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Hardware Stores
#21
just reading thro these i too remeber the hardware shop being know as bowlans,it had a wood place upstairs,and is now the Ethal Austin shop across from the chuch on Hough Lane
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#22
Originally, Bolan's just had the one shop, now a furniture shop, across from the Congregational Church. It was more of a plumbing supply and paint/wallpaper store than a hardware store. Joe Bolan was a Rotarian when my dad was.

In the early 50's, Bolan's bought out Cocker's, who had a shop on Towngate just towards the Cross from the Public Hall on the opposite side. Ann Cocker was in the same class as me at Fox Lane Junior School. There was a lot of angst about the sale on the Cocker side, as I remember.

I think Joe consolidated operations at the Towngate shop and sold the Hough Lane store in the mid-1960s. I do remember that the Damps considered Heaton's as their only competition in the hardware trade, so Bolan's couldn't have been too competitive with us!

Frank Damp
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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#23
It wasn't Bowlands it was Bolans and it was great, you could buy anything therequote:

Originally posted by kathryn

The hardware store that was on on Hough Lane was called Bowlands, owned by George Bowland. Damps was on Towngate. I don't live in Leyland and haven't done for seven years now, but I remember Bowlands well as I use to work on Hough Lane.
Much prefer living on the Cheshire/Shrophsire border these days.





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#24
Hi All

Bolans was situated where Ethel Austins is now, next to Walmsleys

Peter Houghton
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#25
The Hardware shop you are referring to was nam ed Bolands,it was a very good shop as you could buy practically anything there and have keys cut ,unfortunately Joe Boland passed away a few months ago
R.White
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#26
Ethel Austins, what sort of a shop is that ?
Heaton's hardware shop , at the cross, was a good shop, I bought the basics of married life there, a chip pan and a kitchen implement set, in 1962, the Prestige impliments ( made in Burnley ) are used everyday and still as good as new but the chip pan's been discarded. There was a limosine service next door to Heatons on Church Rd, I don't recall the name but I used their Humber Super Snipe for our wedding in 62.
Re chips, used to be chips with most meals, how eating habits have changed , the chip pan was discarded years ago , unfortunately !
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#27
Ethel Austins sell cheapish clothes for all the family of the basic variety,they also sell some accessories and at this time of year stocking fillers
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#28
Allen, Next to Heaton`s Hardware was, I think, Edwin Tomlinsons. It was one of the Tomlinson brothers timber businesses. Rdwin at The Cross, John up from the Library on what was the Rec, then Andrew which was at the bottom of King Street where the Vehicle Museum now is.

If my memory is right, Edwin Tomlinson used to do Funeral Undertaking, John Tomlinson was General timber yard work, and Andrew did a bit of domestic furnishings.

At the end of the War, each of the Timber Works had a fire. The one at the Cross was not too much, and soon out. John Tomlinsons at the Rec was spectacular. when you turned in from Church Road the heat across the Rec met you. An amusing feature of this fire was that there was a blazing gas main, which was covered with a sandbag, but one fireman kept taking it off for other uses, it all helped. We stood in Leige Road and watched the firemen pushing stacks of timber, which were beginning to smoulder, into the fire base. As I said, it was spectacular. The one at King Street was a danger to the Leyland Motors building as it was where finished vehicles were kept awaiting Customers Inspection before delivery was made, known as the C.I.D. Shop. Anyone able to sit in a vehicle and drive it away from the site was organised, they were all parked in Thurstan Road and Sumner Street, it could have been more serious but for prompt action.

This must have been around 1949/50 I think.

I`m sure Frank will be able to fill in here.
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#29
I remember watching the fire from the Rec. with my father and my sister.

Didn't one brave guy drive a truck out of the yard?
He burned his hands if I remember correctly.
T. D.
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#30
The Tomlinson's facility next to Heaton's on Church Road was where they had a wood machining facility (entry on Church Road), the undertaker's business (out back, access from the Rec) and a builder's yard, also out back on the edge of the rec. They sold finish-machined lumber and may have done some furniture and cabinet manufacturing there. That Tomlinson's place didn't have a fire, as far as I know.


We lived at number 7 Church Road, and the hearse garage and the garage for two of the builder's trucks were right behind our house. Number 7 eventually became a doctors' clinic (Dr. Hall, Dr. McDowell and Dr. Raven) and the upstairs part of the house was living accommodations for the Dean family. Mrs. Dean was the clinic receptionist.

Andrew Tomlinson was the founder of that company, and we used to see him around there quite a lot. He lived on Sandy Lane, across from the end of Victoria Terrace. His son Jimmy (later Councillor James Tomlinson) was the day-to-day person running the place. His yard foreman, Jimmy Hoddie, lived in the house next to the shop entry, I think. That would've been number 3 Church Road.

After the redeveloment of the Towngate/Cross area, Heaton's shop, Tomlinson's facility and all the houses between the cross and War Memorial were demolished, as were all the buildings along the east side of Towngate as far as the Public Hall. The funeral business was the only part of Tomlinson's that was kept up, and it relocated to somewhere down Broadfield. We had their Humber limousines for our wedding in 1964.
The Tomlinson's place on the north side of the rec (between the Library on Towngate and the Salvation Army (?) on Eden Street was John Tomlinson & Sons, I think. When it burned down, we hadn't moved to Church Road yet, we were still in Beech Avenue, so it was probably autumn 1950 or early 1951. My younger brother was born in Dec 49 and we moved to Church Road just before he turned two. We could see the flames from Beech Avenue and came down to the churchyard to watch. All the windows in that church building across from Tomlinson's yard were broken, and I think the fire brigade sprayed water on the front to prevent it catching fire from the radiated heat. I think the houses on the street to the north of the yard were also heat damaged.

The Tomlinson's on King Street may also have been John Tomlinson. That fire was nowhere near as big a deal as the other one, but I do remember the wall along Vevey Street being damaged and the tarmac on the footpath melting. The Leyland Garage service shop was also damaged. Tomlinson's sold out to C.& W. Berry not long after.


Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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