The Secret of Victorian Beach Beads, 18th century salt pans, beachcombing and Volcanic Plains

We continue our mudlarking adventures in the East Neuk of Fife by visiting the village of St Monan's - both Lower Largo and Elie are also in the East Neuk (Eastern Corner).

00:00 intro: St Monan's views and the 1760s Salt Pans
01:00 Beach #1 - a stony place
02:24 First nice finds
03:33 Amberina! A rare find!
04:06 THE SECRET OF VICTORIAN BEACH BEADS
06:03 Beach #2 Over The Witches Craig: Volcanic plains
07:50 Best finds of the day
09:15 How the Georgians made Salt & connection to Lady Janet Antsruther

The coast and beach environments here are amazingly diverse - we cross from a stone covered beach onto an incredible volcanic rock shoreline, formed around 340 million years ago, before we find ourselves on a sandy beach! The volcanic rock environment is awesome - something really wonderful to behold! Each beach environment holds something different: the stoney beach is filled with small, nicely rounded, sea glass pieces - Nicole loves these! I find a lot of soft, unmarked, pottery in the shingle at the top of this beach; the volcanic plain hosts large pieces of driftwood, and the sands, yield very little... No matter! The volcanic plain is an incredible place to walk through - its almost otherworldly!

Nicole finds an incredible, turquoise, milk glass bead!! Maybe from a lovely piece of jewellery lost in the seas of the Firth... Though, perhaps more likely to be an artefact of one of Scotland's cottage industries, lace making. Lace makers commonly decorated their bobbins with beads and markings, using different coloured beads to more easily distinguish the bobbins and their thread lines while making intricate patterned lace, working by candlelight into the night.

Once an thriving fishing village, and home to Millers ship building company, St Monans is now a quiet harbour village, and tourist destination in Fife's East Neuk. Many visitors walk here along the Fife Coastal Path, a 400 mile walking route around Fife, to visit the stunning harbour, a 14th Century Church, reputed to be the closest church to the sea in Scotland, a restored 18th Century windmill, and the site of an 18th century salt processing industry. The Newark Coal and Salt Company offer us a link back to Elie and Lady Janet Anstruther, whose husband, Sir John Anstruther, and, uncle, Robert Fall, established the business in 1771. An archeological investigation, carried out in the 1970s, uncovered the sites of the old salt pan houses, though only the foundation of one remains open for visitors to see. The windmill is normally open to visitors, offering amazing views along the Fife coast, though, under present circumstances, the windmill is closed and the sails/blades have been taken down.

COMMENT to let us know what you like and want to see more of...

Social Distancing: Although we would love to take you futher afield, we will have to wait until we are allowed to do so. At present, we are following guidance to only travel short distances, remain local, and adhere to social distancing recomendations. We are very fortunate to live in the Kingdom of Fife where places like Kirkcaldy, with its vast beach front, are on our doorstep and are seldom visited by any more than a handful of people at any time.

Credits:

Music:
St Monans, written and performed by Craig Lind, 2020
Spenta Mainyu, by, Jesse Gallagher

Graphics:

Traditional Maltese Lace-making, Photographed by, Boguslaw Garbacz
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

Photo taken by Blahedo at the museum of the Ursuline Convent in Quebec City in March 2003.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Collection of Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, T1217
Victorian-Contemporary Age-European and British-art and design period; Circa 1880
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Simonxag
PUBLIC DOMAIN: A recreation of a lace making scene in a cottage kitchen, in Bedford Museum. 2010

Marsupium Photography
Scottish Mining Museum

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

[sisD]

Hello from Texas. First video of yours and subscribed immediately. I love the sea glass, beads and the History. So enjoyable to watch. 🦋

[MsSandraCGL]

Nice to hear a different story about the beads, thank you

[nancyholm]

Craig and Nicole, thanks for the excellent video! Keep them coming! If not for this pandemic I would be enjoying beautiful Scotland in person. Now when I find a beach bead I will appreciate the significance so much more! I’ve subscribed a few weeks ago but this is my first opportunity to comment! Your camera work is very much appreciated! Thanks again!

[loumarlow]

Just found you and subscribed! ☺️. Breathtaking place and fascinating historical facts. Thanks so much for sharing! Love from South Australia ( Settled by Scottish wooden boat builders in the 1800s)

[lisaheisey]

I really enjoyed your video. I'm subscribed to a lot of mudlarking channels. Your video just came up in my feed. I especially like how much history you go into. So many mudlarkers find beads, but you're the first I've heard go into where they may have actually come from. I've subscribed to you and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your videos.

[sarahsallotmentjourney]

I found a big bead on this weeks video one of my subscribers told me you said that it could have come from a bobbin . You could be right it’s was plain and chunky . New subscriber here from docking bay 51 .

