Keeping up to date may be the secret as Willie o’ Pickletillum gets ready to celebrate 100th
(from The Orcadian dated October 18, 2001)

Willie Scott of Pickletillum in Deerness, who will celebrate his 100th birthday on Saturday (Picture: K Pirie)

Keeping up to date may be the secret as Willie o’ Pickletillum gets ready to celebrate 100th

Willie Scott has lived in Deerness all his life. As he approaches his centenary this weekend he finds himself in the relatively unusual situation, these days, of living in the house he was born in, built by his father, and surrounded by close family.

Nothing exceptional, he would probably tell you, but as more and more people over the years have left the places they were born and bred in, people like Willie are becoming something of a rarity.

Does Willie feel like he’s nearly a hundred?

“No it doesn’t seem that long ago. I can mind on fae 90 years ago. It’s the doting folk that should be put down,” he jokes. “I keep up to date.”

He began life at Wood Cottage on October 20, 1901, son of a local shoemaker.

“Where this house is, was a quarryhole. Then my father built it - it would have been a peedie farm.”

In 1913, the neighbouring farm of Pickletillum was bought and it has remained the family farm ever since. As well as making shoes, Willie explains, his father also managed the local shop, a Co-op, at Smiddybanks originally, and latterly at the Deerness shop’s present site.

Willie - better known perhaps as “Willie o’ Pickletillum” - has farmed all his life. He spent some time working as a stonemason locally during the 20s and 30s too, and his handy work - a number of farm steadings including two byres at Pickletillum, still survive to this day.

Willie has also, in days gone by, been an enthusiastic ploughman, taking part in many of the district’s annual ploughing matches. His eyes light up when conversation turns towards the era of the horse: “It was all horses in my young days. It’s changed a lot is used to be reapers for hay then binders and now combines.

Like Alfie, he has seen a lot of changes to everyday life. “There’s less folk working on the farms.”

Water supplies to field troughs has been particularly welcome: “It’s awful fine. We used to cart the water in buckets to the fields in dry weather.”

The biggest change on the farm is the up to date vehicles. It’s a big difference now. We used to have to take the crops in stooks to the barn. Now it’s all through the combine.

“And everybody has a car. I had a pushbike, then a motorbike – a Douglas in 1927-28 before I got married in 1931.”

His wife Mimy (Jemima) Stove, he explained, was a Deerness lass but worked in Kirkwall.

“She baked – worked for ten years in Garden’s shop in Laing Street – a fancy bakery.”

Like Alfie Merriman, Willie still gets out and about a bit, whether it is visiting close neighbours from time to time, or going out for a run in the car with son Wilfie to see how other farmers are progressing with their work. Although he has taken a step back from the farming in recent years he still turns out on occasion to help “shift beasts.”

On Saturday, he will celebrate his 100th year with a party for close family and friends at the brand new Deerness Hall next door.

So what, I ask, is his secret for a long life?

“Just being happy and contented,” he replies.