Baptist Rest Kirk - new photos in the Archives
The Shetland Archives recently acquired two volumes of photographs from the period 1934-1936. The photographs feature the work of the Baptist Rest Hut in Lerwick. The hut was on the site of the building now called Pearl Cottage in Commercial Road. The hut was established by the Baptist Union of Scotland to attend to women fish workers.
Nurse Mackie and her medical dispensary in the Rest Hut
It comprised a space – not a very big one – for social events, and a small section for use as a nursing dispensary. The women often sustained injuries to their fingers when they dealt with the fish, and Nurse Mackie saw to their medical needs.
Women fish workers in the 1936 season.
The livewire behind the project was the Rev. H. Austin Stirling, who was later the Baptist minister in Burra. He spent time making posters to hang outside the hut inviting workers to come in.
The Rev. Stirling outside the Rest Hut
One of the minister's posters
