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Woolworths - No 13 North Street
One of the largest and most popular
stores in Bourne during the 20th century was Woolworths, trading from No
13 North Street where it became a popular call for most visitors to town,
especially on market days and Saturdays.
The first Woolworths store was opened at Liverpool in 1909 by the American
entrepreneur Frank Winfield Woolworth, selling items for 3d. and 6d., a
successful idea based on the 5 and 10 cent stores pioneered in the United
States from 1878, and the concept of cheaper goods selling in working
class areas soon caught on. Other branches opened in the north of England
and by the end of the century there were more than 800 of them nationwide
employing over 30,000 people.
The Bourne branch opened at No 13 North Street in 1967, purpose built on
the site of the former butchery shop run by W H Ewles and Sons who had
been in business there since 1937, and both the shop and an adjoining
house were demolished to make way for the new store. Planning permission
had been granted in 1963 but construction work was delayed to allow an
archaeological dig explore the site and this revealed a mediaeval well,
fragments of pottery, mainly from the 13th century which probably
originated from a kiln in Bourne, and beads of Saxon origin.
For more than 40 years, the store was an important call to buy those small
but essential items whether it be a light bulb or battery, envelopes, pens
and wrapping paper or even a bag of sweets, becoming a popular and often
essential call for any shopping outing. But it was not to last. In 2008
the company was badly hit by the economic recession. Changing times and
retail trading patterns altered dramatically, squeezed by the supermarkets
and online shops at a time of banking uncertainty which aggravated cash
flow problems and accumulated a debt of £385 million.
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early December and although the stores remained open to dispose of
existing stock during the Christmas trade, their closure was imminent. The Bourne branch,
which employed 33 people, shut its doors on Saturday 27th
December with all 807 of the company's outlets closing by the
following January 5th. In the days before the closure, the company
held a massive closing down sale offering everything in stock at
greatly reduced prices and even the furniture and fittings were
eventually sold off. Thousands flocked into the Bourne store to snap up items
at heavily discounted prices and soon emptied the shelves.
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The wonder of Woolies which has been part of Bourne shopping for over four
decades, was immediately noticeable in North Street with fewer people
about and it was also predicted that the end of the store would be not
only a major blow to the commercial life of Bourne but also another nail
in the coffin of the long awaited £27 million redevelopment scheme for the
town centre.
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FORMERLY SMITH'S
THE BUTCHERS
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Butchery has been one of the main
retail businesses in Bourne, as in all small market towns, usually run by
farmers who slaughtered their own stock for the meat they sold or bought
from the local markets and at fatstock shows during the Christmas period. There were seven
butchers trading in the town 1835, all offering a personal service, although the number has
been drastically reduced today because of competition from the
supermarkets.
Charles H Smith ran his shop at No 13 North
Street during the first half of the 20th century and the man in the doorway is
Frank Greenfield (1888-1972) who
worked for him and later went into business on his own account.
Mr Smith sold out in 1937 when ownership of
the North Street business passed to W H Ewles and Sons, a butchery firm
run by William Ewles with his three sons, A F Ewles, A J Ewles and R J
Ewles. Mr Ewles had trained as a butcher in London and at Biggleswade in
Bedfordshire before moving to the Bourne area in 1922 when he bought the
business of Aughton Brothers of Stamford which had a shop at No 1 Abbey
Road but this was closed after he took over the North Street premises. The firm expanded its operations in 1961 by taking over the
butcher's shop in High Street, Morton, from Mr E L Smith, a nephew of
Charles Smith, although this was later revealed as the prelude to moving
out of Bourne.
In 1963, F W Woolworth Ltd began
negotiations to buy the North Street premises to build a new store and
outline planning permission was granted in November but the purchase was
not completed until the following January. On February 29th, Ewles closed
down and transferred its butchery business to its Morton branch although
it was a further three years before the shop and adjoining house were
demolished, the site cleared and the new Woolworths store built and
opened.
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This picture (right) of the shop in North Street reflects a more leisurely
age with the cycle at the pavement indicating less traffic than
today and pedal rather than horse power.
The man in the white coat is Frank Greenfield who managed the shop
for Charles Smith and on the left is Jack Richardson who may have
been an employee while the other person in the picture on the right
is unknown.
There were two upper floors to the building which indicate that
either the owner, or more likely the manager, lived on the premises
and although it is built of red brick with a slate roof, the
frontage had been pebble dashed as a means of preservation, a method
that was not always successful. |
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See also
The everlasting meat Trades and
occupations
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