'My great grandmother ran the village pub for more than 60 years - and now I am helping to re-open it'
There are hopes that The Ship in Johnshaven could be re-opened as community buy-out gets under way. For some, the pub is held in the deepest affection.
For more than 260 years, The Ship Inn in Johnshaven dispensed water and welcome for all who passed through her creaky door.
For village resident Catriona Smith, the pub also runs deep in her family story given her great- grandmother Elizabeth ‘Ma’ Hunter ran the pub for more than 60 years. Her tenure spanned the birth of her four children and two World Wars.
For several years now, the pub has been closed following the death in October 2021 of its last landlady, Bobbie Still, who ran The Ship for more than three decades.
Now, Ms Smith, 40, has been appointed the chair - or, in true Johnshaven style, The Captain - of the Save Our Ship committe which is leading a community buyout of the pub to get its door open once again.
Ms Smith said: “It so important to have it back in the village as it is such an important part of Johnshaven and it has been since 1763.
“It is the oldest pub on record in what was Kincardineshire.
“It is more than just a pub, it has seen weddings, celebrations, two world wars and that is in just my family’s decades of ownership.”
The village is also lucky to have The Anchor Hotel, which is highly regarded for its quality food, hospitality and commitment to the community through Covid and beyond, but it is also true that The Ship has been missed by many here. The pub is remembered by some as a “living room” where drinks flowed, characters gathered, banter served and the stove, built with precision every morning by Bobbie’s partner Eddie, was always on.
Early records show that the pub once had eight stables outside, with the pub witnessing many changes in the village. In 1722, Johnshaven was recorded as the fifth largest fishing port in Scotland, with 26 boats and 130 fishermen listed here. Later, another harbour was added in 1884 to meet the demands of the herring boom.
Cuttings from around this time hint at the more colourful moments in village life. In 1891, a lemonade carter on his way to the pub was injured when his horse bolted outside and ran into a wall. In 1897, a “serious Saturday night row” erupted when a group of punters decided to attack a policeman and the village police station with stones in order to free their friend. It was a mission that ended in the threat of jail time for many more.
In 1908, the then-landlord was pulled up before magistrates after a customer was served a pint of whisky. “He was the worse of drink when he got away from Johnshaven,” the cutting said.
Ms Smith’s great-grandmother, originally from a farming family near Montrose, took over the pub in 1912 with her husband, John, from Letham in Fife.
Neither had any experience in running pubs but the licensing board noted his “excellent character”.
A newspaper report of their licensing application said: “Of course, the district was going down, and there was not a big trade. If the bench did grant a licence, they should point out to the applicant the necessity of exercising great care and discrimination in supplying liquour and not make the mistake others had done.”
Ms Smith recalled: “You wouldn’t mess with Ma Hunter, as everyone referred to her. Everyone had a story about her.
“She was teetotal, so she said. That was her story and she stuck to it and she just served everyone else and made sure everyone else had a great time. But, you would know about it if you crossed the line. You’d get a stoney look and then get papped out.”
Traces of Ma Hunter’s reign at the pub can still be seen today, including the water tap on the bar and the mantelpiece upstairs in the function room, made from an old pool table. Ms Smith’s granny, Mary, was born and then married in the pub.
Ms Smith was allowed into the pub in recent weeks to view the property as work on the community buy-out gathers pace. She said she hadn’t expected it to be “so emotive”.
She said: “I had quite a goosebump reaction when we were shown round the Ship, we went in for a viewing a couple of weeks ago, all the furniture had gone, there were no belongings at all but there were a few photographs on the main mantelpiece in what would have been the function rooms upstairs.
“I walked in and saw the photographs there and I thought’ my goodness, that is my grandparents and my great grandparents. That was when I realised, yes, this is something I have got to do.
“My mum is absolutely delighted. She shed a wee tear because she is so pleased that I am doing it, and so is my dad.
“But it is not just me - all the committee members are super excited about it.”
The Save Our Ship commitee will need to raise “the best part of half a million” to complete the purchase of the C-listed building and to renovate it. Now set up as a community benefit company, money is being sought from a range of public funds and private renewable companies who are active along the coast and in the surrounding countryside.
“We want it to be more than a pub. We want it to be a space for the whole community. There are lots of homeworkers here, like myself, so they could come in and see some other faces and have a yap. We could do classes, open it up for musicians, for artists.
“We also want to support the local community, be part of it and complement everything else that is already here.
“The people I have spoken to so far are really excited and even the most cynical ones – ‘oh you’ll never see that place open again’ , well we are talking them around.”
Ms Smith hopes to open up the bar “as soon as possible”, with hopes for pints to be pulled by next Halloween, one of the favourite times of year of the last landlady, Bobbie.
Ms Smith said: “Bobbie was an absolute wonderful woman, she was so nice but don’t let that fool you, you never messed with Bobbie
“Even if she was partial to nodding off at times, she could still hear you.”
What would Bobbie make of a community buyout?
“I think she would delighted at what we are doing. I know that is all that she and Eddie wanted for the pub, which was to be part of the community. That is exactly what we want to do.”
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