Aberdeen at Work: People and Industries Through the Years

The city of Aberdeen has been shaped by its natural surroundings and location on the North Sea coast. Long before the 1,000 plus years of the city’s recorded history, the area’s prehistoric people built megalithic stones and circles, and for centuries granite from quarries nearby was used to build the city, as well as exported around Britain wherever the hard-wearing stone was required. Over the centuries a vast number of crafts and skills went into the development of Aberdeen – a city that sits between two rivers each enabling trades such as fishing and papermaking, also characterised by shipbuilding and textile mills.The city was a major fishing port and an important trading centre between Scotland and countries across the North Sea and when oil was discovered in the North Sea in the 1960s and 1970s, Aberdeen became the oil capital of Britain. Today the North East of Scotland’s natural landscape again dominates work and labour in the move to invest in new energy sources harvesting wind and wave power.This is the story of the women, men and children who earned their living at countless occupations – some common to every town, others unique to Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland. In Aberdeen at Work, authors Lorna Corall Dey and Michael Dey explore the working life of this city and its people, and the industries that have characterised it. The book will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of Aberdeen.