BAKING IN THE BORDERLAND.
Co-operation does not seem to have found a footing in the South quite as early as it did in the North and West, but the Borderers were not far behind, and they have proved that having once started they believed in perseverance. It was in 1839 that Galashiels Store Company was formed, and the question of bread supply was soon under consideration. In its earliest years the society seems to have had considerable difficulty in getting a satisfactory supply of bread, with the result that by 1844 they had established a bakery of their own. An interesting fact which is related by Mr Maxwell in his “History of Scotland” is that they applied for information about baking to two societies, long disappeared, Coupar Angus and Alyth. Probably some one connected with the society was a native of Forfarshire, and, knowing that these societies had bakeries, suggested that information be got from them. The number of these efforts to cheapen the staff of life must have been very great, for references to them keep cropping up in old newspapers and pamphlets, showing that Co-operative activity, much of it inspired doubtless by the teachings of Owen, was widespread in Scotland.
Hawick Store Company began a few months later than the Galashiels venture, but it was not until 1851 that the members added baking to the list of their enterprises.