Old Shops

[harrier]

There doesn't appear to be a thread specifically on the old shops in Keighley ... apologies if I am wrong. So to get it going .... about 1950 there used to be a fur shop at the bottom of Cavendish Street, across a narrow ginnel from the Victoria Hotel. It was a one woman business run [managed?] by my aunt, sometimes helped by my mother when there was a rush of fur coat alterations to be done quickly. The front was a sparse shop with a couple of models draped in fur coats and fox collars, all very neat and tidy as befitted such a 'class' shop! But the back room was complete chaos with tables piled high with different types of fur pelts, heavy duty sewing machines to cope with the stitching of the leather and the floor littered with off cuts and fur scraps which me and my sister were allowed to collect and keep - I soon became an expert in identifying the many animal pelts that ended up in the shop. The furs were so luxurious to a couple of kids.
As a youngster I was so impressed by all the posh people who seemed to frequent the shop, including the members of the Keighley Parish Church Hiking Club ( ??) who seemed to use the back room as a drop in shop for coffee! They all talked as posh as the customers ... or so it seemed to me!!
When my aunt married she and my uncle lived in the flat above the shop - once my sister and I were confined in there for about four days when we were about 4 or 5 years old as my mother and father were away in Nottingham attending my granny's funeral.

[fsharpminor]

The Cavendish St shops I remember most from the 50's and 60's were Reids books, Burns music shop, Keith Howarths photo studio, and of course Willis Walkers (By the Fell Lane bus stop)