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More about Woolworths

ziksby

ziksby

Old Malvernian
I was a Woolworth manager in the late 1960s (Dudley Road, Winson Green for my sins) ....
More villains in my store than in the prison. I was once mugged taking change to the bank, but fought them off. They fled empty-handed.

Anyway for interest, here is a mid 1960s list of Birmingham stores ....
The number denotes Woolworth store number ... listed in order of store opening (sorry I don't have dates).
Bull Ring 103
Aston Rd North 137
Cape Hill 170
New Street 266
Handsworth 299
Coventry Road 338
Bearwood 373
Erdington 389
Lozells 437
Saltley 447
Sparkhill 499
Kings Heath 554
Harborne 575
Acocks Green 593
Selly Oak 655
Lodge Road 660
Gooch Street 743
Northfield 749
Smethwick High St. 816
Shirley 819
Sheldon 848
Ladypool Road 872
Kingstanding 906
Yardley 908
Stratford Road 945
Lea Village 946
Aston High St. 948
Cotteridge 974
Dudley Road 977
Quinton 988
Bartley Green 1013
West Heath 1028
Kents Moat 1037
Perry Barr 1087

Further out of course there were stores in Solihull, Chelmsley Wood, Sutton, Mere Green, Wylde Green, Oldbury plus many more in the Black country.
 
Thanks for posting the list of Woolworth's stores in the Birmingham area.
I often wondered how many there were in the true Birmingham area.
It must have been quite a responsibility being a Manager at Woolworth's.
My main memories are of the branch in Erdington at High Street and Barnabas Road. My brother lives in Four Oaks so the one in Gracechurch was one I often shopped at when visiting him. It will be sad to return for a trip and see both those stores no longer there.
 
Happy Xmas to all!
Anyone have any knowledge or memories of the Saltley Woolworths as my elderly mother worked there -on the broken biscuit counter- in the 1930s!
gham
 
Ziksby was the Aston road north the Aston Cross branch only I worked as a Saturday girl in 1960?. Jean.
 
All I can tell you is that the address was 85 Aston Road North, a very old store probably opened in the 1920s.
Great to see a few ex FWW employees on this forum.
 
Hi and thanks for that. I stayed on at school and most of upper 6th worked there on Saturdays. I also had a paper round and worked a couple of hours after school at Claremonts bakery filling doughnuts with jam. Bye. Jean.
 
Maybe folks already know about this, but there is a Radio documentary about the Woolworths chain broadcast tomorrow night, Tuesday 30 December.

BBC Radio 2:10.30 - 11.30 pm.

Richie.
 
Thanks for that Richie-yes will catch that-sounds interesting. I've got this sentence going through my mind-what's Woolworths worth now? perhaps a broken biscuit or two?
Got affectionate memories of 'Woolies'- a part of British business and social history.
 
The stores in Erdington and Saltley are wonderful with their block wood floors.

The one in Erdington is in a prime position wonder what it will become.
Perhaps Argos,Erdington could do with one.
 
That block wood floor in the Saltley Woolworths might be original, I suppose
 
When I started as a trainee with Woolworths in Bromsgrove in 1961 I was a stockroom boy. Once a week I had to oil the wooden floor. There was a drum of oil kept in the stockroom and it was applied to the floorboards with a brush. Then it was covered in feldspar which soaked up the excess and that was swept up. This was a Saturday night job ... Doh!
 
gham, the Woolworths in Alum Rock Road, Saltley, ceased trading many years ago and was then an Asian store. I haven't been that way for a long time, and don't know what it is now.
 
The Woolworth's store in Erdington High Street had a wooden floor for years and years and I imagine someone had to clean it or keep it oiled by the method Ziksby mentioned. I think it was finally replaced in the early l960's.
 
Thanks for that Sylviasayers...yes Ziksby's list was for Birmingham Woolies' in the 1960s and I saw Saltley was there.
Only caught a bit of the radio programme on Radio 2 that was mentioned on this thread the other night but might go to the 'Listen again' feature of the BBC. It was a musical history of Woolworths and featured the 'sound-alike' individuals and groups who made recordings for sale in Woolworths of the big names like Tommy Steele and the Beatles. Brian Mathew was the presenter...
 
