Sponsored by
A visit to 'Aladdin's cave'
A look at J.R Goldthorpe & Sons.
J.R. Goldthorpe & Sons at 38 High Street, Biggleswade is the longest established business currently operating in the town. It was set up by William Goldthorpe in 1869.
His son John Richard carried on the business and it was in the Goldthorpe family until 1970. It is now owned and run by David Sims and it would appear that not much has changed in all that time, inside or out. Catherine Rose went to investigate.
Walking into what at first appears to be a small ironmongers that is J.R. Goldthorpe & Sons is like being transported back in time. An Aladdin's cave, its wooden shelves and drawers bursting with all manner of useful household items from polish, glue, every type of cleaning agent, mothballs, Borax, laundry starch, hardware locks, nuts, bolts and tools (to name but a few), it has the feel of an old fashioned retailer that has long disappeared from the British high street.
David Sims has run the business since 1970 "selling old fashioned tools in the traditional way". If you want a single two inch nail, or advice on a type of lock, or even a potato fork, then David is your man.
Astonishingly, only 10% of stock is actually on display. David shows me the large warehouse at the rear of the shop and there are storage rooms above which are full of virtually anything you might ever need in a practical sense.
"Upstairs we still have all the old agricultural tools like hay forks, two-pronged parsnip forks and potato forks which are flat tined. They are difficult to find now and some people still want them." says David.
He doesn't know exactly how old the shop counter is but thinks it dates from the 1920s and tells me it is a solid piece of mahogany.
"I doubt that you could get a piece of wood like that now" he says proudly.
The building was originally a vicarage and David shows me the lintels in the ceiling which would have once separated the rooms. There are still still fireplaces behind the shop fitments. The vicarage was sold in 1842 and the adjacent town hall built in its garden.
"The vicarage had sash windows which were replaced with the current windows in the 1920s" explains David.
William Goldthorpe who founded the shop was a coppersmith and brazier who set up the premises to sell his wares. He was born in Hitchin but probably moved to Biggleswade in 1844 just before his eldest son James was born. He was described as a shopkeeper in Kelly's Directory as early as 1854.
It would appear from BHS records that William rented the shop and three cottages until 1878 when it was put up for sale by auction at the Swan Hotel. He subsequently bought the premises from Miss Elizabeth Norman.
When William died in 1892, he left the shop to his youngest son George Alfred who sold it to his brother James Richard, an ironmonger, gas fitter and metalworker who was already trading in Shortmead Street. J.R. Goldthorpe and Son was officially established. The year was 1857. Today, David wouldn't dream of changing the name.
James died in 1929 at the age of 85 and his widow Marion lived on for another 14 years until she was 92, dying in 1943. The couple had a son, Herbert aka Bert and two daughters: Helen and Florence. Helen was a singer and a pianist and David has a programme which lists her as performing in the town hall in 1913. The family lived in the back of the shop.
Bert took over the business and when he died in 1938, Florence Mabel Goldthorpe continued with it. She was to be the last Goldthorpe to trade there.
David then explains how he came to take over as custodian of the shop.
"My father Stanley, who was known as Dick, lived in Beeston and worked for Florence from 1950 until she retired in 1962. He then took over the management of the shop for the next eight years. I came to Biggleswade in 1967 and I bought the business with my dad in 1970."
Dick Sims was a carpenter and as well as putting in the wooden floor, he also built 30 wooden drawers with dove-tailed joints behind the counter during the 1960s. These are still in use today, along with a wall of tiny wooden drawers which look Victorian but in fact date from the same time and house all sorts of small items such as nuts, bolts, screws and nails.
"We even have nuts and bolts which use the old threads" says David, and I cannot begin to imagine where else you would find those today.
So have there been any changes over the years?
"We still have our loyal customers" says David "but our busiest time was when Biggleswade was an industrial town."
However, the shop has a constant stream of customers while I am in there, and David is never short of time for advice.
"Once upon a time all our stock was manufactured in England. Now it is manufactured abroad in places like China as all the English firms have disappeared. The shop used to get most of its agricultural tools from Birmingham and the Black Country. There were hundreds of firms at one time. Now there is only one, Bulldog."
One English company, Footprint Tools who were established in 1875 but stopped trading, are now re-stocking tools on a small scale.
"People tend to value cheapness over quality these days but where we can buy English tools, we do" explains David. "They are such good quality."
And in an age where the DIY superstore and consumerism is king, I can't help but feel we could do with a return to the old fashioned values that J.R. Goldthorpe & Son seems to have in abundance.
Photograph courtesy of Ken Page, BHS and David Sims
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Biggleswade
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
