Wellington News

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Supermarkets vary in outward appearance from ugly brash sheds to reasonably presentable buildings with 'a bit of style'. They arrived on the scene in the mid 20th Century and changed our shopping habits. Previously shopping for food entailed popping in and out of several shops, gradually filling your basket at the grocer, greengrocer, butcher, baker, fishmonger and so on, rather than all at one shop. Purchases were made by asking for what you required and an assistant fetching it. Pushing a trolley around and collecting purchases, followed by queuing at a checkout is quite a different way of transacting business.

We are now so used to supermarkets that even those of us old enough to remember the days before they were invented find it hard enough to recall what shopping was like. Here's a little reminder to fellow ancients and a history lesson for the young.

First, shops were much smaller and more intimate. They were strung out along the main streets of the town centre in New Street, Market Square, Crown, Bell and Duke Streets and Market Street. Other shops were further out of town, especially in High Street, Church Street, Walker Street, Bridge Road and Tan Bank and there were small, individual shops almost everywhere else, especially at road junctions.

When I say 'the town centre' I'm not talking about that Yankee shopping mall constantly and mistakenly called Telford town centre but the centre of a real town; in this case, Wellington. Oakengates, Dawley and Madeley had town centres too until the planners demolished them and made a mess of their towns.

There was a much greater choice of shops. When I wanted to buy a bike I first went to Curry's, where they sold new bikes at reasonable prices. I'd had a Hercules from there, ridden hard for about five years. It was a 'sit up and beg job' with stirrup brakes (not good when riding down The Wrekin) but it got me to school on time and a bike is still a boy's first access to freedom. Curry's is now Ethel Austin, though Swift Computers (excellent service by the way) have the rear of the store, fronting The Parade.

I wanted a more exciting bike, but on 12 shillings and sixpence a week I couldn't afford much, so I went to Bill Perry's shop in Park Street and bought one with dropped handlebars - a Falcon I think - which was second hand. It toured Shropshire and North Wales happily and when anything went wrong Bill would fix it. That was still going until long after the War and lasted, I think, until we had a pram.

Clothes shops were much more plentiful long ago, even for boys and men. Nowadays, for school it's Baker's in the Market, with several other stalls for adults, though there's Miles for posh shirts and things. There was a shop at the end of New Street called Tom Granger, later passed on to his successor, Norman Jellyman. That's where my school uniform came from. It was a timber framed shop, probably Tudor, but in the 1950s the timber was so rotten that it had to be demolished and we now have a wide patch in the street outside David Lloyd the jewellers'.

Number One, Market Square is now a coffee bar and was Supersnaps before then, but for a long time it was a 'gentlemen's outfitter' called Foster Bros and before then Walter Davies. Here I remember trying on trousers upstairs by the window. This is a strange little building, part brick and part timber.

A bit more upmarket was Freddie Bean in New Street, who sold men's hats, including bowlers. I tried to buy one at his closing sale but they were all too small. (No remarks about big heads please.) There was also Harold Knowles, where Jessie Axon worked as an assistant. She told me lots of stories about shop girls taking their dance frocks to work, ready to change and go straight on to the Palais de Danse (later Majestic Ballroom). There were also tales of shopkeepers being - to put it nicely - careful with money. Penny-pinching if you like.

Agnew's in Church Street and McClure's were upmarket. I couldn't afford to shop there. Their quality was good but prices were much too high. I bought a pair of trousers from them once at twice the price I'd previously paid so I expected twice the wear but they didn't last so long so I went back to cheap ones.

Later there was Hepworth's in Market Square, a smart store of medium price range like most chain stores. The others were individual local businesses, whose owners lived over the shop until they had made enough to buy a house in the more leafy areas like Holyhead Road or Ercall Lane.

Some of the little shops were magic - Hobson's for instance. This was in Market Square next but one to the corner of Market Approach. It had been Houlston's, printers and publishers in Hesba Stretton's time. Hobson's had a small printing works at the back but they also sold artists' supplies, some books and foreign stamps.

Many friends collected stamps and we would spend hours swapping them with each other. Some collected British Empire or European stamps I had a German inflation stamp for 20,000,000,000 Marks. It was worth nothing much but if it had been worth the price on the stamp I could have bought the whole German Army and stopped the War.

The real difference between the old shops and the new is in size and organisation. Iceland is a friendly little place, only a little bigger than the old fashioned grocers' shops; Morrison's may be much larger but at least they have recognised the history of the site by displaying pictures of the cattle market and their staff are as courteous as ever.

It's a pleasure to see small new/old-fashioned shops like Shoes in the Square, the sweet shop and Coffee and Cream (previously Flapjacks). Let's hope they prosper.