As 2022 has been designated Scotland's Year of Stories, we thought that we would share with you some 'stories' of Annan. This is one of a series of blogs of our ambles around the streets of Annan, looking for unusual sights, old shop signage, benchmarks etc.
🥾 Markets in Annan.
- 1-2 km (approx 1m)
- 1-2 hours (approx)
- NOT a circular route.
- Click/tap on a photo to enlarge it and give you the pictures as a slideshow.
- Please take care near roads.
 | |
|
We begin our walk at the Albert Hall - no, not the Royal one but the Annan one on Port Street. It was built with an auction mart around and underneath it by James MacLean in 1870. The Scotsman newspaper reported that at McLean's auction mart in 1873 their Christmas show had a 'capital show of cattle, sheep and pigs'. The building later housed Annan Fire Station.
 |
| © 2022 V&P Russell |
 |
| 1899 Map: National Library of Scotland |
James MacLean was an auctioneer who was subsequently responsible for introducing John Thomson, in 1880 to the auctioneering business. The Thomson family began as drovers who collected sheep and cattle from farmers all over Scotland to take them to Norfolk, a 4 week journey, for sale. Some paid the tolls to cross the border at Gretna but others crossed the Solway by fords such as the one at Dornock. The crossing here was called the Sandy Wath. These fords were used as short cuts reducing the long trek around the estuaries by land but would of course be dependent on conditions of the river channels, tides and weather!
 | |
|
The Thomson family recognised that the arrival of the railway would signal the end of droving and John Thomson went to work for the Maryport Hermatite Iron & Coal Company, although ill health eventually brought him back to Annan and he began working with James MacLean. After this the Thomson name, and others such as Roddick and Laurie soon came to be well known in Annan as auctioneers.
John Thomson's company went through several name changes over the years as partners came and went, but alongside the firm of Kirkpatrick & Sons, Thomson, Roddick & Laurie were responsible for the auction marts in Annan. Trading was good in cattle, sheep and pigs and The Scotsman newspaper often reported brisk sales. McLean Thomson and Laurie are believed to have sold 3700 sheep at a sheep mart in Brewery Yard (down Port Street where Mill Court is now) on one day.
We will find out more about the auction marts as we continue on our walk but for now we head back to the High Street where we see the Town Hall building. Annan was known for many years as a market town with a regular market, which distinguished it from a village or city. The markets were open-air, held in what was usually called the Market Square or Market Place and centred on a mercat cross in Scotland. They were usually on one particular day of the week. Before 1886 markets were held in Annan on a Thursday but then changed to Fridays.
The Mercat or Market Cross started out as a cross-shaped structure but the ‘cross’ was often replaced with a small statue or a carved stone showing the arms of the burgh. It was the place around which market stalls would be arranged and merchants would gather to discuss business.
 |
| © 2022 V&P Russell |
Annan’s Mercat Cross was originally built in front of the Town Hall. It was made of blocks of sandstone of sufficient height that wares could be displayed on it. The ‘Fish Cross’ as it became known was moved in 1774 to the junction of the High Street and Butts Street. A marker was left in place at the Town Hall and later, when the High Street was paved, Annan's Provost responsible for the improvement was remembered with a metal marker on the same spot. ‘John Nicholson Provost 1883’ can still be seen today.
 |
| © 2022 V&P Russell |
 |
| 2016 RoM shows Annan's Market Square |
Moving along the High Street to the area in front of Kate's Kitchen and TOFS we find what was Market Place. A market town provided goods and services for the local area and population and although the Domesday Book, in 1086, listed 50 markets in England their number increased rapidly in England and Scotland after that. The introduction of indoor market halls and the development of shops and shopping centres was eventually the reason for their decline. The Riding of the Marches book for 1993 listed the 19th century regulations for markets in Annan.
 |
| RoM 1993 |
 |
| Oor Wee Toon |
 |
| 'Through the Lens' |
This area was a produce market with items such as eggs, butter etc set out on the street.
Market Place was also the bus staging post until the new bus station was built in Butts Street. It was run by the Caledonian Omnibus Services, with hourly services to Dumfries and Carlisle, but they were taken over by Western SMT. (Western South Motor Traction Co.) Western had a depot/garage at St John's Road and offered services to Gretna, Newbie, Powfoot and Newington within Annan, and also to Lochmaben, Langholm and Moffat. The site is now occupied by the flats built by Cunninghame Housing Association.
 |
| Old Annan by Rhona Wilson |
There was also an auction mart on a site by the Railway Station (in the area where Elmvale School is now)
 |
| Map: National Library of Scotland |
We will find sites of a pork market and a fish market at other points along the High Street but for now we cross into Bank Street. As we walk along notice the beautiful sandstone building that now houses the museum. It was originally the public Library, a hall and the market. Built with money from Andrew Carnegie in 1882.
 |
| © 2022 P Russell |
Follow the road around to the left and go down Downie's Wynd, back towards the High Street, to find the rear of this building. Annan's Market Hall was where you could buy eggs, butter, cheese, honey, fruit, flowers, vegetables, fowls etc - although it is rare for a market to be held in it now. It was used as an Air Raid Precautions Station during WW2 with the air raid siren on top of Regent House.
 |
| © 2022 P Russell |
As well as being busy on market days Annan High Street was also busy on Hiring Fair days. These were days for farmers to engage servants for the coming season and were held in towns, including Annan, throughout the 19th century. Efforts were made to reform the system as some people said valuable workers were disadvantaged as there was no way to tell their capabilities from just seeing them on the day and it was finally suggested there should be a register of those offering or looking for employment.
