Shops in Peel Street
 

Can anyone remember the ''original'' four shops which had almost identical fronts with different coloured mosaic tiling at the top (still there on three) just below what was then Blackburn Trustee Savings Bank in Peel Street? The top one of the four was eventaully taken over by the bank when they enlarged their premises, leaving just three.

I know the next but one to the bank was Veevers and I vaguely remember going in there, the smell of freshly ground coffee, a chair for customers to sit on and tins of biscuits with windows in the lids.

I believe the one the bank took over was Noble's and was it a shoe shop?

What about the other two? The names Crompton and Harris's come to mind. In fact you can almost see a shadow of the name "HARRIS'S" in the mosaic above one, but what were they?

Although I remember them looking new I have no idea what was there before.

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Sorry Willow....I can't remember shops names for the love of it...Unless it sold...beer, wine, spirits or sports gear or records. I'm good at remembering Pubs though...but that's no help to you..............sorry!!

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I know what shoops are you mean but dont know what they were sorry.

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Maybe someone has an old photo?

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I know one of them was a children's outfitters. It was owned by a friend of my mother's but I don't remember the name. I do remember buying my school uniform there - and a frilly blue satin party dress (yukk! - but which I thought was the bees knees at the time, and which I never got to wear to the party because the person who had invited me had told me the wrong date!)

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I think I got my Peel Park uniform from Isobel Winter's which was across the road.

Shame you never got to wear that dress. I had a pink frilly one with numerous net underskirts to make it stand out. Ah what memories.

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Yes. Isobel Winter - that was the name I was trying to remember. It seems I was thinking of the shops on the opposite side of the street from the ones you had in mind. Isobel Winters was about the second or third down from the top on the left hand side if you were walking towards the centre of town (same side as the old Palace cinema).

One of the shops on the other side of the road was a grocers or confectioners. I do remember they sold some very nice small fancy cakes.

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What about O'Connors Furniture.Relaw

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Where was that one located?

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Any idea what year that was?

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Maybe late 1950's? Gets foggier the further back I go.

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Maybe late 1950's? Gets foggier the further back I go.

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Are you thinking about the shops at the top of Little Blackburn Rd?
A truck crashed into them, where the traffic lights are, next to Stanleys jewellers.

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Hope i'm on the right side of the road here but I think one of the shops was either lighting or carpets it would be the one nearest the market. Let me know if i'm off track and should be on the other side.

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well there you go, said it was foggy

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There is a picture of those shops in the Accrington Observer May 1915.

Walter

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The runaway truck as you call it didn't get to Peel St.

It happened one dinner time the lorry was on the wrong side of the road as it passed the Fire Station it demolished some of the stone work on the left hand side of the door way of the Hargreaves Arms. We immediately turned out with two machines and the emergency tender. The lorry hit a white Ford car waiting to turn into Warner St, peeled the side of a Ribble bus waiting 3rd in the queue at the Traffic light at the top of Little Blackburn Rd, pushed the white car under a furniture van and rammed the whole lot into the Canine club, the lorry then veered left and buried itself into the front of the wine shop at the top of Little Blackburn Rd. Its now a cleared area with a tree planted in it.

It took 20 minutes to cut the driver free from the white car, a young woman aged about 30, she was in a bad way. Don't remember if she survived or not.

Retlaw

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I remember the bottom one was carpets they used to hang doormats on the doorframe cant remember the name the lighting shop i think was oconners who also were up abbey st.just next to marsdens chipshop which was just past plantation st.

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The shops on Peel Street - Noble's was definitely a shoe shop - sold sensible shoes, such as Clarke's. For our shoes we generally went to Bainbridge's in Blackburn. We had to have our feet x-rayed. You looked down a sort of funnel and saw the shapes of your feet against a green background. Remember the "Startright" advert? A boy and girl walking off along the road?
Veever's was a sort of delicatessen - I remember they sold chocolate ants - I never saw them anywhere else.
Isobel Winter's was across the road. That's where you got your High School uniform. Except for your pullover or cardigan, which you got from "the Blind" (on Bank Street).

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From the 1951 Barrett's directory....No 2, Trustee Savings bank No 4 Nobles, boots,shoes 6 Veevers, grocer 8 harris, outfitter 10 Crompton, furniture
12 Haydock Bros, dry cleaners then Pleck rd 14 Smith, confectioner
16 Douro Wines 18 Darbyshire's florist 20 Singer Sewing machines 22 Fasion fabrics 24 Metcalfe's, fruiterers.

