Tarff Valley Ltd*

About Tarff Valley Ltd*

As the local laird, he saw financial advantages for his tenant-farmers in forming a co-operative to buy supplies of coal and lime, to be delivered by rail to Tarff Station on the Castle Douglas – Kirkcudbright branch line.

Without Mr Neilson’s financial input during those early years the Society would have struggled to exist. For many years he paid the secretary’s salary of £50, acted as guarantor at the Bank for £200, sold three houses he owned in Ringford at a knockdown price to the Society and finally, when he died in 1951 he bequeathed £1,000 to the Society; the first agricultural co-operative in Scotland.

Tarff Valley has also been lucky in its appointments of Secretary/Managers. David Wallace filled this position from 1915 – 1937. He was succeeded by Ian Palmer who finally retired in 1965 and then David Patterson from 1969 – 1992. The stability and long service that these three gentlemen have given Tarff valley, 73 years in total, is a tribute to the Committees of Management of 1915, 1937 and 1969. The Society has also been fortunate in its chairmen, particularly W Montgomerie Neilson (1903 – 1915), John A. Armstrong, Culquha (1916- 1934), John Haddow, Fellnaw (1939- 1958) and Kenneth Wright, Airieland, (1964- 1988).

From its humble beginnings in the red tin shed at Tarff Station road end, the Secretary was hired at £50 per year plus 1% commission on sales. His hours were 10am – 1 pm except Monday when he attended Castle Douglas Market. Products sold around 1910 included coal ex: Castle Douglas, Bridge of Dee, Tarff and Kirkcudbright Stations @ 17/3d per ton, linseed and cotton cakes @ £9.5/- per ton. A consignment of sulphur phosphates (200-300 tons) was bought from North Eastern Agricultural Co-operative, Aberdeen , to be split between Tarff and Canonbie Co-operatives; the ports of delivery being Kirkcudbright and Annan harbours respectively. One Tarff customer complained bitterly that in a delivery of Peruvian guano, he had riddled two bags and found over a half hundredweight of stones!

 

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