Free Colliers

Being relatively new to the area where I now live, I had never witnessed the Free Colliers march first hand. What a sight to behold!! All these men wearing top hats and tails, and holding pinkies with each other. There was so much to see (and photograph) including brass bands, bagpipes, and horse and carts.

However, I settled on this photograph as I really like the image in mono. It was taken half way through the march when the men had stopped for a hard earned rest (and a wee half!!)

And for anyone interested in the history behind it, read on..........

"On the first Saturday of August each year for as long as people can remember, close on a hundred men of all ages dressed in top and tails and linking pinkies with their neighbours, walk behind marching bands and flags for over ten miles through the Stirlingshire villages of Redding, Sheildhill, Westquarter and Laurieston.

Nearly fifty years after the last coal was drawn from the land deep beneath their feet the Sir William Wallace Grand Lodge of Scotland, Free Colliers, the first and last of their kind, continue the time honoured tradition of marching to demonstrate their forefathers rights as free men. And what better symbol of their hard won and cherished freedom, than that of William Wallace whose campaign against oppression had been waged in part over the very lands on which, they lived and worked."

FREEDOM!!!!!