Other side: Lloyd's bank, / Greenwood, newsagent, Caxton printing Co/ Greenhalgh's dry cleaners/ baptist Chapel then Infant St/ Loofe'stailor/ Crawshaw, furniture/Joseph loofe again/ J Hoyle, fancy goods/23/25/27 isobel Winter/ Ingham, wools then t'Palace flicks.

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Was it Nobles boots and shoes that became Coombs in the sixtie or seventies Bob:confused:

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I seem to remember that there was an old wooden building on the corner of Infant st with the entrance in Peel st., inside there was 7 or 8 stalls. One sold second hand books and magazines and I think one sold fruit and veg.. This was about 1950ish. Any body else remember it.
Tetti

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that name rings a bell , seem to remember he also had a sewing factory where my Mom worked during the early/mid 50s, it was up a back street/alley off Whalley Rd, same side as Mary's music , either just before or just after the Railway viaduct .

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The fruit and Veg stall was Catlows, they moved to the junction of Broadway and Whalley Rd.
I remember the bookstall, they sold mostly paperbacks, westerns and science fiction.

Retlaw.

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yep was dark green coloured tongue @ groove boarding i think, retlaw is correct Catlows was the fruit n veg stall.:)

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Ain't it marvelous how you old codgers remember these things:D

Shops in Peel Street
 

Memory joggers

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Great Pics Atarah.:)

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The first one is really interesting because we can see what our shop looked like in bygone years before they built it :)

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Agreed,but if ya wern't a Dingle,ya would know what it looked like.:D

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And if I was about 50 years older :)

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Jeez Dave ya have weathered bad.:D

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Who are you calling an old codger, cheeky young pup.
:D:D:D:D:D
Retlaw

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:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:p

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Certainly memory joggers Atarah .. although don't remember the 1st one ..tramlines there :D

Had forgotton the wooden building ... was a bit dismal ...used to grab a few comics from there. Funnily enough, was talking to Keith Catlow this evening ... told him about this 'photo .. said he may come and have a peep

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Yep good photo. Got it out of an old newspaper. I remember Catlows so well on the corner of Broadway and Whalley Road.

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Thanks for the memory jog, was almost sure it was Catlow's in the wooden market hall, mum used to shop at Metcalfe's hence the hesitation in remembering the name.
Nice photos Atarah.
Tetti

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Mr Loofe had a workshop in Back Owen St, alongside the ralway line between Whalley Rd and Marlborough rd. When I was a young un, I was standing by a brazier near there when my overcoat became singed. I started to cry, knowing what my dad would do to me. Mr loofe saw me and had obne of his staff give it an invisible repair. My dad made me go into his shop a few days after and thank him. I was probably standing by the fire in the company of my mate Ken Sagar, whose parents had a bread shop in Owen St, or Margaret Booth, perhaps my first girl friend, whose parents had a bread shop in Marlborough rd.

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did yer first girlfriend have a younger sis bob? if was breadshop just above the iron bridge then she did, was in my class at junior school, still see her pretty often.:)

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If the Margaret Booth you knew, had an older brother named Ken, then I met up with her at a High School reunion, and she now lives on Catlow Hall St near St Pauls Church in Ossy

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I remember a flower shop on Peel Street in the 50s it belonged to my god parents, I think it was number 18, don't remember the name of it though, the smell was wonderful and my godmother always boiled a big pan of milk to make coffee, delicious. And the flowers were wired to make them stand straight longer instead of wilting on a hot day.

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I remember number 18 being a florist, it belonged to my god parents, Derek and Mona, don't remember their last name, and I know it was the mid 50s as I was born in 50. They lived in Rishton, they later had another shop on Blackburn Road in the shops by India Street, I don't know what happened to all of it and them as I moved away. And seem to suffer from a bad memory..Manantat

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yer memory aint that bad, yeh were correct about number 18.:)

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Ironically we are at 18 Peel St but not the same shop :)

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And ya don't sell floors either;):)

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Going back to the beginning of this thread, there may have been a runaway crash in Little Blackburn Road but I am pretty certain there was something similar in Peel Street late 50s early 60s affecting those shops mentioned by Willow in post no 1. I remember going down town at night, it was foggyand there were oil lamps with flares all across the road to stop traffic going down Peel Street.

