Farrands, Marsdens, Maypole, Dewhurst, VG, Vernons, etc


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When I was just a lad, late 50's, there was a grocers on Aspley lane called Farrands, apparently this was part of a chain around Notts, anyone know of more?

& if so where? Also there was another grocers chain in direct competition with Farrands, come on alll you ex delivery boys, shout up!!

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By Request then.............. Like all other aspects of my Teen years,at Marsdens,loved doing deliverys to customers on the Granville with big Basket..no gears and hardwork up the hills of Bestwo

Next delivery was Mrs Taylor....who lived 2 doors from me on Andover road  .......knew her all my life...even Babysat me when i was a little un....a very formidable lady had 5 kids all much older than

Last delivery to Mrs Timberlake...Hucknall road..... Morning Mrs T....Where you want me to put your Order ? Just leave it on the Hall Table Ben...How much is it ?  (she was a customer that p

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I think there was a Farrands on Broxtowe Lane, the row of shops above Bells Lane. Yup, there was, just checked the photo I have from Picture the Past. Freemans was right next door.

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Strange how shopping habits have changed.Marsdens/Farrands were medium sized grocery shops in the suburbs.Maypole.Home and Colonial,Meadow Dairies tended to be in town centers near the markets.But most numerous in those days were the Co-ops.

Mansfield Sutton and District had over 120 on every main road in the district.They all looked alike,two storied with mock Tudor fronts and the mandatory staircase going up to the first floor on the outside.They were all sold off years ago as the bigger supermarkets took over.

They can still be recognised by the exterior looks even nowadays.Tesco would have given their right arm for these properties nowadays to turn back into mini markets.Strange how Tescos have been so successful at doing that and the Co-op haven't. It must be down to poor management from the Co-op who don't seem to have caught up with the rest.

Two previous Co-ops...

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Thinking about those old names reminded me of a road on Clifton which had a great collection of them. Varney Road still has shops on it, but they've all changed hands many times since the 60s.

When I were a lad it had..... a Co-op; Sketchley cleaners; Marsden groceries; Reddifusion TV; Dewhurst butchers; Freeman Hardy Willis shoes; Boots chemist; Fourbuoys newsagents.

Not many of those names around today

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Trying to remember the Farrands branches...was Marsdens the same outfit?

I think Marsdens was the direct competition I referred to, if I recall correctly there was both Farrands & Marsdens within a few doors of each other on Denman street, Radford. (Red would know)

I remember the smell of these shops, hams, cheeses, & being fascinated by the large square biscuit tins with glass (plastic?) fronts, arranged at an angle so you could see the contents .............& drool............

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  • 3 weeks later...

How's this for ya mick2me? And how can I "hurry up and take your time"?

My first memory of Marsdens is around 1954. The shop was on Broxtowe Lane - just below Fords. It was a big shop with a wooden counter running the length of it, the assistants wore smiles and white buttoned up coats, and there was a tiled floor.

I was an 'errand girl' even at an early age and I recall coming out of Marsdens one Saturday morning and bumping into my Aunt Agnes and her friend Mrs Cumberpatch - both of them loaded with shopping they'd done on the lane (everybody back then did their 'big shop' on a Saturday morning). They invited me to walk home with them.

Walking up steep Dulverton Vale, Mrs Cumberpatch began struggling with her shopping bags so Aunt Agnes asked me to carry one for her - no use objecting, I was a child so had to do as I was told!

Aunt Agnes said goodbye before we reached the top of Dulverton Vale but I carried on with Mrs Cumberpatch to her house on Bells Lane where she rewarded me with a brand new sixpence. Carrying her bag wasn't so bad after all!

Next instalment: 'Farrands' up the road (1950's)

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What a wonderful photograph Cliff Ton - I could even be in it! Katyjay will love this.

I remember being around five and posting a letter in the post box outside Freemans and feeling really upset at the news that the farthing was going to be phased out - they'd told us at school that afternoon.

This is the Farrands I plan on doing a bit of a write up on. Broxtowe Lane was long and at the small island at the top (near the no.1 bus terminus) met Bells Lane; it continued flat on up to the Cocked Hat and even further.

Thanks for putting the photo on, I don't suppose you could get one of Marsdens at Bulwell Market (circa. 1960's) or one of Farrands on Hyson Green (the same time)? It would be wonderful if you could, photographs being great memory prompts. Christine

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I don't suppose you could get one of Marsdens at Bulwell Market (circa. 1960's) or one of Farrands on Hyson Green (the same time)? It would be wonderful if you could, photographs being great memory prompts. Christine

Christine, Judging from your comment, you probably don't know about this site http://www.pictureth...rg.uk/index.php which is where a lot of people on Nottstalgia find photos. When you click on the link, look across the top of their page, go to "Search the images" and you'll spend hours gazing at things you'd forgotten

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Cliff Ton, had a look at the site you suggested - brilliant but can't use for the time being.

Tomorrow, hoping to do a write up on Farrands - situated a bit below The Cocked Hat - so will have to refer to your reference 5 posts above. Christine

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TOP SHOPS

Back to your wonderful photograph Cliff Ton, circa: 1949 of Broxtowe Lane shops - Top Shops we called them. There's lots of children around, I note the girl with the pram outside Freemans. Back then older children would often be seen taking younger children for a walk in their prams or pushchairs - either their sibling or a neighbour's baby.