Can i add into this forum links to other sites which feature
Woolworths in its heyday, not just in the Midlands, but nationally and overseas as well? I'm thinking of photos which don't actually list the shops at all but by chance have a super shot behind a bus for example. The Woolworths own site doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment, but even they will not have on there the chance photos we spot while looking up other subjects.
 
Hi Richie, I'm always interested in looking at photos, postcards of Woolworth, so great if you can provide a few links. I had quite a collection of Woolworth ephemera some of which I sold on eBay but some I still have like the house magazines (The New Bond) from the 60s. I'll scan some of the Birmingham stuff and post it here.
The administrators have taken down the Woolworth museum site which was created by their archivist Paul Seaton, who I have had email contact with and who featured on the Radio 2 programme.

Woolworth of course were big toy retailers and although not prominent in Birmingham, I was involved with Zodiac Toys who had a branch in Chelmsley Wood. Anyone remember it? I'll post a seperate thread.
 
ziksby said:
Hi Richie, I'm always interested in looking at photos, postcards of Woolworth, so great if you can provide a few links. I had quite a collection of Woolworth ephemera some of which I sold on eBay but some I still have like the house magazines (The New Bond) from the 60s. I'll scan some of the Birmingham stuff and post it here.
The administrators have taken down the Woolworth museum site which was created by their archivist Paul Seaton, who I have had email contact with and who featured on the Radio 2 programme.

Woolworth of course were big toy retailers and although not prominent in Birmingham, I was involved with Zodiac Toys who had a branch in Chelmsley Wood. Anyone remember it? I'll post a seperate thread.
Click to expand...

Ziksby, just to reiterate: I'm specialising in those stores that are important to my memory such as in the 50's and 60's. So therefore its those places-wherever in the world-that had/have the original gold lettering on red or,at a push, the stand-out lettering that came in during the 1970's. Block flooring a bonus!

In which case, save for one or two exceptions, the major photo-album sites on the internet are too vast to scrutinize. I'm concentrating on those photos I HAPPEN to spot in my research work into cinemas and theatres, or genuine black-and-white photos where the original lettering existed at the time.

Actually, one exception starts the ball rolling. Its a 1960's photo of Bedworth in the East Midlands:-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/co-ophistory/3145043745

Richie.
 
Erdington

Taken today.
The shop had made up plastic boxes with various items in for £5. The boxes were sealed so you couldn't see what you were buying,a lucky dip box. Mine had xmas cards,printer paper,t-shirts,paint,lap tray,gloves,clock radio,king size sheet,glue,sellopape,out-door christmas lighting,ice packs,freezer bags to name a few!


It was weird knowing that today was the last day I would go to "WOOLIES".

It is so going to be missed.
 
I was in Woolies Erdington today, I had to come out, I felt like a Vulture picking at the bones :-(
 
I felt like that too must admit...but then my daughter said that they needed the money so why not spend it there.....
 
I walked past Woolworths in Torquay this morning at 11.30 a.m. The shop was closed and empty apart from the shop fittings. Notice on the windows said if you wanted a refund on anything bought there you would have to find a Woolworths still open.....
 
Richie,
Here's a link to a scan from the New Bond (FWW house journal) about the opening of Sheldon in 1969 after modernisation and extension.
[ame="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ziksby/3159536589/"]sheldon on Flickr - Photo Sharing!@@AMEPARAM@@https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/3159536589_370ef6d275.jpg?v=0@@AMEPARAM@@3159536589@@AMEPARAM@@370ef6d275[/ame]
And this is a photo of my own taken in Skegness in the summer of 1964 when I was on seasonal duty for 4 months having been transferred from Kidderminster. .... I have a Skegness cinema photo somewhere advertising the Beatles film. So here is Woolworth Skegness (Store 313, a number previously held by a London store bombed twice during the Blitz)
[ame="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ziksby/3160369470/"]Skegness1964 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!@@AMEPARAM@@https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/3160369470_0f9b57e832.jpg?v=0@@AMEPARAM@@3160369470@@AMEPARAM@@0f9b57e832[/ame]
 
Last edited:
OOPS!!!
Somebody help me please ... this was a copy/paste URL from flickr. What went wrong?
 
Richie,
You mentioned the 'gold lettering'. When I was deputy manager in Walsall during the late 60s we had the store repainted. I remember Head office sending the gold leaf for regilding the fascia letters. The sheets came registered delivery and had to be kept in the safe until the contractor came to work on the fascia. We had to return any unused gold leaf.
 
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