DOWN MEMORY LANE

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Last week’s Down Memory Lane featured Kintyre Farmers’ 40-page 1975 golden jubilee booklet. The brochure, provided to the Courier by former Kintyre Farmers plumber Neil McMillan, is a veritable gold mine of information on the farmers’ co-operative. In a section administration manager at the time Colin Chrystie provided some of the company’s history. Mr Chrystie said: ‘It was in the winter of 1924 at the meeting of the NFU Kintyre branch that some of the members discussed the possibility of forming a small co-operative group to provide means to purchase coal at reduced rates.’ The members acted quickly as by spring 1925 Kintyre Farmers was founded although, at the time, it had no premises or full-time staff. Over the next 50 years the company diversified with no less than eight farmers as directors at any time and offering at least five services. It became the ‘go to’ place for Kintyre’s farming community with its electrical and plumbing, machinery and yard and stores departments. Mr Chrystie continued: ‘Kintyre Farmers, with the consent of the directors, has aimed at serving a community and not just one section and the farmers must be respected and admired for letting their personal company be unbiased. ‘We now find the specialised services Kintyre Farmers can offer are being used more and more by the general public.’ The souvenir brochure is packed with photographs of management and staff, with many of the names in the book still synonymous with farming in Kintyre – Millar, Young, Barbour, McLean and McConnachie.

Management team, from left: yard manager John Armour, electrical manager Murray McCallum, administration manager Colin Chrystie, shop manager John Gillies, managing director John Stupart, plumbing manager Andy Mathieson and machinery manager James Shepard.

Yard staff: J Mason, J McMillan, R Campbell, W McSporran, D Brown, R McKinven and N Souden.

Electrical staff: A Smith, J Armour, D Dewar, J Kelly, J Allan, J Byewaters and A Docherty.