Ninety Years of Earlston Businesses

 In 1866  Rutherfurd's Southern Counties Directory of 1866  listed the shops and trades in Earlston.   These numbered:

28 Farmers
10 Grocers/general merchants/spirit merchants  
4  Shoemakers  
7 Dressmakers,/clothiers/drapers. 
5 Innkeepers  at the Black Bull Inn, Commercial Inn, Newton's Hotel, Temperance Hotel,
and White Swan inn.
3 Carriers, Fleshers/Butchers, and Medical Practitioners, 
2 Bakers,  Blacksmiths, Cattle Dealers and Joiners.
1 Banker, Bookseller/Stationer/Printer,  Builder, Farrier, Joiner, Mole-catcher,Painter, Saddler, Salter, Thatcher, Timber Merchant, Tinsmith, and Watchmaker.  

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Ninety years later  Macdonald's Trade Directory of 1956-57 featured the following businesses.

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERS      Thomas Purves, High Street      John Rutherford & Sons, Rhymers Mill.	CHEMIST ·    W. Mitchell & Son, Market Square
BAKERS      R. Douglas, Earlston Bakeries, High Str.     J. Weatherly, High Street.	COAL MERCHANT      A & G. Anderson Ltd.
BANK      Commercial Bank of Scotland, High Str.  Manager, R. A. Thomson	CONFECTIONERS      E. S. Burrell, The Square      R. Douglas, High Street      T. J. Featherston, Main Street
BLACKSMITHS ·   J. A. Brotherston, East End.	FISHMONGER      McQuillin, The Square.
BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS & NEWSAGENTS     W. Simpson Henderson, Market Square.     Also lending library & gift shop.	GROCERS      T. Bell, Thorn Street      R & A. Forrest, High Street.  Hardware, china, wine & spirit merchant      Earlston United Co-operative,  Station Road ·    W. Park & Sons, High Street Wine & spirit merchant
BUTCHERS     Wm. Donaldson, The Square.	JOINERS      W. Kerr & Sons, High Street. Also undertaker
BUILDING CONTRACTORS      Alex Blair & Sons, Mill Road.      Kings & Co., East End.      William Rodger, Builders Ltd.	MOTOR ENGINEERS & AGENT     John Readman and Son. Westfield Road. Motor cars for hire,  also cycle and radio dealers and electrical engineers.
PAINTER & DECORATOR      Fisher & Sons, The Square.	SCOTCH TWEED MANUFRS.      Simpson & Fairbairn Ltd., Rhymers Mill.
PLUMBER      Thomas Walsh  & Son, High Street.	SLATERS      J. & W. Holland, 8 High Street. Also roof plumbing and chimney sweeping.
PUBLIC HOUSE LICENCE HOLDERS ·      I. G. Spence,  White Swan ·      Mrs E. P. Boag,  Black Bull ·      Red Lion Hotel, The Square.	TEA ROOM      F. & J. Weatherly, High Street
RADIO AND TELEVISION      R. & A. Forrest, High Street. HMV and Bush dealers; sales and service	UPHOLSTERER ·      Fraser, Station Road.

Note:  Businesses had to pay for entries in the Directory, so this listing is not comprehensive of  all the shops and services in the village at that time. 

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Then and Now 

An early photograph looking across the West Green, with the trees planted in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee.  The corner block was built in the 1860's by master grocer Christopher Sanderson.  

Rutherford's Newsagent and Barber in what became known as Barber's Corner  at the West Green, c.1950's.  

 

Barber's Corner, West Green in 2019.


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Earlston's Shops and Shopkeepers in Times Past.

Take a look at how people were shopping in Earlston in times past, with photographs, advertisements and memories of jewellers and drapers.

Lochhead's watchmaker & jeweller in what is now the Tom Davidson Gallery. 

Look at the right hand window for that unusual term "cyclealities". 