Fair days were also an official holiday for servants and if they had been hired they would get an immediate payment – which would often be spent on the day. The High Street was very busy, even chaotic, on fair days with shows, merry go rounds, Aunt Sallys, shooting galleries, jugglers etc. The fair in Annan took place on the High Street until the year someone got hit by a ball rebounding from an Aunt Sally. Aunt Sally was a game in which players threw sticks or battens at a ball, known as a dolly', balanced on top of a stick. The council was sued by the injured party and fair days were subsequently moved to more open ground.
Back on the High Street we soon find the Cafe Royal and LJ Residential, in front of which used to be the pork market.
 |
| © 2022 P Russell |
 |
| RoM 1995 |
Next to the Cafe Royal is Shankland's Court where Valuation Rolls tell us there was a Bacon Stove - handy next to the pork market!
 |
| © 2022 P Russell |
In the late 19th century Annan had a thriving bacon curing industry. For hundreds of years pigs have been bred domestically as a source of bacon. Pigs were born, raised, fattened and then killed to provide meat for the family. Each family had their own secret recipe for curing and smoking bacon. There were numerous bacon stoves (huge sheds like barns) and salting houses. In 1845 there were nine bacon stoves listed in Annan, most in Butts Street and the High Street, but by 1867 many more were listed in the court and wynds around Annan. North Howes and Newbie Mains, just outside Annan, were also well known for bacon curing.
 |
| 1931 Map: National Library of Scotland |
 |
| RoM 1987 |
Dry curing involved saltpetre, then salt, being rubbed in, before the bacon was laid in a bed of salt on flagstones. The hams and sides of bacon were then hung up on larch poles in the bacon store, with open windows to keep the air circulating. A coke burner would be lit under the hams to improve the taste and the heavier the pigs the more time it took to cure the product. A good curer would ensure they were turned and inspected frequently and very steady drying would ensure the quality of the finished product so that it kept without deteriorating. The drying could take up to 14 days but the size of the stove meant they could do up to 200 at a time. Some bacon was used locally, some was sold as ships provisions and some was even exported to Newcastle! The Poole family packed bacon in wooden boxes and it was pulled by horse and cart to Newcastle where it was very, very popular. However most was sent by ship to Liverpool and distributed from there.
Continuing along Shanklands Court brings us into the public car park from where we head to Murray Street.
 |
| © 2022 P Russell |
In the corner of Ednam Street/Murray Street, where the dance studio is now there used to be an auction mart belonging to James Kirkpatrick. He later acquired extra space in Toppings Court.
 |
| Map: National Library of Scotland |
Returning down Ednam Street to the High Street brings us to Fish Cross. As we mentioned earlier
the Mercat Cross or ‘Fish Cross’ as it became known was moved in 1774 to the junction of the High Street and Butts Street. This is where the fish market used to be.
Cross the High Street and head along Butts Street. Before the supermarket, but after the nurseries, it was the site of a large Auction Mart.
 |
| 1931 National Library of Scotland |
 |
| 'Through the Lens' |
John Thomson in his article in the RoM book from 1998 included photos showing one of the last herds of sheep being led up Butts street to the market and the dismantling of the market.
 |
| RoM 1998 |
To conclude the story of the auction marts - in 1926 William Kirkpatrick was responsible for joining the two major auction companies in Annan into one under the name of Kirkpatrick, Thomson and Co.
The 1930’s saw the closure of marts in Port Street and the Station. Road transport was now much easier, and probably cheaper, than transport by rail. The expansion of Butts Street continued after WW2 and the busiest years for Annan marts were between the1940's and the 1960's when Annan was selling thousands of sheep and cattle. Cattle stocks had been decimated by outbreaks of tuberculosis and brucellosis.The marts were often selling 600-700 stock at a time.
In 1951 Kirkpatrick Thomson and Co. joined with Thomson and Laurie Ltd to form Thomson Roddick and Laurie Ltd. In 1994 the mart at Butts Street was sold for the building of a supermarket and part of Murray Street was sold for the building of flats (Murray Court) and in 2000 they finally closed their Annan auction marts.
They then got into property and in 2001 Thomson, Roddick & Laurie merged with C&D Rural, a land and estate agency for Longtown Auction Mart and when the auction mart got into financial difficulties in 2010 the Thomson family bought it. John Thomson had previously bought the shares of Graham Laurie on his death. A new purpose-built office was built on site in 2016 and the business is now the largest sheep market in Europe alongside large property sales and fine arts departments, still managed by members of the Thomson family.
Almost opposite where the auction mart used to be, and Aldi is now, is the bus station and Extra Special store. Only a few years ago there was a small market in the car park behind the store.
The only market is Annan now is a very recent addition in the Courtyard, behind the Cafe Royal. A twice monthly market selling a variety of items by local makers.
If you have any further information, documents, photos or memories about anything in this blog - or can correct any mistakes - please let us know in the comments section at the bottom or on Annan The History Town Group Facebook page.
