The present building replaced a shop which was destroyed by fire. The fire was caused by rats getting in amongst the stock of matches which in today’s terms seems fairly unusual but of course there was no electrical wiring to blame. The laird at the time insisted that the new shop be built in such a way that it could easily be converted to a house if the business was not successful.

The outer appearance of the shop buildings did not change much over the years. The "front shop" and the "back shop" consisted of a ground and first floor. The building continued with the end part forming the stables and finally the part at right angles (later to become the pub) was the byre, hen house and firewood store. The outer buildings consisted of sheds for the horse drawn vans and a store for paraffin drums. The sheds stood where the van garages were built in the 1950’s and still remain. With the introduction of motor vans a wooden building was erected between the road and the present van garages. This building provided garaging for two vans and quite a lot of storage. The car garage at the end came from Rhynie. The old sheds were then used to store coal for resale. With the stables no longer required they were converted into a storage area at the rear of the shop (really a continuation of the back shop)

In January 1953 Drummuir, like most of Scotland, suffered greatly from the great gale and the shop buildings did not escape. The roof of the old sheds which was a considerable size was blown over the shop and smashed against the garden wall at the other side. The sheds remained in this state until the new van garages were built on the site in the mid fifties to accommodate the replacement van which was to be much larger than the old one. The garages were built by Cruickshanks the masons from Land Street in Keith and the roof and doors were made by the estate joiner from wood grown on the Drummuir estate.

After Bob Sutherland retired the wooden garages were demolished and the byre, hen house and firewood store were converted to a pub – The Swan.

There was a croft of 12-15 acres attached to the shop with three fields across the road and two behind it. Although the fields were cultivated by Robbie Gordon of Woodend the harvesting, turnip hoeing etc. was organised by Bob who was proud of his cornyard which usually consisted of four rucks built by Jimmy Taylor (the vanman). The travelling threshing mill would visit in November and the oats often milled and returned to be sold in the shop as oatmeal. There were usually one or two dairy cows and three or four store cattle. In the days of the horse drawn vans the croft would also have provided food and bedding for the horses.

Country shops used to provide families in the district with practically all of their requirements from groceries, bakery, clothes, footware, petrol, paraffin, coal etc. etc. In addition batteries were charged for wirelesses and cars and a variety of garden and other tools were stocked in addition to nails, screws, washers etc. and even ruck nets, grit for hens and sheets of corrugated iron. Many a youngster got his/her first watch from the Drummuir shop. Most of the groceries and confectionery arrived in bulk. There was a row of large "sweetie" jars behind the counter and the bacon slicer was kept busy as bacon and ham was sliced from large joints and corned beef and spam from large tins. Oatmeal was delivered in 10 stone bags and cheeses weighed about half a hundredweight. The cheese was cut into pieces using a wire. All bottles and jars were returnable and the large biscuit tins were also returnable. Various types of knitting wools were also sold especially during the winter when many evenings were passed by sitting knitting by the fire. A large variety of lorries and vans frequently made deliveries to the shop and of course the commercial travellers showing samples and obtaining orders. Kelty the baker from Keith delivered the bread and other bakery products fresh each morning. The Botriphnie post office was situated within the shop and the "postie" sorted the mail in the morning which had been delivered from Keith by van. He completed his daily round by bike and finished by seeing the outgoing mail safely onto the three o’clock train.

Some people in Drummuir will no doubt still remember the green Bedford van which was the Drummuir van between 1937 and 1957. When the new Austin van arrived in 1957 the Bedford became the spare van and was eventually sold to Wullie Ingils of Lochend following Bob’s retirement. Does anybody know what finally happened to it?

The shop was open between 8am and 6pm but closed at 1pm on Wednesdays. It stayed open later on Saturdays when it became a social gathering place especially for the young wage earners with some money to spend on a Saturday night. Bob would still be in the shop when Jimmy Taylor returned with the van about 9pm. They would finish off the day with a bottle of beer and discuss the news of the week. It would be interesting to know what they would think of the European working time regulations. The back shop was a meeting place during Saturday afternoons for a certain "club" of gentlemen and at this stage it should be pointed out that there was a licence to sell porter and ale for consumption off the premises.

People often called at the Sutherlands’ house in the evenings requiring shopping and Bob never failed to open the shop for them. Before the first world war there was an old man called Wullie the weaver who lived in a small croft near the top of the Bellyhack hill opposite the shop. He became very forgetful and would often arrive at the shop on a Sunday morning and sit on the windowsill until Bob’s father returned from church.

There is an old saying "its an ill wind that blows nobody any good" and this was certainly the case of the great gale and the shop. In order to deal with the thousands of trees flattened in the 1953 gale a small army of timber workers arrived from the south and erected their wooden houses in various places. eg Towiebeg, Westerton, Lochend and by the ruins of the old free church. They brought much trade to the shop and to the van. The Wednesday round became particularly enlarged with the van returning to the shop about 11pm. Much of the timber was transported to Huntly station by lorries some of which parked in the shop close overnight. Thus it is possible that the shop was in its heyday in the mid fifties following which people started to have more free time and their own transport. A shopping trip to Keith became a social event and of course there was a bigger choice and larger shops could offer lower prices. Although a decline in the country shop was envisaged nobody realised how rapid the decline would be. (or perhaps someone did)

Following Bob’s retirement the new owners made an effort to increase trade and enlarged the van round travelling beyond Aberlour. A new mobile shop was purchased (they were no longer called vans). Subsequently they converted the old byre into a pub which became more popular than the shop but eventually the pub also closed and like so many other country districts Drummuir soon lost it’s shop.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the Drummuir van the following vans also served the area.

Co-op – Wednesdays and Saturdays

Smiths – Saturdays (Lemonnie)

Bakers:

Co-op – Thursdays

Smillie

Stronachs

Murrays (from Fochobers)

Butchers:

Jock Mitchell

Wullie Harper

Chemist:

Van from Elgin every few weeks

Drapery:

MacHardy of Keith

And finally we must not forget the man from Kleeneazy with his large suitcase full of products.

Sadly they have all disappeared.