Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), South Shields (22 Sep 2011)

Store Twenty One has opened its doors in South Shields today, meaning that the whole of the former Woolworths unit at 100-108 King Street (store number #104) is now back in retail use. While Poundland has occupied its part of the building since 2009, Store Twenty One’s portion had previously remained empty since Woolworths’ 2008 collapse.

I happened to be passing by yesterday, when the finishing touches were being applied to the store’s interior. As with the North East’s other ex-Woolies Store Twenty One shops – in Stanley, Houghton-le-Spring, Jarrow and the original (pre-1955) Woolworths site in Redcar – the store’s shopfront and fitout, inside and out, is of a very high quality. All it needs now, as I’ve observed before, is for the business to start making a profit.

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One and Poundland), South Shields (22 Sep 2011)

Elsewhere on Tyneside yesterday, I spotted positive developments at two other local ex-Woolworths sites. Regular readers will recall that the former Woolworths at 63 Shields Road in Byker (#276) closed on 1 June 1985, and then housed painting and decorating retailer Decorflair until the start of this year.

Former Woolworths (now YMCA), Byker (22 Sep 2011)

Until yesterday I’d never seen the building without its shutters down, so I was pleased to see it now open again and housing a YMCA charity shop. As always, the black granite stall riser of the typical 1960s Woolworths shopfront is present and correct, despite the property not having housed a Woolies branch for over a quarter of a century.

Former Woolworths (now YMCA), Byker (22 Sep 2011)

Inside, the shopfloor features some surprisingly ornate wrought iron columns, which suggests that the property is older than its rather featureless exterior would imply.

The store is also very spacious, and it’s easy to see how it would have made an impressive Woolworths when it moved there, from its old premises at nos. 47-49, sometime around 1960 – a time when Shields Road was still one of the city’s prime retail destinations. Today, a combination of independents and multiples (such as Morrisons, Wilkinson, Ethel Austin, Boots and Iceland) ensure that Shields Road still performs an important function locally, but the days of it attracting shoppers from across the city are surely gone.

Against this backdrop of the street’s illustrious past, the arrival of yet another charity shop is perhaps nothing to get too excited about, but at least it brings the building back into use while the lease continues to be marketed.

Former Woolworths and Well Worth It, Wallsend (22 Sep 2011)

Meanwhile, down the road in Wallsend, the former Woolworths (#351) and shortlived Well Worth It store at 2-4 High Street East has gained a ‘let agreed’ sign since I last passed by six weeks ago, suggesting that a new occupant is imminent.

I can’t find any reference to who might be taking the site over, and there’s no planning application as yet – always a good source of early information, given the need for retailers to obtain advertisement consent whenever they wish to erect new signage.

I note, however, that an advertisement has gone live this evening for a Store Manager for an unspecified ”Tyne & Wear” branch of Store Twenty One. Could the expanding fashion retailer be about to take over yet another North East ex-Woolies site, as I mooted last month? If it is, you heard it here first…

Former Safeway, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

It’s amazing how a throwaway remark can prompt an entire discussion on something unexpected…

In my January post about the divvying up of Netto’s North East store estate following the chain’s acquisition by Asda, I made passing reference to Birtley’s former Safeway – a store which Morrisons sold to Somerfield in 2004, bought back in 2009, but has then failed to reopen, leaving Netto as the town’s only supermarket.

My observation subsequently encouraged a whole thread of comments on the fate of former Safeways, highlighting a surprisingly large number of stores that Morrisons initially disposed of but has since reacquired following the Co-op’s takeover of Somerfield – a reflection of Morrisons’ new-found readiness to run more compact supermarkets than had traditionally been the case.

While a fair few ex-Safeways have therefore changed hands as many as three times in the last eight years, the former store in Raby Street, Byker – which I passed by a couple of days ago – is one whose retail use ended with Morrisons’ takeover.

Morrisons, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

With Morrisons having opened a large superstore in Shields Road in 2002, it was always inevitable that the nearby Safeway would be on the OFT’s list of stores – 52 in total – that Morrisons was required to divest. While other Newcastle and North East stores were promptly acquired by other grocers – Heaton and Team Valley by Sainsbury’s, for example – no offers were forthcoming for the Byker Safeway, despite its location close to the Byker Metro station and a parade of smaller shops.

