OP
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Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
Or that's what people who go in there say it is !
What Shops Did Your Town Have in Your Day?
- Thread starter Illaveago
- Start date
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Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
When I was a child there was an off licence and four pubs on our road. The last one closed in 2008.
CanucksTraveller
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
- Location
- Hertfordshire
I initially grew up in inner city Manchester (in Ardwick, about 3/4 mile from the centre) on a new housing estate, and we only had a small convenience shop on the estate itself. There was a newsagents on Ashton Old Road where we'd get sweets (usually the 10p mix up bags), and there was a fish and chip shop which was where Friday night's tea always came from.
Beswick (about a mile further out) had a small shopping precinct, plus an open air market on Grey Mare Lane. I remember the precinct having two butchers, a Safeway supermarket, TSB bank, haberdahsers, couple of clothes shops, a white goods retailer, and a small furniture dealer. That precinct was demolished in the 2000s I believe.
When I was 11 we moved up to Burnage which did have a bit more of a village feel, there were four pubs within 5 minutes walk, a couple of Indian restaurants, two big newsagents and (weirdly) a Lucas car parts retailer and an electronics / computer repair shop along with various other small shops. I've been back there a couple of times and it's actually pretty similar to when I was living there. Sifters record shop was just over the other side of Kingsway, famously name checked by Noel Gallagher some years later, I think that's still there too. I used to spend my pocket money on pre-owned Queen vinyl LPs in there.
Beswick (about a mile further out) had a small shopping precinct, plus an open air market on Grey Mare Lane. I remember the precinct having two butchers, a Safeway supermarket, TSB bank, haberdahsers, couple of clothes shops, a white goods retailer, and a small furniture dealer. That precinct was demolished in the 2000s I believe.
When I was 11 we moved up to Burnage which did have a bit more of a village feel, there were four pubs within 5 minutes walk, a couple of Indian restaurants, two big newsagents and (weirdly) a Lucas car parts retailer and an electronics / computer repair shop along with various other small shops. I've been back there a couple of times and it's actually pretty similar to when I was living there. Sifters record shop was just over the other side of Kingsway, famously name checked by Noel Gallagher some years later, I think that's still there too. I used to spend my pocket money on pre-owned Queen vinyl LPs in there.
Accy cyclist
Legendary Member
- Location
- The hills of Accrington
There was such a place here in Great Harwood. It was called Pentathlon Sports and sold all those things you mentioned, as well as shotguns. The owner competed in one Olympic Games in the (was it the 1970's or 1980's?🤔) clay pigeon shooting. The shop also sold sheath/hunting knives, some just like those 'zombie knives'
supposedly outlawed now.
Accy cyclist
Legendary Member
- Location
- The hills of Accrington
Harwood Electronics that sold ex juke box singles for 10p
Clifford Clegg's motorbike bike and cycle shop that smelt of oil and rubber.
The Frankland brothers cobblers where you took your shoes in for repairs and picked them up a week later. That shop smelt of leather and Evo Stick.
A couple of off licenses where you could take a bottle and buy sherry from a barrel. Both shops were owned by well dressed,suited men. One had a little room in the back where you could sip sherry and port, but that was in my mum's time not mine. Both those places smelt of cigars.
The Blue Shop which sold paper,glitter,scissors, glue,wrapping paper,greetings cards etc.
Donald Mercer (bespoke tailor) who was a WW2 squadron leader who fought in the Battle of Britain.
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4089695.former-great-harwood-raf-pilot-dies-92/
Clifford Clegg's motorbike bike and cycle shop that smelt of oil and rubber.
The Frankland brothers cobblers where you took your shoes in for repairs and picked them up a week later. That shop smelt of leather and Evo Stick.
A couple of off licenses where you could take a bottle and buy sherry from a barrel. Both shops were owned by well dressed,suited men. One had a little room in the back where you could sip sherry and port, but that was in my mum's time not mine. Both those places smelt of cigars.
The Blue Shop which sold paper,glitter,scissors, glue,wrapping paper,greetings cards etc.
Donald Mercer (bespoke tailor) who was a WW2 squadron leader who fought in the Battle of Britain.
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4089695.former-great-harwood-raf-pilot-dies-92/
Last edited:
Accy cyclist
Legendary Member
- Location
- The hills of Accrington
Then there was the tripe shop which every east Lancashire town must've had, which sold all forms of disgusting offal. 
I'll never forget my great grandma chewing boiled pigs feet (trotters) while also puffing on a Park Drive cigarette.
I'll never forget my great grandma chewing boiled pigs feet (trotters) while also puffing on a Park Drive cigarette.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Just remembered radio rentals where you’d watch a bit of tv when in town , plus Tandy.