I remember Nobles, posh shoe shop, and Veevers, posh grocers. Also getting my school uniform (and liberty bodices) from Isobel Winter, but the woolies came from the blind shop on Bank Street.

I also remember the shed at the bottom of Infant Street and Catlows when it was at the top of Broadway - a regular vist by me and my mum on a Saturday,

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If it was a large green shed what did they sell ? I can't recall ever going inside .

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I think they sold anything and everything I seem to remember lots of wooden tables with goods on them

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Think claytonx has it right, i can remember Fruit n veg stalls also, was a large green shed like building (Lavatory Door Green) people used to say.:D

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That takes us back a long way(liberty bodices)

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Ya claytonx with the rubber buttons:D

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Remember them well Jaysay

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it was in the early 60 a vehicle went into vevers shop fronf it was foggy I was in the AFS at the time we helped tidy up in the shop and he gave me a chocolate log
anne

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Harris's was a BABY AND CHILDERNS clothes store. Very posh.Our family was more the market stall clothes shop.

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I can remember painfully Hughes Dentists I think it was over the bank

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Wasn't it a Corporation bus?

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Sorry guy's, the crash was at the top of Peel street where the bank now stands. A lorry drove into them during a thick fog. I remember looking at it when I was small boy. Must have been around 1950. I can also remember seeing small oil lamps glittering to mark the spot. ( no fancy flashing lights in those days).

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Sorry but your mistaken, The bank you refer to was the T.S.B. I opened my first savings bank account there in 1945. If you read the thread through you will see the real crash was at the top of little Blackburn Rd.
Having served in th Fire Brigade, I would have known of a crash if it had hit the bank. I used to read the old incident records, and John Kelly and I did the history of Accrington Fire Brigade.

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Yes the little garden area at the top of Blackburn Rd (opposite the Canine) is the site of the crash. A shop I think not a bank.

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Only just found this thread. Eh brought back some memories. I had liberty bodices from Isabel's too. I still have a card she sent my mum when I was born. Bet no shops do that these days. Seem to remember another shop on that block that sold pinnies. If I recall correctly the make was Beech Tree. Many were the wrap around sort most ladies wore in 1930s and 1940s.

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I'm sure the Beech Tree pinny shop was at the top end of little Blackburn Road.....next to(or near to) Smiths confectioners shop......they made the tastiest corned beef hash pasties you ever tasted.......and I liked their Russian cake too, but was told never to ask what was in it(it was off cuts from all the different kinds of sponge cake and it was 'glued' together with jam).

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Yeh Margaret I think you are right about the pinny shop being in Little Blackburn Road. Sorry another senior moment.

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It is Ok......they get more frequent as time goes on.
I only remember because that was where I got sent for our work overalls........and because it was near the confectioners too.

I remember Price's Cake shop in Peel street.......they used to make lovely trifles.

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I loved Greens pies and cakes. They were up Burnley Road.

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Veevers was my grand dads shop he sold out to the Co Op on retirement and yes they did sell odd things like chocolate flavoured ants.

I am trying to see if I can trace any pictures of the shop, as I was quite small when it was sold.

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The truck crash was at the top of Little Blackburn Road. The truck came through the lights and hit the building which I think used to be an off licence killing a man. The building was never rebuilt and it was turned into a small garden with a couple of benches. wasn't one of the shops on Peel Street a chemists or was that the other side???

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didn't that become the jewelers on that corner?

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Were there no Trade Directories ever published for Accrington?

What about Telephone Directories. There might be some old ones in the Library.

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I am not aware of there being directories for Accrington only. The most common ones which did cover Accrington were published by Barrett's of Preston. The earliest known one was published by Rogerson in 1818 It covered much of NE Lancs

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I noticed you said about a 1951 Barrett's Directory but were there any more after that year, Bob?

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1951 was the last Barrett's covering Accrington, though the company continued with others later in the 50s. There have been other firms publishing some with Accrington content, but nowt since 1951.

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Thanks, Bob. What a shame there are none after that.

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My Grandmas Uncle and Aunty had the flower shop at no.18 in 1911, John and Martha Darbyshire. My gran is still going strong at 104 years old and tells me allsorts.