Former Safeway, Byker, with parade of shops opposite (6 Jun 2011)

In December 2004, the OFT reported that:

Morrisons has sought bids for the Byker store. However, to date, no suitable bids have been received, whether from grocery operators or non-grocery operators and whether above open market value or not. Having consulted with Morrisons, the OFT is minded to direct that Morrisons may retain the store at Raby St, Byker…

With Morrisons clearly having no interest in operating a second branch so close to its first, the store – once famous for selling fewer sprouts than any other UK Safeway store – was duly closed.

The property remained empty, I believe, until 2007, when it was bought for £2m – not by another retailer, but by the expanding North East business Winn Solicitors, a company specialising in accident compensation, personal injury claims, and irritatingly catchy local radio jingles.

Rear of former Safeway, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

As you might expect, the property appears to have had some extra windows punched in, to make it suitable for office use, but it still looks for all the world like an abandoned Safeway – complete with clock tower, loading bay, distinctive green paintwork, and a space where the trolleys ought to be.

Side of former Safeway, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

Of course, with Asda set to open a new full-line store in the former Woolworths at Newcastle Shopping Park, Byker residents’ food shopping habits are set to evolve yet again in the coming months.

Morrisons’ arrival on Shields Road, nearly a decade ago, gave a much-needed fillip to a shopping centre that was, arguably, then underserved by its relatively compact, and expensive, Safeway store. It remains to be seen, however, how far the new Asda – with its easy access and edge-of-centre location – will undo those gains.

Original former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Redcar (4 May 2011)

One of my main motivations for visiting Redcar yesterday was to get a photo of the town’s original former Woolworths at 19 High Street, above, which – inexplicably – I’d failed to spot when I was there the previous time.

I should have known from the store number of the Redcar Woolworths – 275, giving an opening date of 1929 – that the more modern building at 39-43 High Street, now occupied by the Yorkshire Trading Company, below, couldn’t have housed Redcar Woolies since the beginning.

...and its 1950s (?) replacement (4 May 2011)

Redcar’s original Woolworths, as regular readers will expect by now, is classic interwar Woolies architecture, with all the usual features – redbrick and white render, with small windows either side of a three-bay-wide pedimented section. Curiously, there are two additional bays on the right-hand side, suggesting that it was at some point extended – rather like the store in Llandudno.

Original former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Redcar (4 May 2011)

The design of the main section, interestingly, is almost identical to the original Woolworths in Byker’s Shields Road, below, though Redcar’s is in a generally better state of repair. This similarity is unsurprising – Byker was store number 276 to Redcar’s 275, meaning that the two stores would have been built and opened within just a few weeks of one another.

Original Woolworths, Byker (27 Sep 2009)

The old postcard, below, shows a yet-to-be-pedestrianised Redcar High Street in what I think is the 1950s, with the Woolworths store visible, in its original location, on the far right.

Old postcard of Redcar High Street, c.1950s

If you click on the image above to enlarge it, you can see that the Woolworths store has its upstairs windows open, revealing an art deco design very similar to those shown in the photo of the Byker store. Sadly, I understand that the Byker ex-Woolies’ original windows have been ripped out and replaced in just the last few months.

One piece of information I’m not clear about is when exactly Redcar’s Woolworths moved from its original location to the new site. My hunch, however, is that it may have been in the late 1950s, given that the replacement store still has in place its distinctive 1960s Woolworths shopfront, complete with shiny black stall riser.

Former Woolworths, Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

Bringing this post nicely full circle with the previous one, about Redcar’s ‘virtual shops’, the town’s original Woolies site happens to be a property that has only recently acquired a new occupant after years of standing empty. The expanding fashion retailer Store Twenty One opened its new store there only a few weeks ago, reunifying the two parts of the building that had previously housed a McDonalds restaurant and a card shop.

This makes Redcar the fourth Store Twenty One branch in the North East to have a Woolworths history, following the chain’s recently opened stores in Stanley, Jarrow and Houghton-le-Spring (pictured below) – all sites vacated following Woolworths’ 2008 collapse. Just as elsewhere, the retailer’s new Redcar store is surprisingly smart and appealing for a value chain, and certainly makes a positive impression on the streetscape.