The Crofted Crest
Veteran
Walking up from the bottom of the hill within about a mile:
a pub (now a childcare centre -- so not all that much difference really)
another pub (last orders rung a long time ago)
a chippy (still a chippy)
a greengrocer's (now no more)
a barber's (used to charge a shilling and gave the kids sixpence back, now no more)
another pub (still going strong)
a grocer's (now an estate agent's)
a sweet shop (now someone's home)
a baker's (now a (wannabe) trendy bar)
a hardware store that stank of paraffin (now no more)
a florist's that also sold wet fish (now without the fish)
a hairdresser's (now private housing)
a post office (now private housing)
a newsagent's (now a newsagent's)
a chemist's (now a (wannabe) trendy bar)
a knitting shop (now a tattoo parlour)
my mate Dave's dad's bric-a-brac shop (now a (wannabe) trendy bar)
another pub (still serving)
a shop fitter's whose sign I always misread as "shop lifter" (now a tattoo parlour)
another pub (still open)
a pub (now a childcare centre -- so not all that much difference really)
another pub (last orders rung a long time ago)
a chippy (still a chippy)
a greengrocer's (now no more)
a barber's (used to charge a shilling and gave the kids sixpence back, now no more)
another pub (still going strong)
a grocer's (now an estate agent's)
a sweet shop (now someone's home)
a baker's (now a (wannabe) trendy bar)
a hardware store that stank of paraffin (now no more)
a florist's that also sold wet fish (now without the fish)
a hairdresser's (now private housing)
a post office (now private housing)
a newsagent's (now a newsagent's)
a chemist's (now a (wannabe) trendy bar)
a knitting shop (now a tattoo parlour)
my mate Dave's dad's bric-a-brac shop (now a (wannabe) trendy bar)
another pub (still serving)
a shop fitter's whose sign I always misread as "shop lifter" (now a tattoo parlour)
another pub (still open)
Accy cyclist
Legendary Member
- Location
- The hills of Accrington
Then there was Ken Rigby's ironmongers where you'd buy your Esso Blue in winter. He'd even sell you a few nails, screws etc rather than having to buy whole packets. The owner walked the from home to shop then return, hilly 10 mile journey every day he opened for around 40 years, so I was told. This shop smelt of paraffin, wood,creosote etc.
tribanjules
Guru
- Location
- Birmingham
Jackson’s supermarket. I remember the black and white chequered floor and red shelf fronts. Early 70’s
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
By far the most interesting shop on Winchester High Street was Fosters, Tobacconists. Started in 1871, the shop hardly changed for a hundred years. It eventually closed in about 1978. It was so loved by the locals that the entire shop and it's stock was acquired by the Winchester museum. When I was an awkward teenager, earnestly reading Penguin Modern Classics and being a terrible pseud, I would buy my exotic oval Turkish cigarettes there and feel pretty chuffed.
Here it is......quite wonderful......
https://collections.hampshireculture.org.uk/object/fosters-tobacconist-shop-winchester
Here it is......quite wonderful......
https://collections.hampshireculture.org.uk/object/fosters-tobacconist-shop-winchester
The one in St. Stephen's Street Norwich wa still selling bikes in the '60s. I mind of going in there to get some ballbearings for the headset on my bike at the time.
gbb
Squire
- Location
- Peterborough
Not my kind of shops now but definitely were then...
Nottingham City Centre, circa 72/75...independent fashion outlets, many had a typical 70s boutique feel to them. What have you got like that now ?
Model shops, book shops, 2nd hand bookshops, bike shops, motorbike outlets, joke shops, the list is endless, what's changed now is those that you can still find tend to be sanitised, upmarket, just too clean and sterile. I loved going in 2nd hand bookshops, dingy, full of character...everything looks like a supermarket nowadays
Nottingham City Centre, circa 72/75...independent fashion outlets, many had a typical 70s boutique feel to them. What have you got like that now ?
Model shops, book shops, 2nd hand bookshops, bike shops, motorbike outlets, joke shops, the list is endless, what's changed now is those that you can still find tend to be sanitised, upmarket, just too clean and sterile. I loved going in 2nd hand bookshops, dingy, full of character...everything looks like a supermarket nowadays
gbb
Squire
- Location
- Peterborough
Flintham village, 1972 to 75 (and decades before and probably years after), Old Ma Whites general store (just what we called it)
She must have been 80, white haired and shuffled along bless her. Old style bell on the door, stuff piled up everywhere, the glass fronted counters / chilled units invariable had cats in them, around the shop was a high shelf with those old large bottles of wierd potions and stuff I can't even pronounce, dusty, looked like they'd been there half a century and more. On Sundays, you go round the back, knock on the door and she would shuffle off and get you 10 fags for your mum (or whatever else you wanted) Through dingy net curtains you could see her dining table, old bottles of milk and often several cats...all on the table. A real time capsule. Years after she died, they turned it into a mini museum in her memory.
No one seemed to mind the cats in the shop...but this was the 70s after all, I guess people weren't so picky then .
She must have been 80, white haired and shuffled along bless her. Old style bell on the door, stuff piled up everywhere, the glass fronted counters / chilled units invariable had cats in them, around the shop was a high shelf with those old large bottles of wierd potions and stuff I can't even pronounce, dusty, looked like they'd been there half a century and more. On Sundays, you go round the back, knock on the door and she would shuffle off and get you 10 fags for your mum (or whatever else you wanted) Through dingy net curtains you could see her dining table, old bottles of milk and often several cats...all on the table. A real time capsule. Years after she died, they turned it into a mini museum in her memory.
No one seemed to mind the cats in the shop...but this was the 70s after all, I guess people weren't so picky then .
