In late June this year, while repainting the exterior of 96 High Street, Kirkcudbright for Mr and Mrs Spencer, Raymond Paterson discovered a sequence of early painted signs in block capitals over the ground floor windows of the property and over the adjacent McKeachie’s Close entrance.
The yellow painted sign over the Close was of particular interest as it read ‘POST OFFICE DOWN this CLOSE’. This is the first evidence for the location of Kirkcudbright’s first Post Office. We know from Pigot & Co.’s Directory for 1825-26 that a Mrs Ellison Baird was the Post Mistress, but the directory does not give the address of the Post Office. From the next directory, published 12 years later, we know that the Post Office had moved to Castle Street, where Charles James Finlayson was Post Master. This latter information shows that the sign painted over McKeachie’s Close must pre-date 1837.
The signs over the windows of 96 High Street are in a similar style, but later signs had been painted over earlier ones in different colours. On the left (east) side the initial word of ‘LICENSED TEA DEALER’ in red paint, had been painted over ‘SADDLER’ in black which in turn had been painted over ‘TOY SHOP’ in yellow; on the right (west) side, the terminal word of ‘LICENSED TEA DEALER’ had been painted over ‘HARNESS MAKER’ (in black) which in turn had been painted over an earlier undecipherable sign in yellow. A sequence of three signs was thus revealed, with ‘LICENSED TEA DEALER’ in red painted over ‘SADDLER (AND) HARNESS MAKER’ in black, which in turn was painted over ‘TOY SHOP’ and an illegible word, painted in yellow. As these earliest signs are painted in the same yellow paint as the Post Office sign, it is possible that they are contemporary and therefore date to pre-1837. The black and red painted signs must be later, but they are difficult to date exactly.
The signs were painted over again soon after they were revealed, but they are still there. Thanks to Raymond Paterson and Mr and Mrs Spencer for bringing this interesting piece of Kirkcudbright history to our attention.