Old Pulteney comes under spotlight in TV documentary

28/03/2002

Wick’s Pulteney distillery has come under the TV spotlight in a re-enactment of a famous photograph taken there at the end of the 19th Century.

The original photograph was taken in 1895 by Alexander Johnston Senior and features the Pulteney workforce of the time, providing an evocative image of the rigours of distillery life. Inspired by the imagery, TV production company Caledonia, Sterne & Wyld, who are making a documentary about the Johnston Collection for Grampian TV and Scottish Television’s Artery programme, have brought things right up-to-date by photographing the 11 current employees. The final film will feature the original 1895 photograph being gradually superimposed with an image of today’s workforce.

Distillery manager Fred Sinclair said: “The original 1895 distillery photograph is a marvellous depiction of the workers at Pulteney and it was a great idea to take a comparison photograph featuring today’s employees. The distillery has played an important role in the history of Wick and we are very proud of our heritage.” The distillery is today famous for the production of Old Pulteney 12-year-old single malt Scotch whisky.

The Johnston Collection is named after the three generations of a local family who took photographs in Wick between 1863 and 1974, producing about 100,000 negatives over the period and providing a valuable insight into the history of the town. The negatives are held at Wick Heritage Centre.

The programme’s director Valerie Lyon said: “The Pulteney Distillery captured by Johnston more than a century ago is one of the last businesses from that time still in existence in Wick today having been successfully resurrected after Wick’s lengthy period of prohibition between 1922 and 1947. The original photograph is such a lovely image of its time that we thought it would be nice to include it in the programme and update it by 107 years!”

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