Kirkwall Tailors Project
banner
kirkwalltailors.bsky.social
Kirkwall Tailors Project
@kirkwalltailors.bsky.social
A Community-Based Transcription of the Records of the Kirkwall Incorporation of Tailors, 1669-1772; Project Lead: Dr Aaron Allen
Pinned
Volunteers are welcome to join the project to help in the transcription! All volunteers will be named as co-editors, whether you contribute a line or multiple pages. For more info, contact the project lead, Aaron Allen, on administrator@kirkwalltailorsproject.co.uk
#palaeography #Orkney
1/2 A key part of a tailor’s work was ironing fabric, as seen by ‘goose irons’ in Tailors’ arms across Scotland. But what did they do their ironing on? Images: Pencaitland tailor's stone; Dutch iron; Detail from van Brekelenkam, ‘The Tailor’s Workshop’ (c.1661), Rijksmuseum, NL, Public Domain.
October 21, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
Interested in men's clothing in late Medieval Scotland ?
Come and hear me talk on Monday 3 November at Augustine United Church, Edinburgh
October 18, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
Made a site for exploring Bob Henery's transcription of Blaeu's 1654 Atlas of Scotland. You can browse, search and filter 28,394 features across 47 maps:
dgplacenames.github.io/blaeu/
October 19, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
14 Oct 1559: Adam Bothwell having been papally provided as bishop of #Orkney is consecrated #otd (British Armorial Bindings © University of Toronto).

He later conducted the marriage of Mary Queen of #Scots to the Earl of Bothwell & crowned James VI.
October 14, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
Woman sewing, c. 1650-55

Attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (British Museum)
October 6, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
30% DISCOUNT with code NEW30! Shaping Jacobitism: Memory, Culture, Networks is a multi-disciplinary exploration of Jacobitism and its cultural legacy with chapters considering #Jacobites from the 1688 Revolution to #Outlander.
@EdinburghUP
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-shaping...
Shaping Jacobitism, 1688 to the Present
Shaping Jacobitism, 1688 to the Present
edinburghuniversitypress.com
July 8, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
SCOTLAND’S ARCHIVES AND RECORDS: CELEBRATING SUCCESS

SCA is excited to open bookings for its next annual conference on Thursday 20th November in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

Find out more and book via: www.scottisharchives.org.uk/latest/sca-a...
SCA ANNUAL CONFERENCE OPEN FOR BOOKINGS! - Scottish Council on Archives
01 October 2025
www.scottisharchives.org.uk
October 1, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
The final talk in the second of Royal Marriages Summit series bit.ly/4lifqMO will be delivered by Dr Michael Pearce who will be discussing the marriage of James V of Scotland to Marie of Guise – an important part of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France.
September 27, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
So I bought an old pitcher, and discover two authentic storage options; suspended, or upside-down on a shelf, from the 'Augsburger Klebealbum', heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/view...
September 26, 2025 at 10:05 PM
(1/2) The inventory of one of our Kirkwall tailors in 1650: inter alia, 3 kistis; a pint stoup; a chair; a furnished bed; lint & woollen spinning wheels; silk; French ribbons; cloth, including buckram; papers of pins; thimbles and lots of buttons… #KirkwallTailorsProject
September 26, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
#palaeography help please! Is this an ampersand squeezed it with the ‘||’ insertion mark? ‘& ane’?
September 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Tailor’s ‘goose’ iron from Gouda, Netherlands.
September 16, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
September 13, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
Catz academics in print: 'The Mechanics of Biological Materials' co-ed by Prof. John Morton (1968, Engrng), 'Love & anti-Judaism in medieval English romance' by @hdohertyharrison.bsky.social (2014, English) & a chapter in 'Public Law & the UK Supreme Court' by @profmarkelliott.bsky.social (1999)
September 13, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
What can petitions to magistrates from London apprentices tell us about gendered violence in #EarlyModern England?

New addition from Hilary Taylor to the #PowerOfPetitioning annotated bibliography:
petitioning.history.ac.uk/2019/05/13/p...
September 12, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Interesting items in this Kirkwall tailor's 1650 inventory: Silk, French thread and bolts of 'camelhair' cloth! What is the last word in the entry though? #palaeography #skystorians
September 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
... and the archives of the Secretary of the 1889 Tailors' Strike Committee are held here!

Lithuania-born William Wess emigrated to London in 1880, aged 20, & quickly became a central figure in radical politics in the capital, co-founding/organising trade unions, political & educational groups... 🧵
August 26, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Tailors’ candlesticks, seventeenth century, as recorded in the PSAS ( @socantscot.bsky.social ). Note the larger depression for an oil lamp with candle sockets in the corners. journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps...
September 8, 2025 at 11:02 AM
A copper-alloy pin found on archaeological excavations of an eighteenth-century Waggonway at Cockenzie. A common object for tailors like those of Kirkwall as well.
September 6, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
#Skystorians, in the category of weird questions:
I'm looking for primary & secondary sources on the social/cultural understanding or perception of worms and snails in the #EarlyModern period.
(N.B. I'm not looking for how worms were classified "scientifically"). Does anyone have suggestions? 🗃️
September 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
NEW RESEARCH REPORT: The Wartime Orkney Trail leaflets project

Read the report by Ian Collins FSAScot, who was awarded a Society grant to develop self-guided wartime trails exploring the rich archaeology left by 19th and 20th century military activity in Orkney: www.socantscot.org/.../the-wart...
July 7, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
NEW RECORDINGS: Rhind Lectures 2025: Scotland's Place-Names

Covering language, archaeology, the church and more, all six recordings from the Rhind Lectures 2025 with Dr Simon Taylor are now available on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Sponsored by Ordnance Survey
August 6, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Kirkwall Tailors Project
Interested in reading all articles in the most recent 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland', our annual peer-reviewed journal of Scottish history and archaeology?

Find out more about becoming a Fellow of the Society and apply before 30 September: www.socantscot.org/join/
September 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM