Cupar+Corn+Exchange+Company+Limited

=Cupar Corn Exchange Company Limited=

Company Number: SC000053 Date of Incorporation: 13 February 1860 Contact Details: 58 Bonnygate, Cupar, Fife, KY15 4LD Operating Details: Active Other names (if known): Function of Company*: Non-trading company (7499- see below for details). Previously letting of own property (7020) Headquarters/Base of Operations Location: Cupar Area of Operation: Cupar, later invested further afield


 * Taken from Standard Industrial Classification 2003, as used by Companies House in 2010

Records
Held By: Privately held, see contact details above

Scope/type: Minute Books 1909-present; Share register 1863-present; annual accounts/reports 1915-1980; Plans and paperwork of proposed alterations to The Cupar Corn Exchange; Annual Return Book 1938-1962; miscellaneous share and investment material 1980s onwards

Conditions governing access/use: Please contact above address. Academic researchers are welcome, though access will be granted on a case by case basis with permission of the directors

Related records: 2 records related to the court case of The Cupar Corn Exchange vs Andrew Forrester (involving work at the hall) in National Archives of Scotland

Company History
Cupar, a Royal Burgh since 1328, is a traditional market town at the centre of the rich arable lands of North Fife. By the late 1850s a large trade was being done at Cupar in the selling, grinding and processing of wheat, barley and other grains, and a covered building was needed for the weekly corn market which could also serve other public use the rest of the time.

On 24 January 1860 eight local men (four farmers, two bankers, a writer and an ironmonger) agreed to form a limited liability company responsible for these objects with a nominal capital of £2500 divided into £500 shares of £5 each, each undertaking to take up a total of 41 shares between them in total. The Company was incorporated on 13 February 1860, and over the next few years 467 shares were issued raising £2335, enough to get the enterprise off the ground without necessitating the issue of the final 33. The Corn Exchange cost £4000 to build, with the excess money financed by loans taken out against future income. The site was chosen in the centre of town, at the crossroads between the Bonnygate, St Catherine Street and the Crossgate. Campbell Douglas, then a young man, was selected to be the architect. He designed the exchange to house 46 stalls on market day, but also to serve as a music and lecture hall, and capped the building with a gothic tower and a 136 foot-tall spire. Some improvements had to be made in 1883, and the spire strengthened in 1914, but otherwise the exterior has remained the same. Campbell Douglas went on to have a distinguished career in the West of Scotland, going on to be vice president of RIBA. The inside was remodelled to include a stage area in 1933.

The corn market was held every Tuesday, and, as intended the Exchange became a venue for other events on other days. On 1 April 1961 the Corn Exchange was sold to the Royal Burgh of Cupar for £4000 on the condition that it continued to be used as a meeting place and market. It is now run by Fife Council, and continues to fulfil the same purposes as before, acting as the major public building in the centre of Cupar.

The company has subsequently become an investment trust, initially operating in Cupar, but then spreading its investment further afield. The company is now controlled by the family of John Lindsay Anderson, a Cupar solicitor who gradually bought up enough stock in the Company until he became Chairman in the early 1900s. (History taken from a speech made by Miss S Anderson at Companies House, Edinburgh in 2007)

Thanks and acknowledgements to Miss S Anderson, Director, and Mr D Hebden of Carters