Tarves Heritage Society

A visit to the Heritage Society - 30 May 2007 - conducted by Les Donaldson and Fiona-Jane Brown

Pictures from Tarves Heritage Centre

Entrance to Tarves Heritage Centre

The old petrol Pump outside

Coo shoes!! Did you know it wasn't just horses that got iron shoes long ago?

The drovers who took cattle on very long journeys down to market put iron shoes on the hooves of their cattle to protect their feet on the way! Tarves was on the old Scottish drove road circuit - the Gaelic name is Tarbh Fhas (Tar-av-aas) - Cattle Farmstead, which bears testament to this ancient link. The 'trysts' or livestock fairs usually took place in Falkirk and other places in the central belt of Scotland.

This exhibit is on display inside the museum area of the Heritage Centre which is set up like the old souter or cobbler's shop that it once housed.

These items are also found in the museum;

the truncheon-shaped implement is for dispensing horse pills! The poor horsey would get this thing shoved down its throat with the pill on the end so they would have to swallow it. Les told me that it is covered in real bites from horses!! Apparently there is something similar for sheep too!

The Fleam was another drover's tool, and the implement that helped invent black pudding! The hungry drover would use the fleam to cut a vein in the cow's neck and bleed it, mix the blood with the oatmeal he carried in his sporran, and sin agad e! instant marag dubh! Of course, a black pudding is a blood sausage, but this may have also be a derivative of haggis too. Drovers certainly would have done this in order to eat on the move.

Thanks to Les Donaldson for showing me round!

If you'd like to see the film of the Victorian Classroom at Tarves, click the link below:

Victorian Classroom

 Create your own educational wiki!Support Community Add to Del.ici.ous Add to Digg Add to Reddit Add to fUrl Add to SpurlPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS