Number 25

Please note all dates are approximate. 

If you have any further information, documents, photos or memories about this shop  let us know in the comments section at the bottom or on Annan The History Town Group Facebook page. 

If you click/tap on a photo it will enlarge that photo and give you the pictures as a slideshow.  

© V. Russell

1900 Mrs Charlotte Irving, baker & confectioner

1902 D Watt Directory

1904 Alex Baird had been a tenant farmer when he became the agent for Ransomes, Sims & Jeffrey, of Ipswich, selling agricultural machinery. He then opened a blacksmiths shop in Dumfries and the ironmongers shop at 25, High Street, Annan, where A Baird & Sons was a well-known business for many years.
In 1900 he had been the agent for Ford Motor Cars but after WW1 adopted the Austin Agency.

The adverts for A Baird & Sons were always different - showing their huge range of products, large and small.

Memories: There were  four ironmongers in the town at this time who all kept a huge range of household, builder & farm ironmongery - nails, screws, bolts, hinges, locks, pans, pails, baths, fencing, barbed wire, netting, kitchen & garden tools, soap, candles, paraffin, fire lighters, gas mantles etc. However each shop had their own specialities – Bairds were into farm machinery, from petrol engines to turnip cutters.

adverts from various RoM

adverts from various RoM

All 4 sons were part of the business alongside many skilled employees.

In 1944 he sold out the assets of the company to Stenhouse Insurance Company and in 1979 William Bain & Co of Coatbridge acquired the shareholding of the company.

In 1988 they celebrated 100 years as a trading company.

Thanks to Lee Donaldson on FB 'Old Annan'

Annan Museum plans for alterations

Annan Museum plans for alterations

Annan Museum plans for alterations

Memories: "The office and TV showroom were upstairs.
Remember the dog in the window with the gramophone, beside the sign 'His Masters Voice?"

Memories: A Baird & Son began as ironmongers but by the 1920's had a large well-equipped garage entered through Pool's Court until they made a new entrance/exit into Greencroft Wynd. They were the premier garage in the town. It was fascinating to browse among all their cars, where you could find anything from an Alvis to a Wyllis-Knight (I can't recall anything beginning with an x, y or z!)

1997 Carrs Agriculture
Carrs established its position as an agricultural supplier with the amalgamation of several small businesses to form Carrs Farm Foods. In 1990 this became Carrs Agriculture. Carrs Billington Agriculture came about with the joint venture between Carrs Agriculture and Edward Billington & Son Ltd. They expanded into one of the leading suppliers of agricultural products to farmers in the UK.

2004 RoM

2000 Shop is empty, but Carrs Billington are still trading in the yard at the back.

In 2017  Cunninghame Housing Association acquired the building that fronts onto the High Street (including Number 23) and the land behind. They aimed to provide 27 new properties, including new buildings and a refurbishment of the existing building. They began work in 2018 and completed in 2020. 
It was really nice to see that they kept the tiled entrance and that the road through the site was named Baird's Wynd.

© V. Russell

© V. Russell

© V. Russell