Photographs Old and New
St. Abbs has always been popular with photographers and one of the richest resources illustrating the village’s history is the large number of postcards depicting the village and surrounding area through the years.
Robbie Nisbet
Many of the photographs of the village were taken by Robbie Nisbet, who was once the village grocer, sub-postmaster and general merchant. Robbie’s family owned and ran the local shop. In a time before supermarket when few people had a car the village shop was the centre of village life. It sold just everything from a needle to an anchor and if they didn’t stock it they would go to no end to procure it for the customer.
Robbie Nisbet was also a passionate photographer selling his photographs as postcards from the village shop. Many of the postcards shown in the following pages where taken by Robbie Nisbet. Look out for the initials R.N. on the postcards.