Maypole Dairy Entrance Tiles.

The Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland charity shop in Morningside has just expanded in to another shop. At the entrance to the new area, is a sign explaining that the shop used to be one of many around Edinburgh that was tied to Maypole Dairies.

On reading this I thought that Maypole Dairies was just an Edinburgh sensation, but no. Apparently, according to extensiv e internet searches (and time on my hands) I discovered there were branches in other large cities, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

As Maypole expanded, it also got caught up in a trade war with its rivals in a margarine price war, which it lost. So if you ever bought Blue Band magarine, its all your fault ;-).