I've received quite a few emails_with_these questions and I decided to answer here so that all could share.
In his article, 'The 1920s: How It Was to Live in Those Days,' [BDFHM newsletter, Spring 2001, Issue 38] my Dad, the late Alex Cowie, said, 'There were 103 houses in the Seatown then, facing all directions, no house planning in those days...'
The Catbow is simply an area of the labyrinth that was the old Seatown and is at the top of the steps that lead down to the Yardie. There is a photograph, taken around 1924, of part of the Catbow on the 'Oormargit' page of the BDFHM website. The house on the right was our home.
The cottages in the photograph no longer exist, but when I was a child, there were traces of where they had been. Two houses, which were built in the 196Os, now stand in their place.
Dad was about ten years old when the photograph was taken and he remembered the women in it:
Leeby Carnie washing the doorstep
Maggie Jappy at the tub
Bella Findlay and her son, Jim
Meggie Mair at the lamppost
Annie (Findlay) Cowie and Mary Ann (Boufie) Reid standing together
The Catbow got its name from the practice of the early residents of raising cats and killing them to use as buoys for the nets in the days before cork and glass. I have never seen a cat buoy, but there is a photograph of a dog buoy in the Heritage museum.
I remember Granda telling me about another area of the Seatown, called the 'Nine O's'. I think it was located in the eastern area of the Seatown and might have been a rubbish tip. It would be interesting to hear from others who know more.
[As published in the Heritage News, Issue No. 47, Summer 2003]
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