Store Twenty One, Jarrow (24 Jul 2010)

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Houghton-le-Spring (1 Mar 2011)

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Stanley (12 April 2010)

Owned since 2006 by Indian textiles group Alok, Store Twenty One may not be an especially well-known retail name, but its aggressive expansion in the last few years has certainly played an important role in regenerating North East high streets – often in locations that other retailers might have overlooked.

The downside, of course, is the restructured business’s failure, as yet, to make a profit, though pre-tax losses for the group (including QS, as well as Store Twenty One) have fallen from a peak of £27.5m in 2007 to ‘only’ £6.4m in 2010. With the owners promising a “definite” profit for the year ending March 2011, it has to be hoped that Alok’s investment in new and improved stores comes good before too much longer.

With the ex-Woolies in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough now in new tenants’ hands (as BHS and Discount UK repectively – more on that in a future post), my reckoning is that of the 33 North East stores closed following Woolworths’ collapse, just four remain empty – in Wallsend, Peterlee, Newton Aycliffe and Newcastle. Coincidentally, none of these are locations where Store Twenty One currently has a presence.

With Alok reportedly seeking to double its UK store numbers from the current 200+, perhaps it could yet snap up the lot? Whenever it happens – and it may not be too much longer – the North East achieving a 100% hit rate of Woolies reoccupations will certainly be a cause for celebration, reinforcing the sense that even in the midst of an economic downturn there are still plenty of expanding retailers seeking out the right space.

Around the Stores (The New Bond, August 1949)

I’ve mentioned Woolies’ old ‘house journal’, The New Bond, almost as often as I’ve written about the history of Byker’s Woolworths stores, so I was pleased to find a reference to the latter in a recently acquired edition of the former.

Under the heading ‘Byker, 276′, the ‘Around the Stores’ section of the August 1949 issue includes a “snapshot taken on the roof of the Store during the lunch hour”, featuring “Mr. Corson, the Manager” and several other cheerful-looking members of his team – quaintly described (and capitalised) as “the Staff Supervisor, the Cook in the Staff Canteen and three other members of the Staff.”

Byker Woolworths staff members (From The New Bond, August 1949)

Based on what we know of the Byker Woolies timeline, the photograph must have been taken at the original store, at 47-49 Shields Road, a decade or so before the branch relocated to number 63.

It’s a pity that none of the other staff members are named, but perhaps there are some readers out there who recognise or even knew the ladies featured in this 62-year-old photograph?

Mr Corson, of course, previously cropped up in the April 1941 ’Forces Souvenir Issue’ of The New Bond that I blogged about back in October, where he was pictured in his guise as an AC2 (Aircraftman Second Class) along with many other Woolworths colleagues who had gone to war.

AC2 S. Corson from Byker 276, The New Bond, April 1941

It’s good to know that not only did he make it back safely, but that he subsequently returned to work at his previous Woolies branch.

Cover of The New Bond, August 1949

As I’ve suggested before, old issues of The New Bond provide a fascinating and incredibly detailed record of the Woolworths business at the height of its success, highlighting the obvious affection with which staff and employer held each other. For the time, they are also incredibly well-produced publications, printed on glossy paper, packed with photographs, and always featuring a beautifully illustrated colour cover, often by the in-house artist Gervase.

In the case of this particular issue, the star of the cover is a Woolies member of staff: 17-year-old “‘Miss Sheila Cockman, of Witham, 592, in Essex”, who it appears was the winner of the magazine’s ‘Cover Competition’. Inside, the Editor gushes about Sheila’s attributes, remarking upon her “eyes of blue-grey and hair the colour of ripening corn, which combined with a fair and rosy-cheeked complexion gives her a distinctive appeal.”

To modern eyes, of course, it’s all delightfully old-fashioned. Something tells me won’t be seeing anything similar in the John Lewis Partnership’s Gazette.

The building in question

Since I first blogged about it just over a year ago under the heading ‘Is this shop in Shields Road, Byker an old Woolies?’, the history of the building in question at 47-49 Shields Road (pictured above) has prompted quite a discussion – but, until now, no definitive answer.

In the course of the discussions, we have already established that Byker *did* have a Woolworths prior to the most recent incarnation (store #1256) at Newcastle Shopping Park. However, this was located further up Shields Road at number 63, in premises occupied by Decorflair until just a few weeks ago.