'Farrands' ran a chain of grocery shops back then. I recall the well polished brass handle with its brass plate below as I pushed open the shop door; the first thing that hit you as you entered was the smell of cooked meat - that smell comes back to me even as I write.

There was always a queue inside, people doing their regular Saturday morning shop. Behind a high counter, shop assistants wore smiles and clean white coats - ready to serve. When it was my turn - my shopping list in hand that my mum had provided me with - I'd ask for regular goods such as:

Peaches in a tin costing 1/6 (almost 8p these days), a pack of Kerry Gold Butter 1/6 (again, almost 8p these days) Salmon 2/6 - cheap back then - (almost 13p in today's money) and half a pound of cooked ham chosen from the attractive display behind the plastic fronted counter.

I well recall Christmas time when 'Fortune Cookies' were for sale and gazing with awe at packets of them displayed in the huge shop window.

Shopping done, I'd walk past the 'Sun Blest' bread shop - the smell passing was fresh and sweet. Usually a couple of tarts filled with raspberry jam were left in the window - absolutely dying to be bought. I'd go back at tea time when they'd been reduced and buy them cheap for the grand price of a penny.

Even as a child I watched the pennies. Christine

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Those shop assistants, mainly men if I remember rightly, must have walked miles a day back and forth getting things from our shopping lists, off the shelves behind them. They always wore a white or tan coat over their clothing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Farrands/Marsdens - as I recall they were both the same compant as Farrands had bought Marsdens in the early 50's - whe supermarkets started to dominate the scene and all the small grocers were closing down this compant closed both trading names and opened small supermarkets to replace them called Savemore. I used to shop in the one on Bulwell Main Street where Fultons is now almost opposite Royal Oak. The Measdow Dairy and Maypole etc belonged to a group called Allied Suppliers - they ran the grocery section in Gem for the first few years (now Asda - Loughborough Road. Farrands also were associated with Sheltons Grocers I recall.

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  • 1 year later...

Chris you bring the memories flooding back in the late 1950s my old man took me into Freemans and brought me 2 premium bonds when they first came out i have them to this day and won boggar all on them and i remember Marsdens shop at top of Broxtowe lane specially the bacon slicer and the wire with a wooden handle that they cut the cheese with Purdys paper shop with all the dinky and matchbox model cars on display in the window what would they be worth now Charlies barber shop where you could get a basin cut for 1 /6 Len Orchards beeroff where i went for my grans ale straight out the pump into her white jug Prestons hardware shop where we could buy a gallon of parafin and bundles of sticks and Whitings drapery where i had my first pair of jeans from then further along Broxtowe lane to Hadlums chip shop near the Cocked Hat ,every saturday i would make the journey from Bidford rd to the chippy and run back as fast as i could before they went cold x

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  • 2 months later...

Have just joined this website. We lived next door to Farrands Grocers (opposite the Methodist church on the corner of Aspley Lane and Melbourne Rd). Is this the one you mean ? I worked as a delivery lad (with a bike) for a while and remember weighing out the sugar into little blue bags and cutting butter up into small rectangles. Another memory is of the rows of slanting biscuit boxes in front to the counter - to the left as you went in.

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:biggrin:Tazraz @ #18, yours are wonderful and fluid memories so how come you're not posting?

Freeman's on Broxtowe Lane was one of the first supermarkets.

I recall being a schoolgirl of 7, a pupil at William Crane and we kids talking amongst ourselves that Freeman's had had some deep freezers installed and were now selling frozen foods.

This news amazed and intrigued us, so at home time some of us formed a group and took ourselves off to take a look in at this newly called 'Supermarket', to take a look in at the freezers.

No, we didn't have a penny between us but we stared in wonder at the frozen fish fingers and all the other frozen stuff - what an interesting outing that proved to be. :biggrin:

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:biggrin: You're an Angel Cliff Ton - now I can reminisce even better. :biggrin: How Beautiful the photograph, I notice the stamp machine at the side of the post box; this I would have forgotten if it hadn't have been for Cliff Ton kindly putting the image on).

PS: I don't always live in the past, I do get on with everyday living.

PPS: Some memories from the past remain sharp with me: the postbox outside Freeman's had an indentation of King George above the posting slit. I well recall posting a letter one morning and being very upset because we'd been told at school the previous day that the farthing coin was going to be scrapped - I may well have had farthing stamps on the letter I was posting.

I love my age; this March I'll turn 66 - what an achievement! Life: it's all about experience; I consider that I'm now at my summing up age. :biggrin:

PPS: Now to find out if Pooh Bear is well, being as he hasn't posted for some time.

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Welcome DickB, I'm an Aspley lad, born on Minver Cres', moved to 458 Aspley Lane, when I was 11, 1962 it was a 'double', we were posh!!

Before moving to Aspley lane, me mam would send me shopping at Farrands, trekking up & down Amersham rise, I loved those biscuit boxes with glass lids...................Custard creams, garibaldi's, Bourbons, pink wafers etc..............not much struck on the round ones with rows of 'pimples' on them??

Another shopping trip was the co-op, all in another thread, divi' number 105989, will take that bl**dy number to my grave!!

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Farrands, Marsdens, Maypole, Dewhurst, VG, Vernons, etc

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