David Drysdale Lochhead died in 1937 at the age of 83, with "The Berwickshire  News" paying  tribute to the 83 year old businessman for his time in Earlston.  He came to the village from Edinburgh  in 1877 and soon involved himself in community activities - amongst them the Bowling Club where he was a member from its inception in 1881.   On his retirement, in 1924  the Bowling Club presented him with a "handsome silver mounted umbrella, suitably inscribed."

Berwickshire ')News:  2nd June 1937

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 Another watchmaker and jeweller in the village was George Pringle who occupied what is now the Vets on the corner of West High street and the Square.  

 An advertisement from 1898 - with again a reference to selling bicycles. 

Watchmaker John Weatherston later took over the premises from George Pringle. 

 Weatherston's, with the brown fascia on the left of the photograph, 

with the group of people outside.

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Taking centre stage in the short lived  "Earlston Comet" of 1891 were promotions by the drapers and  clothiers in the village, and we get a good description of what the well dressed man or woman would be wearing in the late 19th century. 

Thomas Clendinnen & Sons, Drapers, Milliners and Clothiers announced their:

ANNUAL AUTUMN SALE,

For the whole of  their stock, replete with all the latest novelties in Plain and Diagonal Serges, Homespun, Twist, Knicker Checked and Striped, Dress Tweeds,

Ladies Jackets, Braemar and Russian Cloaks,
Trimmed Hat and Bonnets in Newest Style

White, Scarlet and Shetland Flannels

 Gentleman's Tweed Suits - Made to Measure- From 37s.6p 

New Melton and Diagonal Overcoats from 30s. 

All garments carefully made and finished -  Perfect Fit Guaranteed. 

In the 1891 census, 32 year old draper  Thomas Clendinnen lived on the High Street with his 72 year old mother Jane  named as head of the household.  The drapers was very much a family business that included  Thomas, his  mother, his sister Marion, and brothers Henry and  Charles.   

Ten years earlier, in 1881 William Clendinnen was advertising further afield in the South Shields Daily News.  He laid particular stress that he was "the sole manufacturer of the real Earlston Gingham".

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Also in the field of fashion was David Wallace,  with an advertisement from 1891:

"An Immense and Magnificent Collection of every New and Fashionable  Dress Material....which for Variety, Superior Quality, Good Taste and Moderate Prices is unequalled in Earlston.Tweeds in Cheviot, Homespun, Harris and Grampian makes, latest styles and newest mixtures.  Black materials in great variety.

The latest novelties in Millinery, Flowers, Feathers etc.  Bonnets composed of Velvet and Jet, from 10s.6d to 25s.  The latest novelty in hats is Gladys in French Beaver, trimmed with Feathers.  All orders for this Department made up in the most Fashionable and Tasteful Manner." 

Note the reference to "black materials" - at a time when formal mourning wear was still the custom.  Somehow the name "Gladys" does not quite conjure up an image of a French beaver hat with feathers!   

Draper David Wallace was listed in the 1891 census as at the High Street with his wife Ruth, two young children Robert and Ruth, and  eldest son Henry described as a  Draper's Apprentice.   

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Miller's Drapers Establishment, offered competition with the claim:  

"The largest and cheapest collection  of Autumn and Winter drapery  goods to be seen in any warehouse in the South of Scotland. 

The constant desire is to supply goods of Reliable Quality
 suitable for all classes of the parish."  
   [Note that phrase "All classes of the parish" - you could not use that now!]

 Southern  Reporter: 1894 

An 1898  advertisement announcing   that George McDonald
had taken over the former businesses of Millers 

McDonald's Shop

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A later business in the Macdonald's location was Mary P. Kerr, a well known local character in the 1940s and 1950s. Members of the  Earlston Wednesday Club had fond memories of her:

"Miss Kerr was a legend in Earlston and someone you would always remember. She was very sedate lady,  with a posh   plummy voice, and very particular that the middle initial P was quoted in her name. 

