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Peat is formed when layers or dead mats of vegetation gradually decompose in water, compress and partly carbonise. Subsequent mats continue to form at the surface. It is abundant in the Falklands and until the 1980's was critically important to living and in the islands. Stanley was fuelled by peat from Stanley Common above the town until the 1982 conflict. Mines laid there made it impossible to cut peat and the town went over to oil and later, wind turbines.
Peat cutting took/takes place in spring. Until mechanical peat cutting machines became available all that was needed was a good spade (with a hole in its blade to reduce suction) a string line, and a good back and heart. In latter years mechanical cutters cut peat.
Up until the 1982 conflict peat-cutting for outlying settlement use was mostly done on ‘contract’ where a man was paid by the cubic yard, an opportunity to earn good money. Often a peat bank was a considerable distance from a settlement. Sometimes the peat cutters left their settlement homes to live in a ‘peat shanty’ by the peat bog taking cooked meat, bread and tinned food with them, so that an early start could be made and they could work long hours.
A peat bank was carefully measured, marked out, and cut into 9 x 9 x 9 inch glistening sods, 64 to each cubic yard, each cut and thrown up on to the peat bank to lie and dry for a week or so before being ‘rickled’.
Rickling, often done by women and children, stacked the peat sods into small cone shaped stacks along the peat bank where they stayed for weeks until the drying was complete.
When it was really dry the peat was carted home, in early days on horses with large maletas, or horse drawn carts and in more modern times by tractor and trailer.
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Each house had a ‘peat stack’ or two, sometimes boxed in with wooden sides. For maximum performance Falkland's peat needs to be kept a year before use. Fresh peat ‘burns away’ much too fast.
Every camp home would have 5 or 6 peat buckets (empty 5 gallon oil drums with fencing wire handles) ‘filling the peat buckets’ was an everyday chore. The hard blacker peat, from the more ancient lower layers of the peat bog, was/is easy to work with and burned for longer with more heat and needed just a tap with an axe to shatter it into useable sizes. The lighter spongier sods took much more of an effort but made good ‘banker’ sods to keep the cooker slowly burning overnight. Ashes were carried out (carefully, noting the wind direction to avoid them blowing into the eyes) to 40 gallon ex oil drums usually positioned by the yard fence. Stanley’s housing layout was designed so that houses had access for carts, then lorries, to be able to deliver peat to them. Most houses had a ‘peat shed’. During the 1982 conflict the Common and the peat banks were heavily mined and houses in the town turned to oil for fuel. Since the conflict the camp has had access to oil as well and it has mostly taken over from peat.
Peat along with water was a very important factor in determining where a Falklands settlement was situated. It was essential for survival. Peat had to be within reasonable carting distance. One of the positives of siting Stanley where it is when the seat of Government relocated from Port Louis in 1843 was its access to vast deposits of peat behind the town. This proved costly during the 'first peat slip' of 1878 and the 'second great peat slip' of 1886 when the Exchange building was damaged beyond repair. On the wet and stormy night of June 2nd 1886, the unstable peat workings close to Stanley caused much damage to the little town. Most people were indoors due to the bad weather and those in wrecked houses managed to escape, but two people died, one Patrick Keating (Kateon), age 54 and late in the employ of San Carlos North. He was staying at J Pistori's boarding house and disappeared. His body was eventually recovered. The other casualty was a child. A stream of half liquefied peat over a hundred yards in width and 4 to 5ft (1.2-1.5m) deep flowed through the town and into the harbour. Streets were blocked and people imprisoned in their houses.
On the subject of school absences the 1890 Colonial Report says legitimate excuses for an hour's absence are put forward such as 'taking father's breakfast' and in the summer 'helping to rickle peat'. |
