New Media Meets Old

GILES SUTHERLAND reports on a new project aimed at helping revitalise the historic Pulteneytown area of Wick through new building and a community arts project led by artist Sue Jane Taylor

WHEN ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON visited Wick in September,1868 he wrote, in a letter to his mother: “Certainly Wick in itself possesses no beauty: bare, grey shores, grim grey houses, grim grey sea; not even the gleam of red tiles; not even the greenness of a tree.”

Whether your experience of Wick tallies with Stevenson’s is, of course, a subjective matter.  However, what cannot be denied is Wick’s central place in the development of the east coast herring fishery which flourished from the beginning of the 19th century until it went into slow decline in the 1930s.

Allied to this was the development, in 1811, of Pulteneytown on the south side of the Wick river by Thomas Telford as one of the world’s first purpose-built ‘industrial estates’.  The town’s industries included cooperages, rope-making, foundries, gutting and curing facilities and an extensive harbour.

The famous Johnston Collection of archival photographs – which provides a rich vein of research material on the town’s history – includes many studies of the thriving harbour area and Pulteneytown’s diverse activities.  As these invaluable documents show, it was once possible to walk from one side of the harbour to the other without getting one’s feet wet.

These days are long gone, however, and following the demise of the herring fishery and its associated industries, Wick and Pulteneytown fell into rapid decline with all the resultant problems of urban blight and depopulation.  In post-industrial societies new methods of economic regeneration have been sought and one common and successful approach in the UK and Europe has been by means of art, architecture and culture generally.  This often increases tourism, reinvigorates the local economy and by so doing helps to stem the outward flow of talent and skills from the area.  Witness the success of places as diverse as Bilbao and Gateshead as two outstanding examples of regenerative activity through the arts.

Although on a smaller scale, a similar undertaking has begun to take shape in Wick headed by Highland Council with the input of various other agencies such as CASE and  Communities Scotland.  This involves  a £1.5 million housing development (by Pentland Housing Association) and a community arts project to transform the former herring gutting and curing houses ofTelford and Miller Streets.

Under the able guidance of artist Sue Jane Taylor, members of the Wick Youth Club and the media artist Tamsin Williams have created a number of artworks which complement the architectural restoration of the area.  Williams worked with a number of young people to create a series of digital projections, which can be seen at nightfall from the exterior of the restored buildings.  The images – made by local young people and projected onto false windows – show scenes culled from underwater diving expeditions as well as more domestic and poetic images.

Allied to this imagery is a series inscribed Caithness slabs, set onto the houses’ exterior walls which contain various sayings in the local Wick dialect: “A new broom can sweep clean…but ‘e owld broom kens ‘a ‘e coarners”.  This particular facet of the project was the result of an inspired input by the Stornoway-based writer, Ian Stephen.  Other images includes depictions of local boats as well as a variety of indented copper work, facilitated by tinsmith Arthur Dutch.

Although this is a small beginning, such a kernel of hope and enthusiasm will undoubtedly provide the beginnings of a much needed transformation in Wick’s fortunes.

© Giles Sutherland, 2004