42 shops took part in Heritage Day showing something of their own history. On the premises of Oxfam a company once sold coal and flour.
John Alder kept a small alehouse in Stert Street, where Mason’s wool shop now is. In 1867 he spent the money for the brewer’s bill to purchase a state lottery ticket, and won £20,000 (a huge amount back then) and became a great public benefactor. There is a blue plaque to his memory above the shop.
David May contributed a display of Mays from a small shop to a larger shop and then an out of town carpet superstore. The pictures are currently in Added Ingredients.
The Newbury building society had a timeline of the society and also showed how their premises in West St Helen Street was a wool shop in 1960s.
The Honey Pot had pictures of days gone by hung up in front of the fresh flowers.
But my favorite was another flower shop. Fabulous flowers once sold bikes and motorcycles. But today for one day, mixed in between the flowers, were oil cans, rusty engine parts, and the assistants were wearing overalls. Simply Fabulous!
Thanks to Hester Hand and Bobbie Nichols who arranged the shop heritage competition. 3 people managed to identify 41 out of 42 shops
1. Georgina Arnold
2. Rosemary Green
3. The Terry Family
but Georgina was the only one to answer the tie-breaker question:
‘Where was the hotel where you couldn’t get an alcoholic drink?’ and so got the prize.
