Restoring an Icon – The Whale Bone on The Law Transcript

A SHORT video by Hugh Trevor

 0:03 [Music]

0:12 For 300 years since 1709, whale jawbones

0:18 have stood at the top of the small hill

0:20 called the Law behind the town of North

0:23 Berwick.

0:25 They were put there because at that time

0:28 whaling was carried out in that area.

0:32 But whale bones get old and decay. Those

0:36 there in 2005, the fourth ones in the

0:39 series, collapsed and were taken away.

0:43 Due to the high cost involved and due to

0:46 environmental concerns, it seemed that

0:49 they might never be replaced,

0:51 but people missed them. The Law looked

0:54 bare without them. Eventually a group of

0:57 people got together to raise the money

0:59 for a replacement:

1:02 “My name is Klaus Frommel and I'm speaking

1:05 on behalf of a group called Friends of

1:07 North Berwick. Two or three years ago, the

1:10 whale bone structure collapsed and had to be

1:13 taken down and we found that a very sad

1:15 thing because North Berwick Law without the

1:18 the famous whale bones was really just a

1:21 law.

1:22 We waited some time and nothing really

1:26 happened. We approached the council and

1:28 the council has research work for us at

1:30 that point already. We then made contact

1:33 to Ralph Plastics who are producing the

1:35 whale bones as we speak and

1:38 they told us the cost and we came

1:41 forward with the money and we're very

1:43 pleased that they are produced at the

1:44 moment.”

1:46 “I’m Jim Ralph who owns this company Ralph Plastics

1:49 and basically our glass fibre moulders, we

1:52 do a wide variation of work, but on this

1:54 occasion we're making real jaw bones to

1:57 go at the top of North Berwick Law and we're

1:59 starting with our centre timber core.

2:03 It’s 6.5 meters long and it's covered in

2:06 glass fibre.

2:08 From there we build it up with

2:10 polyurethane foam and then we cover the

2:13 polyurethane foam with our flame

2:16 retardant glass fibre resin

2:19 and finish it off solely in glass fibre.

2:23 There's no paint work or anything like

2:25 that involved.”

2:32 “This is polyurethane foam.

2:37 As you can see he put in his

2:39 location points first

2:41 and now we're just taking the foam down

2:43 on top of it.

2:45 We put down the liquid foam

2:47 and just we use it as an adhesive.”

2:51 And now a big jump forward in time.

2:55 The far jawbone is complete. The nearer

2:58 one is having the final shaping of the

3:01 polyurethane blocks.

3:07 “We’re going to compare the two sizes are the same.”

3:11 And now for the final stage, putting on

3:15 the glass fibre outer cover that will

3:18 give the Jawbone its strength.

3:25 How many layers do you put on this? “Five”.

3:32 And then,

3:34 do you leave it for a day and then

3:36 put on another coat? “No, we'll be

3:38 letting this layer of glass go hard and

3:41 then we'll put on another four at once”

3:43 Another four at once? “Yeah” So

3:46 this is the first layer you're putting

3:48 on on top of icing? “Yeah”.

3:54 Once the jawbones were completed it was time to have

3:57 them weighed. This was because later they

4:00 would be airlifted by helicopter.

4:04 The weighing was done by loading the

4:06 jawbones on a truck

4:08 which was weighed twice once without the jaw

4:12 bones on board then with them loaded on.

4:17 It wasn't just the jawbones that needed

4:19 weighing, but all the extra fittings as

4:22 well.

4:25 The total weight was

4:27 565 kilograms.

4:31 Then it was time to fit it all together

4:34 for a practice run in getting the

4:36 structure vertical as would be done on

4:39 the big day itself.

4:41 Let's speed things up.

4:48 [Music]

5:06 One important item that had to be added now was the

5:11 metal bracket which fits the two jaw bones

5:14 together at the top.

5:18 Then it had to be lifted by crane to

5:20 make sure all was as it should be.

5:32 So it was all up.

5:37 Friday the 6th of June was jawbone’s

5:40 d-day for the North Berwick Law.

5:44 Early in the morning, the jawbones were

5:47 put together again in the car park.

