Hugh G. Bass .J.P.,

I decided to write this short, sketchy history of Alexander Boyd and Company, Ltd. for a variety of reasons. It seemed sad that the considerable part Boyd's had played in the affairs of Lisburn for over a century should go unrecorded and it seemed unlikely that anyone else would have the knowledge, the time and the inclination to undertake such a task. I do not pretend to have any ability as a historian or as a writer but I do have an intimate knowledge of the affairs of the Company gained in the near thirty years I have been a director. All of this may well be forgotten even before I die.
So here it is for what it is worth. A story essentially of a shop that survived the changing fortunes of commercial life for over a hundred years, and of its custom­ers and of all those people who worked in it over the years and made it all possible. It is not, I know, well done ‑whether it was worth doing, I leave to the reader to decide.
I wish to acknowledge with many thanks the help and advice given by Mr. Tony Croley of Nicholson and Bass Ltd., in the production of this book and by the Lisburn Historical Society in its distribution.