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MHG41194 - 14 High Street, Rosemarkie

Summary

Doric House

Type and Period (2)

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Full Description

12-14 is the old Post Office. Red sandstone building built c1840. 14 is the house to the rear, No 12 is in the process of renovation. - HAW 03/2005
(Note; No 14 is the shop which has been renovated to a private residence and No 12 is the house to the rear and also occupying the first floor front and rear - see MHG16622. T.Blackie 6/10/22)

Doric House formerly Ivy House (private house)
This imposing classical building with its pillars and steps up to the door was built by Andrew Steavenson, a General Merchant. Steavenson was Provost of Fortrose in 1837. John Carpenter Steavenson, General Merchant, sold rifles, furniture and watches and leased salmon fishing from Hogarth. He bought Drumarkie, changed the name to St Helena and planted willow cuttings from Napoleon’s grave around the well. Hugh Home, later, had his Grocer, Ironmonger business at Doric House. His son Michael ran the Post Office according to Slater’s Directory 1911 and the 1911 Census
By the 1930s it was occupied by M.MacGillivray, a ‘High Class’ Grocer, Newsagent and Stationer who also sold golf, tennis and bathing requisites. Post war Kenneth Cumming had his butchery there before moving next door to ‘Comfort Foods’. The Valuation Roll 1971/2 shows him at 14 High Street.

In the Edwardian period it was shop and home to Provost and merchant Hugh Home (1853), wife Catherine (1867) and daughter Anne (1889). Son Michael (1891-1938) ran the post office there. Michael was named for his uncle, grandfather, and great uncle, who were all blacksmiths and so closely related to William Home at Lilac House. <1>

At the beginning of the twentieth century, service was everything and Hugh Home employed several assistants. Although the hours were long, over seventy hours per week and the wages low, working in a shop was seen as better than going into domestic service. There would be a variety of tasks to be done as well as serving the customer for grocery supplies came in large amounts by the barrel and had to be hand packed for the individual customer. The ‘boy’ would then deliver the goods purchased on his bike.

When Hugh retired in1913 it was occupied by Mary Ann MacGillivray, a ‘High Class’ Grocer, Newsagent and Stationer. ‘The Stores’ also sold golf, tennis and bathing requisites. Rosemarkie was a popular holiday location at this time. Mary Ann’s establishment also kept very long hours and was known to stay open, on occasion, to midnight. The Shop Act of 1912 attempted to limit the numbers of hours worked by shop assistants by instigating half day closing but could not prevail over enthusiastic owners. The delivery ‘boy’ then was Jimmy Lumsden. Mary Ann MacGillivray retired in 1944.

SCWS Grocery and Drapery was in place for about ten years. The Scottish Co-operative Society was established in 1867. By 1900 one in ten Scots were members and shareholders but it did not reach the Black Isle until the Second World War. There was usually grocery and provisions, drapery, a butchery or fleshing and a bakery. 1960 Kenneth Cumming had his butchery there before moving next door to what is now ‘Crofters Foods’. <2>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 7366 5757 (20m by 16m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NH75NW
Geographical Area	ROSS AND CROMARTY
Civil Parish	ROSEMARKIE

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