WORKING LIFE NOW AND THEN
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The many and diverse landscapes around the North Sea share a common denominator in how they were utilised in prehistoric times. Even today, we can see contours of the five thousand-year-old landscape of the fisherman/farmer. Common survival strategies of the Atlantic moor farms have been, among other things, putting livestock out to grass and burning the fields in order to maintain and control the landscape, as well as cutting heather to get some extra fodder. |
| Historical photographs give us an impression of how this divided husbandry by the coast was a part of the hardships of everyday life the landscape of the farmers and fishermen. On Shetland we can even today see hillsides covered with large earthy brown patches where peat is being cut for fuel. |
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Fisheries and shipping constituted an important part of the daily husbandry along the North Sea coasts. In this area, the small boats used for inshore fishing are similar in design and technology, and professional boat building was a part of the coastal districts' economic base for many centuries. The moors and the ocean are therefore the key to understanding the way people in the old days organised their work in order to adapt to the northern climate. Present day working life is characterised by machines and industrial production, while the working life of the pre-industrial society was characterised by manual labour. The mainstay of the cities and towns' economic activity was trade and shopkeeping, while in the districts and villages the farmers, craftsmen, fishermen and seamen left their mark on the landscape. The people who cultivated the land, built houses and made dikes were the very people who wove beautiful textiles and decorated their homes with woodcarvings and ornamental painting the historical cultural heritage of our time. |