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker

Through reader contributions, we knew that Woolies had traded from that site since at least 1963, while an old newspaper cutting from Newcastle’s Local Studies Library revealed that the store closed on 1 June 1985.

How the Chronicle broke the news

However, none of this explained Byker Woolworths’ store number being 276. As I’ve noted before, each new Woolies store had a unique store number, with the first store (Liverpool, in 1910) given the number 1, and subsequent numbers allocated (usually) in chronological order. On this basis, 276 suggested an opening date of August or September 1927, raising the question of whether Byker’s Woolies had indeed occupied a different site prior to the Decorflair building.

Now, Brian E Clark seems to have come up with the answer:

Your question… (was this a Woolies shop) It certainly was! I am 70 years old, and spent the first 23 years of my life living in the Old Byker of 178 Kendal Street. I can remember that the shop front was re-set back from the building line on the left side of the frontage 3 or 4 feet… The shop moved further up Shields Road as you know, but this must have been in the late 50s early 60s. I do not remember it having an upstairs for the public.

So, there we have it – confirmation, it would seem, that the building at 47-49 Shields Road was indeed a purpose-built Woolworths, probably moving to the new location at number 63 sometime between the late 1950s and 1963.

Many thanks indeed to Brian for providing the missing piece of information, and to everyone else who has contributed to this particular discussion so far. Thanks to George Tullin and Peter, we already have a shot of number 63 in use as a Woolworths; all we need now is to find an old photograph depicting the original (47-49 Shields Road) Byker Woolies in all its glory – something that has, as yet, eluded me.

Former Woolworths in Shields Road. Photo from Newcastle City Council, P&T Image Archive

Since I first wrote about back it in January, we’re still yet to establish whether the A&S Discount Store building in Byker’s Shields Road (below) was ever an old Woolies.

It’s not for want of trying, though – with 16 comments and rising, my initial blog about the property has attracted more reaction than any other to date.

An old Woolies? Maybe, maybe not

However, thanks to everyone’s comments and a bit of digging around of my own, we can piece together a fair bit about the building in Shields Road that definitely was a former Woolworths – the present Decorflair property at number 63, next to the old Beavan’s department store. (Incidentally, someone who knows better than I do told me off last week for mispronouncing Beavan’s – apparently its name was pronounced as ‘Be-vans’, not as ‘Bee-vans’. Sorry!)

Previous accounts from Mike and Peter had indicated that the Woolies store was certainly around on that site in about 1963, and was still there in the early 1980s. Now, the simultaneous unearthing of an old photo (above) by both Peter and George Tullin, shows the store in what was presumably its 1950s or 60s heyday. Here’s a cropped version of the image, showing the Woolworths store closer up, with its gold signage and carmine fascia clearly discernable – even in black and white:

Closer up view of former Woolworths in Shields Road. Photo from Newcastle City Council, P&T Image Archive

Peter also flagged up another shot of the store – this time in colour, and taken from the opposite direction – that is probably from a few years later.

Fifty years or so on, it’s remarkable how similar the building looked then to how it does now – even down to the blocked-off first-floor windows. As is the case with most old Woolies, however, the historic shopfront and fascia are long gone, replaced with something much more ordinary:

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker

Previously I wrote about how an old copy of the Woolies staff magazine, The New Bond, had alerted me to the presence of an old Woolworths site in Benwell, another Newcastle suburb. I’m pleased to report that The New Bond once again proved a useful source here, with an issue that I recently acquired shedding just a little more light onto Woolworths’ presence in Byker.

Cover of The New Bond, April 1941

Published in April 1941, this particular 122-page issue of The New Bond is rather moving. Badged as a ‘Forces Souvenir Issue’, it features news, letters and photographs from those staff members engaged in the British forces or civilian defence. The final page includes a list of those promoted, commissioned, missing or killed in action, as well as a lovely, surpringly cheerful letter from Pte Terence Hannan, sent from a German POW camp, with the name of his former store – South Shields, 104 – underneath.

Terence Hannan's letter (click to enlarge)

The reference to Byker, however, is on page 92, where the caption beneath a photograph of AC2 (Aircraftman Second Class) S. Corson, from the RAF, shows that he was previously engaged at ‘Byker, 276′.