    She ran  a draper’s shop selling high class ladies wear, wools, corsets, long knickers, knitting and sewing goods.  As children I am afraid we used to laugh at the window display of the large  knickers and corsets.

Miss Kerr would hold up knickers in front of her and a customary  "I Ihink these will fit you" which was quite embarrassing.

Willie Alchin from the baker’s opposite was a bit of a joker and he used to pull her leg, which she took in good heart.

Her shop was taken over by Alice Gilchrist and run on similar lines. She immediately held a sale of old stock, with people queuing outside the door to get a bargain."

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To follow - more posts on shopping in Earlston in times past. 

Do you have memories to share?
Do e-mail them to us at:  auldearlston.aol.com

THANK YOU  

Earlston Businessman - and Arson Suspect: Christopher Sanderson

Christopher Sanderson of Earlston was, in the 1860's,  a successful master grocer and corn dealer,  in a position to buy a plot of land at West Green, demolish the cottages there and build a substantial corner block of townhouse properties.   

Yet he left all this behind in a series of moves and made several court appearances, charged with arson and fraud.  What was the background to these changes in his life? 

Local hairdresser Morag Sterrick was prompted to research the history of her West Green shop premises that she has occupied since 1995  and her findings into Christopher Sanderson's life form the basis of this blog post.  Her starting point was  her title deeds which showed that the land had been occupied as far back as 1662.

In  1851 Mr. Sanderson was an apprentice spinner, aged 21,  living with his parents James Sanderson and Agnes Lang.   By 1861 he was a master grocer, living with his wife, daughter and a servant at 9 Main Street in a house  with 7 rooms.  He bought the plot at West Green, occupied then by two dilapidated thatched cottages. 

Eventually gaining permission from the Parish Council, he demolished the  cottages and built a handsome extended corner property, which by 1866 was fully occupied.  It included a double fronted shop with house above, rented by David Lochhead (Tom Davidson's today);  a significant town house with servant quarters which  became the Sanderson residence for Christopher, his wife Elizabeth and small daughter Margaret;   on the corner was his large  grocer's shop with windows on the High Street and the Green, whilst above was the Templar Hall, accessed by an internal stair. 

 It is worth noting that the village of Earlston was prosperous at this point in history, the 1860's, when the decade saw the coming of the railway, the opening of the Commercial Bank and the opening of the Corn Exchange in which Christopher Sanderson had shares.   Many of the properties we are familiar with today that form the Square and both sides of the High Street were built during this period.  Most of these houses included a shop, and some had stables, a small yard and an outhouse.   

There were already nine grocer's shops in Earlston in 1861.   Was there possibly antagonism to Christopher Sanderson setting up a rival business? 

Looking across to the corner property built by Christopher Sanderson.

The young trees  in this photograph were planted around

The Green to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.

It seemed all was going well for Christopher Sanderson.....but not for long

In 1866 the Sanderson’s five year old  daughter, Margaret, died. Christopher and Elizabeth moved to Gordon where their son James was born in 1868.  Back in Earlston, their grocer shop was staffed and business continued.

But soon another move was made, as the 1871 census saw the family at Loughhead  Farm Berwick-upon-Tweed.  

Three years later, "The Newcastle Courant" of 16th October 1874,  along with Border press,  reported  on a fire at the farm - cause unknown, with stacks of wheat, barley and oats destroyed.   But as the paper put it "It was rather curious" that the grain had been sold the day before, and that a similar stackyard fire had taken place there in the previous January.   The loss  however was covered by the insurer.  

Newcastle Courant:  16th October 1874 

But similar incidents were to occur at Loughhead Farm,  as widely reported In March 1875 in Border newspapers, and the press in Edinburgh, Yorkshire, Derby, Leamington Spa and Brechin, Angus, with a typical headline "Farmer Charged with Setting Fire to his Stack Yard".