5:52 The wooden struts were needed to keep the

5:54 jawbones in place while being carried

5:57 by the helicopter, but would be taken off

6:00 again at the top of the Law.

6:04 “Good morning this is the 26th of June.

6:07 It’s around about seven o'clock in the

6:09 morning and my name is Alexander Arundel.

6:11 I am a Project’s officer at East Lothian

6:13 Council but here today to actually

6:16 lift the whale’s jawbone on to the Law.

6:18 After maybe the last three years they

6:20 get manufactured, uh hopefully today

6:23 everything will just go fine. The only

6:25 thing that we’re worried about is the

6:26 weather obviously uh but I’m sure

6:28 everything will go just great. We’re

6:30 sweating at the moment just for the

6:32 helicopter to arrive, it's going to

6:33 actually lift the concrete up and the

6:35 water uh and the last thing that’s going

6:38 to lift is actually the whale’s jawbone.”

6:40 Now it's time for another photograph

6:42 taken by the local newspaper

6:45 photographer.

6:46 And this is the BBC cameraman taking

6:50 pictures that appeared on the Scottish

6:52 television programme that evening. These

6:56 are bags of cement that will be used to

6:59 encase the feet of the jawbones to hold

7:01 them firm at the top of the Law.

7:08 Everything, animals included, were waiting

7:11 for the helicopter.

7:13 Not far away, the Law Primary School

7:16 children were also waiting. They have

7:19 been given the morning off to watch.

7:24 Here’s the helicopter now.

7:33 Its first job will be to take cement and

7:36 water up to the top of the law.

7:39 That will take several trips.

8:10 [Music]

8:29 Now it's time for the jawbones

8:31 themselves.

8:45 [Music]

8:50 [Applause]

8:57 [Music]

9:12 [Music]

9:26 The helicopter has finished its work and

9:30 is leaving now.

9:32 Getting the jawbones at the correct

9:34 angle and securing them there was quite

9:37 a job in the strong wind.

9:40 Temporary bolts had to be made in the

9:42 rocks for bracing while the concrete set.

9:48 The feet of the jawbones were fixed to

9:51 the rocks and securely

10:10 tied in.

10:34 The water needed for making the concrete

10:37 had also been brought up by the

10:39 helicopter.

10:42 Getting the water mixed in with the

10:44 cement is quite difficult here.

10:48 Mr Frommel of the Friends of North

10:51 Berwick came to see how things were

10:53 going:

10:56 “We've got a little boy outside stopping

10:58 here his name’s Christian. We're going to

11:00 ask him to put this

11:02 wee jar into the side of the whale’s

11:05 jawbone. It’s just got the workers’ names

11:07 and various bits and pieces uh so we're

11:09 just going to ask him to place this in

11:10 here. It’s not got much in it, just a wee brief history of the

11:14 whale’s jawbone so I'm just going to hand

11:16 it to Christian now.

11:18 And if Christian would like to put that

11:19 in the hole”.

11:28 There's still a bit more to do getting

11:30 the feet properly cemented in.

11:39 The concrete sets very quickly and then

11:42 it will be turfed over.

12:19 Once the jaw bones are in place,

12:21 photographers arrive, getting the workmen

12:24 to pose in various positions.

12:32 The workmen left the bar and ties

12:34 overnight and removed them the next day

12:37 once the concrete had set really hard.

12:42 So off they go after a very successful

12:46 day’s work.

12:52 It is so good to see the jawbones back

12:55 in place.

12:57 The next week, all the local newspapers

13:00 had the replacement of the jawbones as a

13:03 main topic.

13:04 “Oh here's the East Lothian News, good.

13:07 Something I want to see in this

13:09 newspaper today I'll see if I can find

13:11 it.

13:12 I wanted to read about the whale’s jaw

13:14 bones.

13:16 There it is.

13:18 300 years after the tradition started,

13:21 the Law gets its fifth set of whale’s

13:24 jawbones. Now isn't that interesting,

13:26 that's quite an achievement, it‘s lovely

13:28 to see them back there on top of the hill.”

13:32 A final look.

13:34 The North Berwick Law has regained its

13:37 special icon, one that will last for

13:39 dozens, maybe hundreds of years.