AC2 S. Corson from Byker 276

As I explained before, each Woolies had a unique store number, usually allocated sequentially from the earliest (1, in Liverpool) to the newest (e.g. 1256 for Byker’s Newcastle Shopping Park store, only opened in 2004). However, prior to spotting this reference in The New Bond, I hadn’t known the store number of the old Byker branch.

Helpfully, the store numbering system means that even if you don’t know the opening date of a particular store, knowing its store number allows you to make a very good estimate, simply by finding out when the stores either side of it opened. By referring to the useful (but incomplete) store list at 100thBirthday.co.uk, we can establish that store #274, in Rochdale, opened on 23 July 1927, and store #280, in North Finchley, on 17 September 1927.

This suggests that the Byker store opened in August or September 1927 – once again raising the possibility that the  Decorflair building (which, admittedly, is hard to date due to the lack of architectural features) may not have been Woolies’ original site in Byker.

After all, the 1920s and 30s was when the distinctive Woolies architectural style was prevalent in the chain’s newly built stores. Take a look, for example, at the old London Road Woolworths in Brighton - store #288 – which opened on 29 October 1927 (long since demolished, sadly, and replaced by a building that now houses Aldi). It may just be coincidence, but the property’s architectural similarity to Byker’s A&S Discount Store building is uncanny.

Is this an old Woolies? The jury's still out

So, we have an opening date – but what about when the store closed? Well, there’s progress on that front too.

Visiting Newcastle’s excellent Local Studies Library a few months ago, I was searching through old retail-related cuttings for something else entirely, but spotted an article – from the Evening Chronicle on 30 April 1985 – about the closure announcement of the Byker Woolworths.

How the Chronicle broke the news

Under the heading ‘Another Woolies to close’ (the ‘another’ referring, presumably, to the flagship Northumberland Street store (#27) which had closed down in, I believe, 1984), the article read as follows:

Another Tyneside Woolworth store has been sold and starts its closing down sale tomorrow. The store in Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle, will finally close on June 1, with the loss of 22 jobs.

This is another blow to Shields Road as a shopping centre. Mr Brian Blackburn, who has been managing the store for 14 months and with Woolworth for 12 years, said: “It is a very sad day.”

The premises have been sold to J. T. Clough whose registered office is in Blyth, but it is not yet known what the site will operate as. Of the 22 jobs to go, eight are full time and 14 are part time.

Mr Blackburn, 31, said: “The company will be making arrangements to try to find alternative employment for the permanent staff in other branches.”

Woolworth had given the store a short extension to its life in the hope overheads could be reduced and store profits increased.

The last big store closure to hit Shields Road was in last July when the J. T. Parrish department store closed. However, it was leased to rival company Michael Parrish Ltd., who started trading in September.

So there we have it – Byker’s Woolies seemingly opened in 1927, and closed on 1 June 1985 – though the unanswered question of whether it occupied the same site for all that time looks like it will run and run…

Still not sure if this is an old Woolies or not... (7 Mar 2010)

Back in January I posted a shot of what is now the A&S Discount store in Byker’s Shields Road, questioning whether it had ever been a Woolworths store, given its architectural similarities to many of the other former Woolies that I’d visited. [UPDATE: We now know it WAS - see

Since then, I’ve received many welcome comments and observations, visited even more old Woolies that look very similar to the said building in Byker, and trawled through quite a few old photographs of Byker (such as this lot) to try and find some evidence of the property’s past.

...but most people seem to agree that it *does* look like one (7 Mar 2010)

Though I’m little closer to identifying whether the building once was a Woolworths or not, information from Mike and his mother – both from Byker – suggests that it certainly hasn’t been a Woolies for 45 years or more. While Mike and his mum do remember a Woolworths on Shields Road, that store occupied a different building all together to the one that I blogged about:

Woolworths on Shields Road was further up where the Decorflair store is now. I confirmed this with a reliable source… my mother! (we are from Byker!) It goes back at least 1965 and probably a lot earlier… I can just remember going there as a kid in the 80’s. Not sure when it exactly closed, but it must have been the mid to late 80’s…

I took a photo of the Decorflair store today (below), though it’s difficult to see much of the shopfront when the shutters are down. Happily, Google Street View comes to the rescue, showing a frontage that certainly retains the appearance of a 1960s Woolworths store.

