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Edinburgh
Roast Chicken Shops |
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Recollections
1.
Lorraine Bruce (nee
Dutton)
Dingwall, Ross &
Cromarty, Scotland |
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Thank you to Lorraine Bruce for posting a message in the
EdinPhoto guest book.
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Lorraine wrote:
Roast Chicken Shops
"I'm desperate to find any old memories or photos of three shops
that my dad, William (Billy) Dutton managed in the early-1960s.
He will soon be 80.
His shops where the first ever roast chicken shops in Edinburgh.
This was before the time when chicken were to be seen on spits in
the window.
His
company was Hillwood Produce. They had shops in:
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South Clerk Street.
- St John's Road (or
perhaps it was Corstorphine High Street. It was nearly
opposite the Harp Hotel.)
- Morningside Road."
Lorraine Bruce (nee Dutton), Edinburgh: Message
posted in EdinPhoto guestbook: August 23, 2010
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Lorraine added:
Hillwood Produce Shops
"My father
was born at Caroline Park. He was a charming and popular
grocer, first working
in Low's in Nicolson street and at Ratho Station.
He then
took over managing a string of Hillwood Produce shops. These
were very new to Edinburgh at the time, long before Edinburgh had
fast foods chains, and when chicken was hitherto a luxury roast for
special occasions.
Hillwood Produce company roasted chickens. The chickens were
not roasted on spits in the windows as they were by another business
some years later, but roasted in ovens by Mrs Grinton who also made
the best homemade sausage rolls ever.
My
father had a strong work ethic. I can recall going in to his
shop during the week preceding Christmas and seeing floor-to-ceiling
pallets of chickens waiting to be roasted. My father ran his shops
in a very professional way. He was interviewed for radio
programme, 'Farm Forum'.
He was
always charming and his customers loved him. He would hand out
his recipes for cuts to anyone who asked. He believed that if
one had to have canned goods in the shop, they had to be Baxters as
he considered them the best at the time.
His
shop in South Clerk Street must have been pretty close to The Odeon.
I can recall being sent off to the Odeon if the shop was busy."
Lorraine Bruce (nee Dutton),
Dingwall, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland: August 23, 2010
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Reply to Lorraine Bruce?
If you remember any of
the shops that Lorraine mentions above,
please email me, then I'll pass on your message to her.
Thank you
Peter Stubbs: August 23, 2010 |
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Recollections
2.
Alan Raeburn
Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
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Thank you to Alan Raeburn who added this reply in the
EdinPhoto guestbook:
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Alan wrote:
Hillwood Chicken Shop - Corstorphine
"I worked for the Hillwood chicken shop in Corstorphine. I
delivered orders on a bike after school when I lived in Clermiston.
I think it was about 1963-64."
Alan Raeburn, Perth, Western Australia:
Message posted in EdinPhoto guest book: Aug 31, 2010 |
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Recollections
3.
Anne Moir (nee
Nimmo) |
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Thank you to Anne Moir
who replied: |
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Hillwood Produce
"I'm
trying to get more information about my dad, Peter Nimmo, who along
with his brother Alastair owned the chicken company, Hillwood
Produce, that Loraine mentions above. My father died in 1973
and his brother died in 1972.
I
have old newspaper cuttings in scrap books that my mother kept
showing photos taken inside the shops and the opening of the Clerk
Street shop. My mother is now aged 97."
Peter Nimmo & Son
"I'd love to find out more about Peter Nimmo & Son. This was
dad's main business."
***
Anne Moir (nee Nimmo): May 7, 2011 |
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*** I've checked in
a couple of Post Office Directories (1961-2 and 1970-1) but not
found this company listed.
Peter Stubbs, May 13, 2011
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Recollections
4.
Lorraine Bruce (nee
Dutton)
Dingwall, Ross &
Cromarty, Scotland |
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Thank you to Lorraine Bruce, nee Dutton, who wrote again
after reading 'Recollections 3' above.
Sadly, Lorraine tells me that her father (mentioned in
'Recollections 1' above) has now died.
Lorraine wrote
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Anne Moir - Photographs
"I've
been missing my father a lot recently.
I was amazed to read the
comments from Anne Moir, daughter of the man who owned the shops
where my father worked. What a surprise to hear that she has
photos of the inside of he shops and of the opening of the Clerk
Street store.
I have no information for
Anne other that that my father spoke highly of her father, and that
I remember being taken to see thousands of hatchling chickens in
huge round heated pens.
Is there any way that I can
contact Anne?
Lorraine Bruce (nee Dutton), Edinburgh:
June 14, 2011
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Message for Anne Moir
I
passed on the latest email address that I have for Anne Moir to
Lorraine, but unfortunately Lorraine has not been able to get in
touch with Anne.
So if
you read this, Anne, can you
please email me and let me know how Anne can contact you?
Thank you.
Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: June 27,
2011 |
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Recollections
5.
