Babyland

maxwell silver

maxwell silver

Proper Accy
Tackler
Anyone else remember this toyshop from thier childhood?Situated at the top of Warner street,it was surely the 60's equivelent to Toys r us.Sold everything from prams,cots,bikes,airfix kits,action men & just about everything else kids were into back then.Remember after a particulary brave episode at the dentist my mum would take me there,not for a toy but to put one old penny in the slot by the window so the train set inthe window would send the train a couple of laps round the track.Bought all the original Thunderbirds & Captain Scarlet models there(how i wish i still had those pristine in their original packaging).Come to think of it,is there a toy shop in Accy now or is it just Woolies & Argos?Wheres the magic gone for youngsters these days?
 
I also loved the place where Baileys is now

Think I'm too young to remember the other one
 
That was Toy and Model corner, later became Toymaster. Sadly no specialist toyshop in Accy now, have to trek to Mercer's in Blackburn. :(
 
I used to go in there. They had a Corgi and Dinky toys catalogue on the counter, which I used to thumb through going, Got, got, want,want,want. A delightful place. I feel really sorry for kids today, Argos and Toys R Us don`t have the same magic.
 
I got my first sledge from Babyland! Just after getting my hair cut at Kemp and Smiths. God how I hated getting my hair cut back then.
 
Wasn't there another shop just higher up than Babyland on the corner that just specialised in models, seem to remember they had los of Hornby Trains and accessories, or was it just part of Babyland:confused:
 
There was a good toy shop (Could it have been Wolstenholmes? . . Wolstencrofts?) just before the railway bridge on Blackburn Road close to the premises which were to become Accrington's first Chinese restaurant. I think E J Riley's (Little Blackburn Road) sold toys as well as sporting goods. I remember, in the late forties, word used to go around at school (Peel Park) that "So-and-so" have got Dinkies in". If we had any money, money boxes were emptied and we made a bee-line for the appropriate shop after school.
 
Don't remember the Warner St shop. Maybe before/after my childhood.

Do remember the place at the bottom of Warner st though, on the corner. Recall a shed type building. Parents took me in there to leave my Xmas list. Remember it having a very high counter...or seemed so then! :)
 
exaccyman said:
There was a good toy shop (Could it have been Wolstenholmes? . . Wolstencrofts?) just before the railway bridge on Blackburn Road close to the premises which were to become Accrington's first Chinese restaurant. I think E J Riley's (Little Blackburn Road) sold toys as well as sporting goods. I remember, in the late forties, word used to go around at school (Peel Park) that "So-and-so" have got Dinkies in". If we had any money, money boxes were emptied and we made a bee-line for the appropriate shop after school.
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Wolstenholme's did have a shop down Warner St at one time, but it was not a toy shop. He had three sons, one became Wolstenholme's Funeral Parlour, 2nd had a shop near the bottom of Whalley Rd, where the hire mobility shop was/is, the other had a joinery business, I think it was where the frontage is set back from the road near the Abbey Friar.
E.J. Rileys at the corner of Bridge St & Blackburn Rd, mostly sold sporting goods, but did have Dinkies. Babyland was at the top of Warner St, its now Dr Kappenda's surgery.
Retlaw.
 
Caz said:
Don't remember the Warner St shop. Maybe before/after my childhood.

Do remember the place at the bottom of Warner st though, on the corner. Recall a shed type building. Parents took me in there to leave my Xmas list. Remember it having a very high counter...or seemed so then! :)
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The only shed type building at the bottom of Warner St, was actualy in Church St, just a bit to the left of the Pals Memorial. Garth Dawson's father had it, thats where Garth had his first photographic business, before moving to Infant St, and then Blackburn Rd.

Retlaw.
 
The only shed type building at the bottom of Warner St, was actualy in Church St, just a bit to the left of the Pals Memorial. Garth Dawson's father had it, thats where Garth had his first photographic business, before moving to Infant St, and then Blackburn Rd.
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Must be my memory playing tricks with me, maybe moulding two memories into one!

Was there not a newsagent type shop down there at some stage?

I'm thinking approx 1958, and that high counter sticks in my mind, coz I thought santa was hiding behind it! :D, And definitely in my memory at least, the other side of church St
 
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Caz
Going back a little further than you were thinking, Barrett’s Directory for 1947 rather interestingly makes your recollection and mine coincide.
A firm called Wolstenholme and Broughton, who are described as “Toy dealers” are listed at both 98 Blackburn Road (about 4 premises past Edgar Street going towards Blackburn) and also at 35 Warner Street (apparently about 10 properties up from Church Street).
 
exaccyman said:
I think E J Riley's (Little Blackburn Road) sold toys as well as sporting goods. I remember, in the late forties, word used to go around at school (Peel Park) that "So-and-so" have got Dinkies in". If we had any money, money boxes were emptied and we made a bee-line for the appropriate shop after school.
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Getting confused a little now, did E.J. Rileys not sell prams too ? .. know I bought my daughter's pram from the the shop on Little Blackburn Road, they used to have them in the window. Thought this was called Babyland too.
Was a lovely streamline green and grey Silver Cross coach pram .. loved it .. suspension was good too .. didn't bounce her all over the place.

Course years later, when I had my son, saw the sense of buying one that did all purposes .. e.g. main body would come off the bottom to put in car, etc., and fold down .. much more economical.
 
Just going off at another angle, does anyone remember the shop on Blackburn Road between Willows Lane and Scaitcliffe Street? Think it was called Lightowlers - they sold prams and I'm sure they sold toys too, as I seem to recall my dad buying my Tri-ang train set from there in the 50's.
 
Wynonie Harris said:
Just going off at another angle, does anyone remember the shop on Blackburn Road between Willows Lane and Scaitcliffe Street? Think it was called Lightowlers - they sold prams and I'm sure they sold toys too, as I seem to recall my dad buying my Tri-ang train set from there in the 50's.
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Yes it was next to the Baptist Chapel that moved to Cannon St, just before the traffic lights, he had loads of prams out on the pavement in good weather, if you did that today they'd be gone in no time.

Retlaw.
 
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