We will take an imaginary shopping expedition to Furness Vale.
We have had plenty of shopkeepers in the village. There are over 30 addresses, although not all of these traded at the same time and some closed many years ago. How many can you remember?
At one time, there were two fish and chip shops as well as a fishmonger. We had a tailor, a milliners, dress shops and a candle maker. There was even a clockmaker at Ringstones.
Who can remember the undertaker with his stock of coffins lining the wall and the hearse waiting to perform its duties?
Do you remember the wool shop with its colourful window displays. Many women knitted in the past and this craft is again becoming popular. I’m told that even men are learning so it’s a shame that it closed. There were always drapers and haberdashers because so many clothes were hand made.
Every shop had it’s own distinctive aroma, whether that of freshly sliced bacon or newly baked bread, paraffin at the ironmongers or earthy potatoes at the greengrocers. Many of these businesses would have mahogany counters and fittings, always well polished. Colourful sweets arranged in gleaming jars to tempt the eyes of youngsters and weighed out a quarter at a time. Some of us will remember when flour and sugar and sometimes butter was weighed out to order and packed in a blue or white bag.
We’ll hear of Reuben our travelling yeast dealer, of two ghosts, a pub with two names, closed because of disorderly conduct and finally we’ll take a boat trip to the tea rooms.
We are going on a tour of the shops and pubs of Furness Vale.
We will start at the southern end of the village at a house called Hollins View, which stands in front of the old quarry. There was never a shop here but if you needed your shoes soled and heeled in the 1940’s, a cobbler worked from a shed in his back garden.