Anne Moir (nee
Nimmo) |
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Thank you to Anne Moir
for sending copies of the photographs and newspaper cuttings
mentioned in 'Recollections 3' above, together with some comments
about her father's businesses. |
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Hillwood Produce Co
Here is an advert for the opening of the Hillwood Produce Co shop
in Clerk Street:
Official
Opening
©
Reproduced by courtesy of Evening
News. Click here
for web site details.
with acknowledgement to Anne Moir for providing a
copy of this photo. |
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Here is photos of the Hillwood Produce Co roast chicken
shops in Clerk Street., Edinburgh:
39 Clerk Street
- New Shop
©
Reproduced by courtesy of Evening
News. Click here
for web site details.
with acknowledgement to Anne Moir for
providing a copy of this photo.
The article accompanying this photo mentioned that Hillwood
Produce Co already had shops at Morningside and Corstorphine when
the Clerk Street shop opened, and that the company's farm at
Newbridge housed 42,000 chickens. |
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Anne Moir added:
Business Ventures
"At
the peak of my father's business ventures, he owned:
- 'Hillwood Produce
Co'
- 'Peter Nimmo &
Sons'
- 'Easibuild',
joinery contractors selling wooden sheds, coal frames and
greenhouses."
Ratho
"All these businesses were situated on the same site at Ratho.
My father bought a pig farm and kept the farm-house as his main
office. Several ex-farmhands continued to live in the cottage
on the land as tenants. He built the factory, timber- yard and
chicken houses on the land."
Businesses Sold
"The ill health of both my
uncle Alastair Nimmo and my father Peter resulted in the joinery
business being sold to 'James Whyte & Co', civil engineers, in the
late-1960s. The business went bankrupt a few years later.
The chicken business,
including the four shops, was sold to Mr T Montgomery, the firm's
Secretary. Unfortunately, the shops closed a few years later:
I have no idea what happened.
I'd love to discover more
about what happened to the businesses. Sadly, my father died
in 1973, a year after my uncle Alastair died, leaving us as a family
with many unanswered questions as to why all the businesses were
sold and lasted such a short time afterwards.
Anne Moir (nee Nimmo): Letter
arrived June 30, 2011 |
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Recollections
6.
Lorraine Bruce (nee
Dutton)
Dingwall, Ross &
Cromarty, Scotland |
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Lorraine Bruce, nee Dutton, replied:
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Chicken
"What
a lovely surprise to read 'Recollections 5' above.
I have no photographs of
myself as a child but I do recall, very clearly, that there was a
photograph of me with my father sitting outside the huge sheds that
the 92.000 chickens were kept in.
I recall also being taken
to see the little yellow chicks in their heated pens. These
all must have be part of Anne's father's business.
We stayed in a farm cottage
in Ratho. The farm was owned by the Baird Family who are based
still, at Halyards farm Kirkliston. I have a feeling they would have
know Anne's father as they bred chicken too - just a thought.
Clerk Street Shop
I recall often going to see
my father in the Clerk Street shop. He was proud of the shops.
The same cook went with him. There were two huge ovens in the
back of the shops. I wish I could recall more.
I had long believed that
there must be cuttings somewhere as dad was saying each time a shop
opened the press were there and he was interviewed for Farm Forum.
etc.
Lorraine Bruce (nee Dutton), Edinburgh:
June 30, 2011
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Recollections
7.
Stan Forbes
Australia |
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I sent the message and
newspaper clippings that I received from Ann Moir (Recollections
5, above) to Lorraine Bruce. Lorraine told me that one of
the photos included her father, working in the Hillwood Produce
shop at Morningside.
Lorraine sent the
photograph of the Hillwood Produce shop at Clerk Street to her
uncle, Stan Forbes, who was born at Boswall Place and now lives in
Australia.
Stan replied to Lorraine. Here is an extract from his
letter to Lorraine: |
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Carpentry
"I
served an apprenticeship in the Leith shipyards as a shipwright and
later went to sea as a ships carpenter."
Ratho
"During one of
the quieter spells in the shipyards, I was employed by Peter Nimmo
of Hillwood Produce, Ratho Station Road, making garden sheds.
I
remember visiting your Mum and Dad and baby Lorraine in a little
farm cottage near Ratho on what might possibly have been Kirkliston
Road. I can see it in my mind's eye, as it was then, but
everything has changed during the course of thirty years
It was the last opening on the right (with Corstorphine behind you)
just before the big roundabout at the start of the
Glasgow/Livingston motorway."
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Lorraine added:
"The farm at Newbridge that
I lived on as a toddler is still there, but the fields are gone.
Lorraine Bruce (nee Dutton), Edinburgh,
July 2, 2011
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Letter from Stan Forbes, Australia to
Lorraine Bruce (nee Dutton), Edinburgh, July 2, 2011:
forwarded to me by Lorraine Bruce: July 2, 2011
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