Coll, Lewis
Coll
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 The single track road which winds through the villages of Inner Coll and Vatisker |
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 Coll
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| Coll shown within the Outer Hebrides | |
| Language |
Scottish Gaelic English |
| OS grid reference | NB465400 |
| Civil parish | |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ISLE OF LEWIS |
| Postcode district | HS2 |
| Dialling code | 01851 |
| Police | Scottish |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Coll (Scottish Gaelic: Col) is a farming settlement near Stornoway, on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Coll is situated on the B895, between Stornoway and New Tolsta, and is also within the parish of Stornoway.
From 1888 to 1921, Coll and the nearby farmlands of Tong and Gress were the scene of several land raids. This made them the focus of a wider conflict between the people of Lewis, its owners, and the government.
During the 19th century Lewis, like many rural areas of Scotland, became impoverished and depopulated. This was the result of deliberate evictions of tenant farmers by the landowners (the Highland Clearances), harsh living conditions, outright famine in some years, and voluntary emigration in hopes of a better life elsewhere. Towards the start of the 20th century the British government attempted to reverse this trend, by providing land for small farm settlements, allotments or crofts, and by improving the conditions of land tenure. There was also a political promise that servicemen returning from World War I should have “a land fit for heroes to live in” and enjoy priority for such settlements.
This policy was not contentious in England, but Scottish landowners were generally hostile, and able to frustrate it. The island of Lewis was exceptional in being owned in its entirety by wealthy industrialists prepared to invest heavily to develop the area – from 1844 by the Matheson family (founders of Jardine Matheson) then from 1917 by William Hesketh Lever, Lord Leverhulme the soap magnate. But as industrialists, their vision of the island’s future was industrial – fisheries, tweed manufacture, and the like. They were utterly opposed to land re-settlement, seeing this as perpetuating an outmoded way of life. Meanwhile the landless people of Lewis found themselves existing in overcrowded, squalid conditions, alongside empty arable acres given over to sheep, deer-stalking or grouse-shooting.
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Wikipedia