"The Berwickshire News" described how Thomas Rutherford, farm servant, saw a man go from the farmhouse in the direction of a  stack of barley,  and immediately the stack went on fire.  The man turned round and went back to the farmhouse and Rutherford saw that the man was Sanderson, the prisoner.  He had on a pair old  trousers, a Guernsey shirt and his braces were hanging by his side.  Rutherford went to the farmhouse to raise the alarm,  and was told to go into Berwick for the fire engine, but the prisoner did nothing to stay the fire. The whole of the stacks were consumed.  The insurance had been paid to the prisoner.  The Berwick Freemen, the Corporation of Berwick who were proprietors of the farm offered £50 for further information, but none was forthcoming. The case collapsed and Sanderson was discharged, as the "evidence against him was uncorroborated in in some essential particulars".  

 Edinburgh Evening News:  20th October 1875

By the time of the 1881 census, the family was still at Loughend Farm, Berwick with Christopher described as a farmer of 99 acres, employing 2 labourers and one girl.   

But his involvement in matters of the law continued.  According to an item in "The Southern Reporter" of 19th February 1887,  Christopher Sanderson appeared at Berwick County Court, sued by farmer James Cousens, Chirnside for £5 5s for seed wheat.  Sanderson alleged that the seed  was not of the specified weight and was of inferior quality.  However he had not examined the seed on delivery, nor sent it back, and the Judge ordered him to pay. 

The 1891 census saw the family return to the Borders to  Crunklaw Farm, Edrom, near Duns, with Christopher aged 62,  Elizabeth 55 and James 22.  The  farm had its own corn mill. To raise the deposit on the lease, Christopher now took out a bond (his second), on the shop and house back in Earlston.

The Earlston Valuation Roll for 1890-1891 recorded Christopher Sanderson's continued ownership of his Earlston property,  with tenants Thomas Cledinnen paying a rent of £19 per year.   Next door was tenant John Paterson Weatherly, post master  paying £24.

Life at Crunklaw was hard, with corn prices falling.   Elizabeth died in 1895,  followed by  Christopher on 29th April 1896 at Edrom.  

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Morag Sterrick continues her story of Christopher Sanderson's original estate in Earlston. 

Both the bonds on his two farms were unpaid and the landlords sued Christopher Sanderson’s estate. The bondsman sold the properties. The tenant in the house and shop in Earlston bought the freehold, and the Templers bought the grocers and hall above.

With Christopher Sanderson's original Earlston property now with new owners, the future was more secure. The Templars decided to split the grocers shop into two which made it easier to rent out.   The Earlston Valuation Roll for 1950-1951 showed John Rutherford, hairdresser at what is now the sweet shop, with Lizzie Burrell, confectioner in the smaller unit (now the hairdresser's).  After Lizzie's  death, nephew Stan Mason and his wife Helen continued the sweet shop.  Helen sold  to Houston the Bakers. The shop was a busy bakers shop for many years including my schooldays at Earlston High. The school pupils were in daily buying lunch, myself included.

The corner of the building in  the 1950's - now the sweet shop

I bought the shop in September 1995 from Edward Bellerby.   I opened on 1^st November 1995 and have been successful from day one.  I have been delighted to research the history of the building  and I get so interested when people come in with memories, photographs, and old documents. 
 

I would like to tell this story to Christopher Sanderson’s descendants.  The family headstone is in Edrom churchyard.   Son James could not afford to keep on the farm there by himself and after falling behind on the rent, he moved away.    I know that James married and lived at Foulden.

But the mystery remains - why did Christopher Sanderson leave Earlston?  Why did he not return when  times were so hard?

 The original block today March 2017, built by Christopher Sanderson c.1862.

Sources of information:

Property title deeds 

Census returns 1851- 1891
Valuation Rolls for Earlston 

British Newspapers Online at  www.findmypast.co.uk

Berwick Archives

Heritage Hub, Hawick.

Local Earlston residents who accessed relevant information for me.

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Do you have a story to tell about Earlston.s past that we could feature here?  
We would love to hear from you.  
E-mail:  auldearlston.aol.com