Fisheries Records return to Shetland

550 manuscript volumes concerning Shetland’s fishing history will be coming back to the islands on Saturday, 24 May 2008.

Following an agreement between the National Archives of Scotland and Shetland Islands Council, ratified by the Scottish Parliament, the collection of Lerwick Fishery Office records will be handed into the safekeeping of Shetland Museum and Archives. The records will be held in Shetland under the “charge and superintendence” of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.

The records date from the period 1809-1971. A Fishery Board was created in 1809 to promote the Scottish herring fisheries; in 1820 its responsibilities were enlarged to cover other fisheries, and after 1824 it had responsibilities for improving fishery piers and harbours.

The Shetland Fishery District had much to do, because of the scale of fishing operations around the islands, and the voluminous records reflect that activity. They include daily, weekly and monthly reports of cod, ling and herring fishing, records of whales landed, exportation books, letters and statistics. They cover periods of boom and slump in Shetland’s fishing history.

The collection will be handed over to the Museum and Archives by Dr Peter Anderson, Deputy Keeper of the Records of Scotland, in the Archives searchroom on Saturday at 3.30p.m. Dr Anderson will also give a short talk about the collection, and the public is invited to attend.

Dr Anderson said yesterday: “This deposit forms part of a long-standing policy by the National Archives of placing records which are the responsibility of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland in the locality where they would be most appreciated and used. This policy has been followed for the last 30 years, and Shetland was among the earliest to benefit from it, with previous deposits of sheriff court and customs and excise records, as well as those of the Church of Scotland, for which the Keeper is responsible under an agreement with the Kirk.”

Dr Anderson continued: “The Fishery Board records will, we hope, be a useful addition to the holdings of the Shetland Archives which, both in their extent and in the quality of the facilities in which they are stored, are an example to the whole of Scotland”.

Brian Smith, archivist at the Museum and Archives, said: “For the past thirty years the Shetland Archives has had a splendid relationship with the National Archives. Many records which would normally be retained in Edinburgh have been devolved to Shetland as part of that relationship.

“The Fishery Office records are an excellent new acquisition. They cover the period when fishing was the mainstay of Shetland’s economy, and deal in meticulous detail with how the various fisheries were organised in the islands. We are very pleased indeed to receive them under the Keeper’s charge and superintendence.”