Northeast Corner (1946)

the northeast corner of Scotland abine CH and Bam peterhead Fraser and the Golden Horn [Music] like fishermen anywhere in the world these men have known good times and bad but today they know that a hungry world needs every ounce of food they can haul in from the [Music] sea generations of fishermen have put out to see past this light once it was sail now it's steam Drifter and [Music] motorboat in the northeast corner many of the younger generation have come back from the war and are taking over their father's [Music] boats these fishermen will tell you that that they don't hope or want for a fortune but they do want to be sure that when they bring in a decent catch they'll get a decent price for it they want to be certain no one on Shore is making a profit out of their [Music] losses fishing and farming lie side by side in the northeast corner but 200 years ago the land was poor and much of it fed off the sea in those days the fish wives climbed up the wind torn Cliffs and carried their herings far into the hungry country the land was wild and choked with Pete and bog it shivered between the mountains and the Sea lying in ruin just as the last great glaas had left it across this Barn land the fish wife toiled to feed the few isolated inhabitants who cut their poor living from endless Acres of peach choked [Music] soil wind and stone were Masters here the few trees that grew grew to the tortured pattern of the weather [Music] the few men who lived here lived and died under the cold shadow of the [Music] Granite but here and there in this hard land like an ornament dropped down in the desert you would find the castle of some great family a sudden upshoot of trees and Towers a strange contrast to the surrounding poverty but a blessed market for the tramping fish wife and her [Music] herrings today the train has taken over the fish wife's job and the land has a different look no more withered mosses and hungry Moes but tidy fields and comfortable Farms it is made land all of it made as the farmers will tell you by hard work and mother wit when the First Farmer came to this country his first crop was stones but he turned the hard face of nature to the wall he drained the bogs and mosses he laid out the land in fields and plowed it and brought it under crop the soil was plowed and turned up into the air was fed enriched and husbanded so year by year and acre by acre the face of the land was changed it was a long heroic labor but the reward today is a fertile country of abundant crops and fine pastures though imported feeding stuffs practically disappeared during the war the production and consumption of milk in Scotland has increased by millions of gallons and even here in the far northeast corner farmers are taking advantage of new scientific methods and techniques that help them plan ahead for a guaranteed Market [Music] and farms are not all that men have made out of this country where the rivers come down from the hills fed by drains and ditches dug 100 years ago The Valleys were filled with power [Music] there are fewer Mills now than there used to be for a few large ones can do the work of many smaller ones and today it may be steam or electricity that works the Mills but it's the water from the river Dawn that flows around every process here turning rags and refu into clean white paper and rolling it out in sheets as crisp as snow in Keith it's the ISA water and the same water that washes the Sheep on the Hills washes the wool in the [Music] factories the water here does a 100 jobs it runs and tumbles about the Mills it spins the thread and works the loom and shrinks the Tweeds that are the finest in the [Music] world but best of all these many Waters is the cold clear stuff that comes down from the melting snores of the mountains and is trapped and held by the distilleries in The Valleys there taking unto itself the spirit of Scotch whiskey [Music] between the rivers Dawn and D is the city of Aberdine capital of the Northeast 2 miles out from the town is a tremendous Chasm 400 ft in depth the Granite Quarry of rubish law known as the whole aine came out of [Music] the granite blocks have been carved into the spires and streets of the city the University of aine was founded at the end of the 15th century and in the city they say that education has become such an industry here that it might be true to say that one of aine's Chief experts is educated men and women in aine's Market the famous black cattle of the country are to be found Aberdine Angus [Music] [Music] the port is designed to handle deep sea trolling and is one of the chief centers of the white fishing industry in the British Isles [Music] the shipyards around the port build trollers Drifters and small cargo vessels for the coastal trade and for export though not a large industry it is important in the life of the city surprisingly Aberdine has a warm Sandy Beach the last thing you'd expect to find among all [Music] granite in the darkness the granite sleeps the lamps in the streets soften the hard edges of the town and the harbor lies down with its ships but the sea never sleeps and the long sharp Headlands rinsing their teeth in the cold green waves are watched every hour and minute of the darkness by this steady sliding [Music] light so in the northeast corner they look to new day sure of their Heritage and confident in a future built on its Firm Foundation [Music]