the agnew family lived in a house on the main street in auchinairn. agnew's started as grocers in hawthorn street near ashfield football ground. mr agnew was polish (krasnodębski) and used his wife’s maiden name. their son ricky agnew started building up the successful off-licence chain 'agnews off licence' when he was only 19. by the time he sold it to seagrams in 1986, he had 75 shops in scotland, 18 in england, and a turnover of £30m.