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old laws

  • Thread starter Thread starter jake
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jake

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if my mind serves me right in the fifties/ sixties, you could only buy ciggs or tobaco from a licenced shop, mainly newsagents, i remember the licence being over the door just like an off licence does now, when did they relax the licence law, also only news agents shops were approved to sell the news paper,newspaper company's would not supply any one else, now every tom dick or harry can sell almost anything, there's no regulation of goods any more, those were the day's when you had speciality shops.
 
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My mother kept a small shop and i remember she had an enameled sign over the door : "Licenced to sell Milk" & "Licenced to sell Tobacco" this was pre WW2 and if you opened on a Sunday you were restricted by The Sunday Trading Act one thing you could not sell was Salt!, i don`t know when these licences were discontinued. Len.
 
In the mid 1970s fish and chip shops (in Leeds anyway) could sell chips on a sunday but were not allowed to sell fish. Again, i don't know when this altered.
Mike
 
IM not sure But I think some of the licensing varied according to bye laws relating to different areas I do remember some of the signs above shops some of the bye laws may still be on the statute books as for specific dates somone might know
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When I went into business in September 1965 the tobacco licence had already gone but we did need a licence to sell ice cream and of course petrol, other than that we had to be careful what we sold on Sundays, the Sunday trading laws were a pain, you could sell a newspaper but not a bible, fresh vegetables but not canned and so on. We were also obliged to have half day closing one day every week.

I can remember Bristol Street Motors tried to force a change by opening Sunday for car sales but the Birmingham council dumped them in court pronto, they were hit with a small fine and defied the law by opening again and were again fined, a bit more this time, the third time the judge hit them with a fine of about £5,000 and told them if they came before him again it would be £50,000 so they caved in.

Thank goodness most of that's behind us now but there still remains some control with shops being restricted to how many hours they can open on Sunday. E.
 
Yes Eric there were some strange laws for Sunday ie: you could sell a fresh cabbage but not buy salt to add when cooking it, seemed that if what sold was perishable it was ok, tinned food was not allowed to be sold, fresh fish yes, tinned fish no, most people bought sterilized milk because in did`nt go sour as quick as pasteurised there were not many home fridges or shop fridges until after circa 1950?. Len.
 
When I was a Hackney Carriage owner driver in the eighties, I believe it was still an unused law that we should carry food for the horse. It was widely believed that this law had never been recinded. Is that the correct word?
 
a taxi driver who refused to take a fare, because the journey was to short has been fined £715 he broke a 1847 hackney carriage law when he would not drive the lady half a mile which would have cost £4, he told her to get the bus. read it in today's sun almost a full page, just shows how there are so many hidden and almost forgotten laws out there, as if we did not have enough anyway.
 
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