Down Memory Lane with Bill McAllister: Sweet memories of Burnett’s Bakery that was popular with all and employed 400 people in and around Inverness in the 1960s and early 1970s
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Burnett’s Bakery employed 400 people in and around Inverness in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Their Academy Street restaurant and tearooms, beloved by generations, opened 100 years ago next year.
Their Longman estate bakery – on what is still Burnett Road – produced 2000 loaves an hour and the firm’s famed shortbread. Their cakes and pastries were baked in Academy Street.
Burnetts passed into history in 1999 after being bought out by British Bakeries, with Scotbake taking over 10 years ago. But to many Invernessians the name triggers nostalgia for what was an institution.
At this time of year the firm’s two shops, on Academy Street and Castle Street, would be thronged, their Christmas cakes and shortbread in major demand.
The Academy Street premises included a 150-seater dining room which held many wedding receptions and other functions, including Christmas parties for local children.
It was in October 1897 that Dundee brothers John and William Burnett, acquired William Milne’s bakery at 29 High Street, Inverness. Soon they had flitted to 53 High Street followed in 1922 by opening on Academy Street with two bakeries, a dining room and café.
Early advertisements referred to the Academy Street premises as “Inverness Steam Bakery, Burnett Brothers proprietors”.
In 1928 the duo extended their operation with the dining and function room, which included a ballroom, and was “available for banquets or dances or any similar social function.” They also added “a cosy Smoking Lounge, a pleasant retreat for coffee or tea after lunch or dinner, for a quiet social chat or for business discussions.”
Putting down roots, Burnetts advertised themselves as “Bakers to the Highlands”. They had branches in Nairn and Strathpeffer as well as Inverness’s Grant Street and Victorian Market.
By 1935 they had opened their Longman bakery. By the 1960s, they had their own Welfare League football team and, to house workers, built the attractive art deco flats in Old Edinburgh Road, still known as “Burnetts Flats”.
Their products became central to the local taste and diet. Academy Street advertised “high class chocolates and sweets” and their windows paraded a mouthwatering range. More affluent families ordered custom-made wedding cakes.
By the 1960s, Academy Street was the place to go for a cuppa or a meal served by waitresses with white aprons and black dresses.
Roddy Wood, long-serving colonel of Inverness army cadet force, is one of many former Burnetts employees. He served 50 years with the firm.
John Burnett, born in 1835, named his son William, born in 1872, after his brother. William’s daughter Mary, born in 1906, had two sons who became apprentices in Burnett's Bakery. When three Burnett brothers – Jack, John and Willie – retired in the 1960s, Mary’s son Hamish Gow became general manager.
Hamish’s brother became confectionery manager. In 1970 he showed flour was in his veins by starting his own business. His name is Harry Gow.
Burnetts’ Academy Street premises closed in the mid-1970s and M&Co now stands there.
The bakery continued to 1996 but south rivals producing up to 10,000 loaves an hour sent their vans north. In the end, it could not compete.
The city’s new Justice Centre now stands on its site.
• Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.
