A decades-old memento of times bygone has emerged at a shop in the Woodside area of Aberdeen.
Work on the 384 Great Northern Road address has uncovered the outer edges of a vintage piece of hoarding.
A few folk with long memories have identified it as belonging to Coutts the newsagent, who operated for many years at the spot.
To locals, it was known as “Mary’s paper shoppie”.
We’ve had a trip back in time to look at the history of the store – and discovered it was the scene of some drama during a prior incarnation in the 1930s…
What happened when explosion rocked Woodside shop?
The back of the building was a bakery in July 1937 when an explosion ripped through it.
The P&J reported that a plate glass window was “blown into the street” when owner James M’Allan Ledingham struck a match to light a gas oven.
Remarkably, although two doors of the oven were blasted off their hinges and glass left strewn everywhere, he escaped with only slight injuries.
However, the same can’t be said for that day’s pies.
With the shaken baker wary of shards getting into the treats, the entire batch was binned.
Who was behind ghost sign in Woodside area of Aberdeen?
It would appear that Mary Coutts was in the early years of her tenure at the Great Northern Road store when this incident unfolded to the rear of the building.
A notice in this newspaper on December 15, 1979, marked the end of her decades at the counter.
Miss Coutts thanked her “many customers and friends for their patronage throughout her 50 years”.
The community stalwart also wished everyone a “very merry Christmas and happy New Year”.
At this point, the shop was handed to a Stanley Hislop.
It was later a Haddows off-licence, before becoming a Polish grocery store. And most recently it was a brightly coloured ice cream shop.
Woodside reflects on Mary Coutts
It is currently empty, though a property website says it is no longer on offer.
When the ice cream shop sign was removed, the faded hoarding for the newsagents was uncovered, bringing back floods of memories for Woodside residents.
On a local Facebook page, Minnie Smith reminisced: “Lovely woman, who was so grateful for our custom she would repeat ‘thank you’ over and over.”
Bill Kemp added: “Remember it well, Mary’s paper shoppie.”
And Elena Ewen recalled: “I got my School Friend comic every week at Mary Coutts’ shop and my Dad saved in the Christmas Club every year to get me the Annual.
“Very happy memories.”
Sandra McQueen said: “Always went there for my grandma’s stationery.”
Old advertising boards like these are known as “ghost signs”. A pair were recently uncovered during renovation work in Buckie town centre.
Do you have any pictures of other ‘ghost signs’ in Aberdeen? Let us know in our comments section below!
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