If Barrowsgate is remembered at all now, it is for his small book of Doric verse, published in 1933 – the Blethers o’ Barrowsgate. However, he wrote and published much more than this over the last thirty years of his life.
In Scotland, the term Doric refers to the vernacular language spoken mostly in the North East of the country – mainly the old counties of Banffshire, Kincardineshire, Moray, and Aberdeenshire.
As was the tradition at the time, crofters were often referred to by the name of their croft which, in his case, was Barrowsgate near Drumoak (between Banchory and Aberdeen). When he moved to a larger croft fifty miles north the following year, he simply renamed the new croft Barrowsgate and carried on as before.
Barrowsgate did not consider himself a “serious” writer, or even a talented writer, but he knew how to entertain and had the ability to “spin a good yarn”. When his wartime injuries made it difficult to hold down a job and make a living, he used his abilities as a wordsmith to supplement his small war pension and subsistence lifestyle.
Barrowsgate’s writing falls broadly into three categories: Verse, Bitties (short-form pieces) and Stories.
