Rothbury grocer recreates 100-year-old photo showing Northumberland’s rural trading heritage
A Rothbury grocer has recreated a 100-year-old photograph to highlight a long tradition of supplying remote rural communities with local produce.
Dating all the way back to around 1900, the historic Tully’s Grocers was originally established by Jane Tully.
Jane and her husband Andrew not only ran the Rothbury grocers, but also regularly took a travelling shop via horse and cart to Upper Coquetdale to supply produce to more remote residents.
Customers from farming and outlying rural communities would meet at specific trading points on set days, including at Kidland Hill.
A historic photograph by Walter Percy Collier, dating back to around 1914, shows Andrew Tully at Kidland Hill Foot meeting customers during this exchange.
In the 1930s, Tully’s passed from Jane to her son Andrew, who ran the shop for over three decades, alongside the studio cafe and dance hall.
In 1956 the family business was passed to Edwin Tully, the third generation of the family to provide good quality groceries to Rothbury and the valley – a proud heritage that he continued with his wife Mary until they retired in 1998.
With no one to pass the business on to, it was then sold to Rich and Sue Hurst who, as local residents, were already aware of their custodianship and responsibility to this heritage.
Ten years ago, Matthew Stock purchased Kidlandlee Estate with a view to restoring the site and turning the old cottages into luxury holiday cottages.
When he approached Tully’s to ask them to provide welcome hampers filled with local produce, Rich and Sue decided it would be a great opportunity to recreate that iconic photograph taken over 100 years ago.
Rich said: “We always thought it would be a nice idea to try to recreate the iconic historical photo to demonstrate that times may change, but traditional service, good quality provisions, ethical and locally produced groceries never go out of date.
“When they approached us to provide their welcome hampers based around local produce, it occurred to us that, over a century later, this would be a good time to reshoot the comparison photo.”
The meeting site has generally been reclaimed by nature, apart from the road and a passing place, but there was enough left to clearly identify it and take the comparison photo.