A chance email from a local paving company has reunited Broughty Ferry bakers Goodfellow and Steven with a business heirloom that is over a century old.
The owner of a paving firm near Montrose stumbled upon the 125-year-old ledger when he was cleaning up after recent floods.
Craig Smith, who runs Mill Paving in Millside, said his premises was badly affected by recent flooding. At one stage it was under six feet of water.
He estimates it has cost the business between £2,000 and £3,000 – and it was Craig’s engineering expertise that stopped that figure from spiralling.
During the clean-up operation, he stumbled upon the box that had been given to him by a friend to use as a toolbox.
Craig said: “When I got the boxes, I didn’t have time to do anything with them so I put them on some racking.
“When we got flooded, the water was just below where I’d put them. I happened to look in one and there was a little book.
“It said Goodfellow and Steven, then I noticed the date was 1898. I went home and emailed the company to tell them I’d found it and ask if they’d be interested.
“Martin phoned the next day. He asked how much I wanted for the ledger, but I told him it belonged to him and he could have it.
“When he came up and saw the book, he was absolutely over the moon.”
Ledger discovery ‘quite special’ says Goodfellow and Steven boss
Martin, a director at the family-run bakery, said he was blown away by the discovery.
“By having a business that has a long history, people do contact us from time to time with things.
“But to have something from so long ago – within a year of the company being founded – is quite special.”
The ledger is signed by Martin’s great-grandparents, David Goodfellow and Margaret Steven, and details orders during the company’s early days.
“I managed to do some investigations and the account holder is coal merchant William Hood.
“What we can see from the ledger is orders for bakery goods throughout the month of his death.
“On the date of his death, there’s an order for goods associated with the funeral tea. Then the account is settled and the ledger gets put into the lawyers office.
“Then it sits there for 122 years.”
‘It was meant to be’
Craig, meanwhile, was delighted to have returned the ledger.
“I was over the moon for him, and what a gentleman Martin is too.
“I’m so happy we managed to save it because it was so close to being lost.
“The remainder of the boxes were in another unit and they have all been ruined. If I hadn’t taken a few boxes and put them away, it would never have survived.
“It was absolutely meant to be.”
Martin said the ledger is now in the company’s offices and will be stored away securely.
Before that, though, he plans to put it on display in the Broughty Ferry shop window.
Last summer, the business recreated its window display celebrating the Queen’s coronation to mark her Platinum Jubilee.
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