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker, with the former Beavan's department store in the background (7 Mar 2010)

Needless to say, if anyone has any further information about either the Decorflair-definite-Woolies or the A&S-possible-Woolies I’d be delighted to hear from you. Did the Decorflair Woolworths indeed supersede the A&S one, perhaps sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s? And do any old photos of that stretch of Shields Road exist – perhaps shots of the splendid former Beavan’s department store, showing glimpses of the two buildings in question either side of it?

Before I finish, it would be remiss of me not to update on yet another Byker Woolworths – the most recent incarnation, at Newcastle Shopping Park, which opened in 2004 and closed following the retailer’s administration. There’s not much to report though – it’s still empty, and looks no different to how it did back in September.

Former Woolworths, Newcastle Shopping Park, Byker (7 Mar 2010)

Given that it’s 95,000 sq ft anchor store remains vacant, Newcastle Shopping Park seems to be managing surprisingly well. The car park was certainly busy when I visited today, and the Asda Living store had plenty of customers in both the store and the cafe. I also noted that the former JJB Fitness Club has been rebranded as DW Sports Fitness since my last visit in September, following JJB’s March 2009 disposal of its fitness clubs business to Dave Whelan – the ex-footballer who had created JJB Sports in the first place, back in 1977, before selling his last stake thirty years later.

Looking ahead, it’s hard to imagine a retailer that would want to occupy the whole of the enormous former Woolworths site. It’s probably about the right size for Best Buy (opening its first UK stores this Spring) or a Currys Megastore, but those types of retailers are more likely to favour the busier, higher profile retail parks on Tyneside, such as Team Valley or Silverlink, for their flagship stores. Perhaps carving the unit up into two or three smaller stores will ultimately prove to be the best way forward?

Is this an old Woolies? (27 Sep 2009)

Here’s a retail history question for you – was this building (above), in Shields Road in Byker, once a Woolworths? [UPDATE, 28 Feb 2011: It seems that it was, as http://www.soultsretailview.co.uk/2011/02/28/mystery-of-shields-road-woolies-building-solved/ explains.]

I spotted it back in September when I was paying a visit to the more recently closed Woolworths at Byker’s Newcastle Shopping Park. As you can see, the building could definitely use some TLC, suffering from a delapidated upper floor, and a truly horrible fascia and shopfront treatment. On the other hand, wedged in next to the fairly new Morrisons store, it’s perhaps remarkable that the building has survived at all.

What struck me as I was walking by was the property’s architectural similarities to other Woolies stores that I’d seen before, such as those in Gosforth, Prestatyn and Morpeth:

Former Woolworths, Gosforth (27 Sep 2009)

Former Woolworths - now Home Bargains - in Prestatyn (25 Sep 2009)

Former Woolworths, Morpeth (15 Aug 2009)

More recently, the former Woolworths that I photographed in Alfreton, Derbyshire is perhaps the most similar of all:

Former Woolworths, Alfreton (23 Dec 2009)

Though the palette of materials varies in each case, all the properties above share the same sense of symmetry, a central pediment, and a similar pattern of fenestration – usually some variation of a 1-3-1 arrangement, with narrow windows either side of a wider, central window element. I know very little about the history of Woolworths architecture (though Jonathan Glancey has an excellent article on the subject here), but my hunch is that these would all have been purpose-built Woolworths stores, probably constructed during retailer’s heyday of the 1930s.

If anyone is able to confirm whether or not the building in Shields Road was once a Woolworths, and, if it was, when it closed, I’d be delighted to hear from you! So far I haven’t been able to find any evidence to support my theory, other than a reference from someone in the Journal’s online forums which confirms only that there was, historically, a Woolworths somewhere in Shields Road:

Can anyone remember the biscuit counter in Woolworths. I particularly remember the Woolies on Shields Road. If I remember rightly the biscuit counter was double sided and the assistants stood in the middle with tins of open biscuits all around them. There were all sorts of biscuits and you could get a 1llb of broken biscuits cheap. Also you could order a 1lb of mixed biscuits and get a few from each box.

As always, the comments box below eagerly awaits your contributions!