[brownthia]

Very interesting historical information. Thank You! And we watch a lot of other Mudlarking presentations from over the last 5 months, but never a mention about the bead history. So that was very nice to know. My husband and I, look forward to seeing where you go next.

[lindyroberts]

I am finishing off a piece of lace as i watch this. I love making lace as much as i like spangling my bobbins with beads.

[kerrypitt]

Hello from Canada, Nicole I found your name but I do not know your husband's name yet, I am a new subscriber from Western Canada.
My Great Grandmother's maiden name was Bonniecastle or it may have originally been spelled Bonneycastle.
I was in Scotland in 1985 for three weeks of driving from farmhouse to farmhouse. It was incredible, I felt the country trying to drag me home. I still get very emotional thinking of the kind people we met and the crazy people driving on those single lane roads. By time I was done I was driving like the rest.
Scotland and Canada have much in common, mostly Scots folk. So many live in British Columbia, everywhere we went on our trip we met people with relatives here.
I do not remember everywhere we went, we landed in Prestwick, rented a car and drove to Castle Douglas where we stayed for four days. After that I know we went not too much further north to the second house. We visited an absolutely beautiful city or town called Kirkcudbright, I remember our Host laughing herself silly at my pronunciation! I loved that place I could have stayed there I love to fly fish and a license for each body of water daily would have driven me to destitution!! 😂
I am so sorry this is such a long post but I have been without visitors since March so lucky you.
So what I would love to see. Is there any chance you would go near Kirkcudbright to hit a beach?
Also we were on the Isle of Skye, oh my Lord so beautiful like British Columbia!
There is a white Coral Beach there. I have since been told it was calcified plants from the ocean but I think the person was mistaken. There are many corals that look like plants and are not. There were also pieces of more typical types of coral. I remember no rocks just coral. There was a Silver Smith just up the road who made sand molds from larger pieces then poured silver to make a piece for a necklace.
We were at Urquhart Castle when we stayed around Morayshire I am sure I butchered the name.
Anywhere and everywhere otherwise. Scotland still lives in my heart. K cry at the pipes playing and I just find my eyes watering when I remember the kindness of so many people who only knew we were Canadian.

[kurtsangelwings]

Yet again a brilliant video. Such lovely scenery.

[babybyrd]

That was so interesting! Funny, I just bought sea salt flakes today, from France though. I loved the story about the beads. A few of the channels I follow find beads and are always real excited to do so. Love them! Thanks so much for sharing your excursions and your knowledge with us!

[margaretdoheny]

I just discovered you. I love your beach combing and your knowledge of history and the fun you are having there. I must come to Scotland some day. \

[noraleestone]

05:43 Wow! As a feminist, I was amazed to hear about the connection between these beads & lace-making, and of course, how important women's work has always been. I'll be thinking about this every time I see someone finding a bead on a mudlark. Thank you very much for this. <3 :)

[temperhollow]

Such beautiful finds and thanks so much for sharing the history about the bobbins and beads. I have always appreciated lacemaking but did not realize that the bobbins were decorated with beads which makes them even more precious to find. Happy Mudlarking.

[Julianne]

Beautiful area, it was interesting seeing how the landscape changed along that piece of coast. The bead history was very interesting, as was the salt history too. Thank you both for another great video!

[phylliswilliamstn]

I just came across your channel and have subscribed. I love the history and scenery and your pleasant personalities and voices.

[mikeandbrendasmith]

Hi from us, some nice bits of sea glass we were out last week again and found some good pieces, what a lovely place you were at. We always enjoy your little history lessons.
Looking forward your next outing. Take care.

[kevnor]

Stunning landscape. Wonderful history lesson. Thank you for another great video. Greetings from Michigan.

[colleenfellowes]

Love your videos !! Beautiful scenery, and you two are such a beautiful couple !! I love learning the snippets of history about Scotland.

[juliet]

Gosh😳😲, you two never cease to AMAZE me on how historically fact filled and interesting your videos are!!! I've seen these beads picked up by the few other mudlarking channels I watch and none have ever delved into where they possibly came from. WELL DONE 👍😊!!! My Great Aunt Kitty use to "tat" lace as a hobby. Wow 🥺, imagine having to do it to make a living to survive 🤷...mind blowing 🤯.
I love the little small clear but "frosty" bits of sea glass. I like to think of them as Mermaid "tears"🧜‍♀️🧜‍♂️.
Scotland's coastal shores are rugged...but oh so stunning 🤩!!! Must have been quite a "wicked" storm 🌀🌊to throw that huge nail way up were you found it.
You two are doing so great with your channel, and I'm so very happy to see your subscriptions moving up in numbers 👏😁!!!
Stay safe and healthy, my friends ☮️🕉️☺️🤗🤭😘