Old School...

solosuperia
solosuperia Posts: 333
edited January 2014 in The cake stop
Earlier today needed 4 screws 2.5 ins long and a narrow gauge. Where can I get those? Suddenly clicked, in the small market town about three miles away is an "old school" ironmongers. It is jam packed with everything, hardly anything pre-packed in plastic. Rolled along there, got the screws I need 5p each, placed in a small paper bag and a chat! B&Q would have been a packet of 20 for £9.99 and a fight with the self service till.

Made me think are there any old school bike shops still around? Frames hand built on the premises. Pile in there after a training run for a cup of tea and a chat. "While you are drinking that cup of tea can you mend that puncture" as you are handed the wheel of a kids bike. Which truth be told was the shops bread and butter.
Perhaps shouldn't say this but as amateurs couldn't accept cash, but could exchange an invoice for bike bits for cash!
so had a pile of blanks from the LBS ready to fill in at the drop of a hat.

Can't imagine the same thing happening today....... Please prove me wrong.

Comments

  • arran77
    arran77 Posts: 9,260
    Don't know about bike shops but we have an ironmongers in our town just like the one you describe, been trading over a hundred years, it's great, they sell everything :mrgreen:
    "Arran, you are like the Tony Benn of smut. You have never diluted your depravity and always stand by your beliefs. You have my respect sir and your wife my pity" :lol:

    seanoconn
  • MattC59
    MattC59 Posts: 5,408
    W.L. Brown Ironmongers, Pershore, Worcestershire.

    Fantastic old school shop, you can get anything you want there. It's been going a hundred years or so, I used to work there 25 years ago :D
    Science adjusts it’s beliefs based on what’s observed.
    Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,088
    MattC59 wrote:
    W.L. Brown Ironmongers, Pershore, Worcestershire.

    Fantastic old school shop, you can get anything you want there. It's been going a hundred years or so, I used to work there 25 years ago :D

    Warning: way off topic.
    ' e bee's a Woocessetershyre boy! My great uncle owned the cider house in Hambledon. My great huncle also got Liver Cirrhosis and had to retire early. Funny that.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • Peddle Up!
    Peddle Up! Posts: 2,040
    MattC59 wrote:
    W.L. Brown Ironmongers, Pershore, Worcestershire.

    Fantastic old school shop, you can get anything you want there. It's been going a hundred years or so, I used to work there 25 years ago :D

    Fantastic place. I remember going in as a kid and playing with the pile of shotgun cartridges next to the paraffin dispenser. :shock: Good old Graham.
    Purveyor of "up" :)
  • Peddle Up!
    Peddle Up! Posts: 2,040
    pinarello001 wrote:
    MattC59 wrote:
    W.L. Brown Ironmongers, Pershore, Worcestershire.

    Fantastic old school shop, you can get anything you want there. It's been going a hundred years or so, I used to work there 25 years ago :D

    Warning: way off topic.
    ' e bee's a Woocessetershyre boy! My great uncle owned the cider house in Hambledon. My great huncle also got Liver Cirrhosis and had to retire early. Funny that.

    Sigh. The Monkey. The Mill. Where are the fermented apples of yesteryear?
    Purveyor of "up" :)
  • Graculus
    Graculus Posts: 107
    Doney and Hancock in Cornwall (no longer trading, sadly) was straight out of the Two Ronnies Fork Handles sketch. I needed a C clip to mend fix something and only had to buy one. They had stuff 'filed' in big wooden drawers - there was even one for walking stick feet :)
  • Lookyhere
    Lookyhere Posts: 987
    Did they ever exist? maybe a modern equivalent would be Riccis down in west Cornwall, he s real old school, make you coffee, take your money and make you feel grateful for it :) and all at Wiggle or cheaper prices :)

    Trewarthas in Callington, a hoch poch of bricabrac, if you ve old pumbing in your house then this is place for spares! and they still manage to sell screws for 5p each...just a lot of them!
    they used to sell crow scarers, super loud bangers on slow burning rope, great for blowing things up :)

    good old Doneys, like an iron mongers in someones front room !
  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    Aladdins Cave in Bury. Sells all manner of household stuff/screws/lamps etc for pence. If they haven't got it you don't need it :D
    M.Rushton
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,088
    Thyere was a huge shop in Eeeeestbaaaawn on Seaside Road called Ebeneezers Emporium. The emtrance was into a tiny little front room. You would go in and he (this diminutive little man who said very little and was presumably called Ebeneezer) would go out 'the back' for what always seemed an inordinate length of time.
    He almost always had what you wanted. I bought a teapot for 75p from him once (in the nineties, so no silly jokes Sean et al).
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • arran77
    arran77 Posts: 9,260
    pinarello001 wrote:
    Thyere was a huge shop in Eeeeestbaaaawn on Seaside Road called Ebeneezers Emporium. The emtrance was into a tiny little front room. You would go in and he (this diminutive little man who said very little and was presumably called Ebeneezer) would go out 'the back' for what always seemed an inordinate length of time.
    He almost always had what you wanted. I bought a teapot for 75p from him once (in the nineties, so no silly jokes Sean et al).

    A teapot for 75p you say, really???

    :P
    "Arran, you are like the Tony Benn of smut. You have never diluted your depravity and always stand by your beliefs. You have my respect sir and your wife my pity" :lol:

    seanoconn
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 60,604
    arran77 wrote:
    pinarello001 wrote:
    Thyere was a huge shop in Eeeeestbaaaawn on Seaside Road called Ebeneezers Emporium. The emtrance was into a tiny little front room. You would go in and he (this diminutive little man who said very little and was presumably called Ebeneezer) would go out 'the back' for what always seemed an inordinate length of time.
    He almost always had what you wanted. I bought a teapot for 75p from him once (in the nineties, so no silly jokes Sean et al).

    A teapot for 75p you say, really???

    :P
    Scottish haggling skills are legendary.
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,088
    In Scotland, if I told them that I paid 75p for a teapot, they would say that I was robbed.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • mm1
    mm1 Posts: 1,063
    Lookyhere wrote:
    Did they ever exist?

    Yup, they did Dave Russell's in Slough. Spent many happy hours talking nonsense with Dave and he built me a gorgeous Reynolds 653 frame.
  • arran77
    arran77 Posts: 9,260
    pinarello001 wrote:
    In Scotland, if I told them that I paid 75p for a teapot, they would say that I was robbed.

    No, in Scotland if they knew you drank anything other than Special Brew they'd lynch you :P
    "Arran, you are like the Tony Benn of smut. You have never diluted your depravity and always stand by your beliefs. You have my respect sir and your wife my pity" :lol:

    seanoconn
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,088
    arran77 wrote:
    pinarello001 wrote:
    In Scotland, if I told them that I paid 75p for a teapot, they would say that I was robbed.

    No, in Scotland if they knew you drank anything other than Special Brew, McEwans Export, Whisky, Irn Bru, Ditch Water, Concorde, Mad Dog 20/20 and the blood of Englishmen they'd lynch you :P

    FTFY
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!

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