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Long Gone Newsagents of The Sneck


Glen Mhor

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Newspapers and in particular the sport sections of them are the staple diet of football fans but how many of the now long gone newsagents shops of Sneck spring to mind ? Bowes in Young Street, Wards and Henry Pierricini in Eastgate, Melven's when it sold papers. All sadly now gone.

Any more  :symbol_question: :024:

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  I remember there being a wee paper shop in Greig Street along from The Caley Club( Barber shop there now ) & I was sorry to see the Post office in Greig street close recently too !

Frank Hill. And in my days in Greig Stret the Post office was run by a Mr. Cushnie who had a bad limp. Other Greig Street shops included jimmy Munro the grocer, Baddon the bikeshop (which is now a newsagent among other things) and of course Salvadori's Cafe (where the Chinese is now) which has been discussed on another thread here.

Oh.. and the legendary Diggars which is probably the only Greig Street business which has effectively been unaltered in the last 50 years.

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There were 3 grocer shops on Greig Street - one was Munro's, there was another next door at the junction with King Street and another at the river corner. I think one was called Tait Grant.

There was also a Co-op where Highland TV is now, if I remember correctly.

I'm sure there was a clothes shop too (Peg Cameron?) and a chemist between the Co-op and the Post Office.

Hill's newsagent!

Got accused of theft there once and being a thoroughly honest 8-year-old, was absolutely mortified. Imagine if that happened nowadays!

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Did the Greig Street chemist not also belong to Charlie Forbes for a while? I certainly remember Tait Grant. The other grocer's apart from Jimmy Munro's and Grant's... was it on the side of King Street where Robert McKendrick's computer shop is now (next door to Munro's) or was it on the other side in succession to Baddon's bike shop and next door to Diggar's?

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Are you not perhaps thinking of Alexander Frasers off licence on Tomnahurich Street. I remember we used to go in there at a ridiculously tender age, more or less stretch up to the counter to put half a crown on it and say "A bottle of cider please!"

The response would usually be "And what kind would you like sonny?"

Or was there another Duncan Fraser apart from the butcher's in Queensgate?

Old newsagents... and old newspapers! The Football Times of beloved memory! I even remember the pre pink days when it was white. That was how you got your Highland League football results in these days. I'd come back from Telford Street and go down to Jocky Lawson's shop and wait there until the paper came in at the back of six.

Some boys (I think Davie Love may have been one) used to cycle in relays with copy from the 3 Inverness grounds to the Football Times at Diriebught Road after the reporter had written it up. I suppose that was the only way the old technology could get the paper out so quickly. (Having said that, the Courier's deadline used to be midnight on Mondays and thursdays in the hot metal days. It's now several hours earlier.)

Northern Chronicle? Did Jock Watt not used to work there? People's Journal... also long gone.

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Aye, the Football Times on a Saturday afternoon. I remember picking them up at Diriebught Road after they were printed. Didn't Ian Macdonald now of the Beeb in Sneck work there in the mid-70s ?

Also, remember going to the P&J office in Montague Row where the Evening Express had the football results printed off in the stop press part on the front page under the always watchful eye of **** Munro. His son Neil worked there too. Ah, memories, memories.

:003:

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Didn't Ian Macdonald now of the Beeb in Sneck work there in the mid-70s ?

That would be the 1870s!  :rotflmao:

Seriously, though, yes Iain did work at the HN before moving across to the BBC in the mid 70s and he's been there ever since. In fact I'm logged on to his computer writing this.

And Coutts did indeed sell papers, as did at least one of the Italian cafes (the one towards the top of Academy St.... the name has escaped me for the moment.)

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Didn't Ian Macdonald now of the Beeb in Sneck work there in the mid-70s ?

That would be the 1870s!  :rotflmao:

Seriousdly, though, yes Iain did work at the HN before moving across to the BBC in the mid 70s and he's been there ever since. In fact I'm logged on to his computer writing this.

And Coutts did indeed sell papers, as did at least one of the Italian cafes (the one towards the top of Academy St.... the name has escaped me for the moment.)

Was it Dorando's ?
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Does anyone remember the Mcleod Brothers who used to take papers on a Sunday ?,when the newsagents were'nt open then, I remember them  as a kid in St Valery Avenue waiting for them to come down the Road in their cqar and you would buy them of the back, Sunday Post and Suday Mail. They used to have McLeods caravans in Clachnaharry, I still see one of them occasionally in passing, I don't know if the other one, their names escape me, is still alive or not.

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I only started to purchase the Green Final after the demise of the Football Times. While it did provide brief reports on Highland League matches, like the other Aberdeen Journals publications it focused heavily on the Dons with other local football a bit of a footnote.

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  Talking of papers , does anyone remember "The Green Final "? 

The Salvation Army used to come round the pubs on a Saturday night selling them

Was that not their magazine The Warcry?! Just wondering what kind of state you must have been in to confuse the two?  :015: Maybe you were one of the people most in need of help and Salvation from them!  :015:

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Another old Sneck newspaper was the Highland Herald. It used to be printed in a printing works on the corner of Friars Street but it ceased publiation some tme in the late 1960s / early 1970s. In those days there was quite a choice of papers before TV and MFR made an impact.

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MFR made an impact.

:rotflmao:

Just in case my colleagues at Scorguie are reading this... it's only a joke!

I think the Green Final has been gone now for something in excess of a decade. It's changed days now when you can log on to your computer in eg Toronto never mind Inverness and have live discussions with your friends as to how Caley Thistle are getting on at Tannadice.

I'm not aware of Peter ever having had a newsagent's in Grant street. He was certainly a milkman before he went to manage Caley in 1984. Might you not be thinking about Rodgers newsagent in Grant Street owned by the family which used to run Clach until it went pearshaped in the late 80s and they passed it on to Willie MacLennan before Clach got worse?

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  • 1 month later...

I was thinking about Rodgers in Grant Street...im sure PC had some connection with it as i always remember him being in there when i picked up my folks papers there.

Oh i remember Eddie Davidson had a newsagent/grocer not far from Merkinch Primary school aptly called Davidsons i believe. Im not sure if he was officially linked with Caledonian FC, but i remember him being in the main stand at Telford Street with his club blazer on.

What ever happened to him, is he still around?

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  Talking of papers , does anyone remember "The Green Final "? 

The Salvation Army used to come round the pubs on a Saturday night selling them

Was that not their magazine The Warcry?! Just wondering what kind of state you must have been in to confuse the two?  :015: Maybe you were one of the people most in need of help and Salvation from them!  :015:

Aye well maybe you're right , used to take a rare skinfull in my youth  ;D ;D ;D
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  • 3 months later...

Talking of papers , does anyone remember "The Green Final "?

The Salvation Army used to come round the pubs on a Saturday night selling them

Was that not their magazine The Warcry?! Just wondering what kind of state you must have been in to confuse the two? :rotflmao: Maybe you were one of the people most in need of help and Salvation from them! :thumb04:

Aye well maybe you're right , used to take a rare skinfull in my youth ;D ;D ;D

Used to have a Sunday paper round with Georgie's grocery in Lochalsh Road(Telford Street end)in early 1950's.

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