Page 30 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

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first floor, so that people sitting on the top deck of the tram or bus could see the window displays at the upper level. the top of the building was finished with a distinctive large cupola. the new store opened in January 1900, specialising in household linens, soft furnishings, dress fabrics, floor coverings, ladies’ lingerie and corsetry and children’s clothing. the ladies’ and children’s department was accessed by a spiral staircase and was very much a ladies’ only department.
Herbert had three sons, all of whom served in the First World War. Douglas the eldest, who served in the 7th Battalion, the northamptonshire Regiment, was killed in France during the Battle of Loos in november 1915. the two surviving sons, Ross and edwin, carried on the business through the depression of the 1930s and the second World War.
After acquiring further sales space, a furniture and bedding department was added and with the purchase of the property in Wood street, a packing and despatch department with vehicle access was added. During the second World War, the furniture department was taken over for the storage of wheat, but by the end of the war the wheat was overrun by rats and the entire contents had to be destroyed.
Ross’s son, John, and edwin’s son, Douglas, joined the northampton business soon after the war. In 1970 the store was compulsorily purchased and demolished to make way for the grosvenor shopping Centre. Unable to find similar sized premises the northampton business was reduced to selling soft furnishings in Abington square and dress fabrics in York Road. on the premature death of Douglas in 1990 and John’s retirement soon after, the business came to an end.
the Kettering business, which opened in newland street in 1890, also went through changes. In 1911 after the purchase of a garden at the rear, the ground floor was extended to cover the entire site. In late 1922, the entire shop was demolished and rebuilt, the first girder construction building in Kettering. In the early 1950s edwin’s twin sons, Colin and Robin took over the business, the first members of the family to work in the Kettering business. the shop had been controlled from northampton with a number of managers over the years. the business continued until the retirement of the twins in 2002, the shop having given 112 years service to the town.
When stewart and Lloyds came to Corby, there was no furnishing shop; stewart and Lloyds approached us in Kettering to provide furnishings in Corby for their employees coming down from scotland. We set up a temporary store in a hut, where we carried on business until we occupied one of the new shops built in Rockingham Road. When the new centre came into being in the 1950s some distance from Rockingham Road shops, we decided to close the Corby shop and serve Corby from our Kettering shop.
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