around Lyndeoch Street and further up. It was a properly strange experience, which I remember in different ways. But to this day, I can't drink wine.

Actually, that's not true.

The Berry Yards were very nearby to the source of another childhood scary story, The Catman.

I Clydius

As news reaches us of a potential Roman coin horde discovered in Inverclyde...we explore the Romans links with our area...

The Romans never conquered Scotland.  The most powerful and efficient army on earth, the active hand of an Empire which spanned over two million square miles, was unable to sub-due a handful of un-organised tribes.  But if this is true, why then are the hills and valleys of this country dotted with the remains of Roman occupation? 

Julius Agricola was made governor of Britain in AD 79, and within a few years, the man who had successfully defeated the Iceni revolt under Boudicae, defeated the Caledonian tribes at the battle of Mons Graupius. 

In order to secure everything south of the Forth and Clyde, Agricola established garrisons in the territory of the Damnonii, the tribe who occupied most of modern Strathclyde, the most westernly of which was  south of Langbank, at Barrochan. Rediscovered in 1972, this fort was known in Roman times as the Clota Flumen,  the fort was most likely used during the subjugation of the Damonni settlements within the Inverclyde area. A number of bronze coins dated to the year AD86 have been uncovered here and it would seem that the fort was occupied at least until this date or shortly thereafter.

During this period, it is likely that there was some Roman naval presence on the river, and there has even been a suggestion that the Romans may have operated a dockyard somewhere on the firth, repairing ships stationed on the Clyde.

After the campaigns of Agricola, the Romans withdrew south again and within a few generations had begun work on the mighty Hadrians Wall. However around 144 AD, the Romans returned to Scotland and constructed a line of forts along a turf wall stretching between the Clyde and the Forth. Known as the Antonine wall, it was the northernmost frontier of the Roman empire, stretching from Bo'ness to Old Kilpatrick, just outside Glasgow.

In order to protect the western approaches to the Antonine Wall, two fortlets were constructed in the Inverclyde area; one on Lurg moor behind Strone, and the other at Outerwards, on the hills behind Skelmorlie. Each one was home to around fifteen Legionaries, most likely from the Second  Legion, whose purpose it was to watch the firth of the Clyde for possible raiding forces from the north.

The forts remained undiscovered until around fifty years ago, although the presence of Romans in the area found its way into the local folk memory. A medieval stone bridge outside Inverkip has for hundreds of years been referred to as the “Roman Bridge”, and the local ballad, “The Vision of Auld Dunrod”, thought to date from the 17^th century, speaks of Roman ships sailing up the Clyde. However, it was only through aerial photographs that the locations of the two forts were finally revealed.

Excavations by Frank Newall in the fifties yielded a number of interesting finds, now held by Glasgow University.  There is also evidence of a network of roads and signal tracks throughout the area, which linked the two forts with a larger site outside Bishopton. Over the years there have also been a number of other finds, including  a spearhead found in Gourock. However, perhaps the most significant find is that at both sites, there is some evidence that the forts were burned to the ground. 

Evidence suggests that sometime around 155 AD, a major revolt took place within Scotland against the armies of Rome. Many forts and fortlets of this period show evidence of burning and raising, and it is likely that this was a co-ordinated attack designed to have maximum impact. It worked. Occupation of Scotland seems to have dwindled after this period.

But the Romans  left behind them a legacy which was to shape Britain for centuries to come. Where once had stood forests, now lay straight roads, allowing for trade and easy communications. The Legions of Rome had brought with them crafts, jewellery and religions from the far corners of the Empire, re-shaping peoples perceptions of the world and their beliefs. There was no mass exodus of the Romans –they simply drifted away. But then, the Romans never conquered Scotland…they were just visiting.

When lo! Owr Gourock point he saw

A sicht o' meile pride;

There were twenty Roman ships an three

Cam rowin up the clyde

Then mariners and soldiers

They mingled on the shore;

These told of mountains, these of sea

And Isles ne'er seen before.

From The Vision of Auld Dunrod - anonymous

Local Roman Historian and archeaologist Louie Pastore has campaigned to get the site on Lurg Moor recognised as a world heritage site, and has also made a number of excellent short films exploring the Roman occupation on The Clyde. Enjoy...