George Riddoch and Son Sales Ledger 1888
Image courtesy of Sandy Tough, Huntly.
George Riddoch and Son Sales Ledger 1888 -1891 shown with 12 inch ruler for scale. This is one of a series of ledgers. The others are in the care of Aberdeen University archives which obtained 169 volumes of records and papers of the company around 1986. Details of the records can be found by searching internet under ‘Riddoch Archives Aberdeen University’.
The ledger is a beautiful copper plate hand written record of companies, products and prices at this time in Northeast Scotland. In the attached PDF the companies which Riddochs sold timber to are listed and further on are some of the products and prices charged. The fact that larch posts (assume 3inch by 3inch square and 5 foot 6inches long) are sold at 25 shillings per hundred makes one wonder what the timber prices were like and also the level of working costs and wages at that time!
The large volume of timber sold to fish merchants and boat builders highlights the productivity of the seas around the Moray Firth at that time and would cover part of the herring boom.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland , Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills