I mean proper ones, where you can get realy old stuff that B+Q just don’t have. Like grate bars for an old Rayburn. Or imperial nuts and bolts, axe handles, grappling hooks! and ‘modern’ showers from the turn of the 20/ 21 century.

Locally I offer Mills Hardware in Ammanford and Romero’s on Station Rd, Llanelli. Both are always friendly and brilliantly helpful. Romero’s window display currently includes more than one type of Tomahawk, multiple axes and hatchets and a katana type sword. Mills’ shop has not changed the window display in all the time that I can recall. I’ve lived here for over twenty years. The shop is bare boards and smells of creosote, oil and wood and is blooming fantastic. Mrs Mills still occasionally appears, like a matriarch overseeing her kingdom but nowadays it is almost always her son serving.

But the best, the very, very best in the county surely has to be Towy Works, The Quay, Carmarthen. I mean, for goodness sakes even the address is cool. Park at your peril on a high tide…

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Proper hardware stores have ‘that’ smell. Just don’t get it anywhere else.

I always remember the one on Lark Lane, the Guy who ran it had 2 jokes which he would use at every opportunity. If you asked him to deliver a big bag of cat litter he’d say ‘If your not in i’ll put it through the letter box’ and if you asked for nails it was ‘ what do you think this is, an ale house?’

convert – Member
Proper hardware stores have ‘that’ smell. Just don’t get it anywhere else.

Similar to old-fashioned car spares/repairs places. There was one round the corner from me growing up (Motorways, to which Sideways Cycles is attached), my dad loves tinkering with cars and engines and is good friends with the owner, so we used to go there a lot. The smell is like a mix of WD-40 and new tyres, it’s very relaxing 🙂 always puts me in mind of fettling/tinkering/pottering around in the garage.

I went in my grandparents garage for first time in years last week to get a ladder to clear their gutters out the smell instantly took me back to being a kid making stuff in there with my gramp using his ancient tools to make bows and arrows and drilling holes in old bikes to attach stuff to..

Amazingly what smells can do, but that is basically an hardware shops smell lots of old wooden tools and grease probably made of stuff very bad for you

Cabinet Supplies in Union Street, Plymouth . . . . an Aladin’s cave of bits and bobs, established in 1928 and thankfully still going strong.

I started reading that and immediately thought….Towy Works.

I miss being able to buy just 3 small screws in a paper bag… 🙂

The Period House shop in Ludlow has similar charms(though not cheap!)

Lots and lots of boxes with all kinds of interesting latches and knobs and hand-forged hooks and things. Lovely.

Not a hardware shop but…

Bills Tools is the gorbals is pretty special.

The one in peebles is properly shit which is a dissaointment.

Mines is brilliant, bought a 34cm cast iron skillet about 10 years ago for 7 quid, it’s one of my best ever bits of kitchen kit, will definitely outlive me!

Absolutely. Everywhere I have lived there has been a proper local hardware store. Small shop, rammed with stock and an owner with proper knowledge.

Cornerstone of civilised society, f’sure.

My dad moved down to the south coast aged 70 (after splitting with my mum)

He decided on Bexhill largely due to the awesome hardware shop

Now we go there every time I visit 😀

The Country Store aka ..Broons Bits in Bellingham ..if they haven’t got it they will get it for you ..spot on!

Two great shops near me.
Pecks, just outside Ely. An agricultural store. I can go there planning to buy an air filter for my chainsaw, and end with combine, or a quad bike, or an electric fence.
In Cambridge, there is Mackays. A real hardware store, with an amazing selection of nuts and bolts.

Hollins of Marple. If you ask for something, they will usually give you directions to the exact shelf.

Our local hardware Shop and Museum

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M C Mills Barnsley – If they’ve not got it you don’t want it.

I used to work in one as a Saturday job from 13 through to 18. Was great solving customers problems with various bits of woods, screws etc. Unfortunately some arsonists burnt it down about 5 years ago and they replaced it with a co-op!

Absolutely. Everywhere I have lived there has been a proper local hardware store. Small shop, rammed with stock and an owner with proper knowledge.

Yep, there’s a small-ish hardware shop just round the corner from me and it’s run by a guy who knows the exact location of every single nut, bolt, bulb, random car part and paintbrush in the place.
Proper Aladdin’s Cave of “stuff”.

Yates in Malton – get just about any nut or bolt known to man and everything from a five bar gate to a fridge to a bike to a haircut! A proper old-style country store.

In Skipton there’s the Tool Box and in Silsden there’s Paul’s. In Crosshills there’s The Handyman which is less tool oriented but even the young lasses there know their stuff.

There used to be one in Ulverston on King St – the guys could tell bolt threads apart – “You’ll be needing a 5/8ths Whitworth for that”

Its been over 20 years now since I lived in Cambridge, but I still miss Mackays. Everything was on display, so you could fondle the tools(!) before buying. Most hardware shops seem to keep everything hidden away and you have to go and ask for it and then stand over you while you perv take a look.

Great thread!

For the Northerners on here, I would flag Fletcher’s Hardware in Waterfoot.

My dad, who stripped and re-built by hand the entire interior of his stone terrace in Shawforth, used Fletcher’s regularly. Not only were they excellent, after my dad died, they gave my brothers and I a discount in his honour. Typing that makes it sound insignificant, but it really meant something.

In any case, it’s the kind of place where you can get advice on anything, and buy even the small things in small quantities.

Oh come on! Someone had to put it on here… 😀

[video]http://youtu.be/gi_6SaqVQSw[/video]

The one in Bala, my memory may be swayed by the fact I went to get maths so it resulted in a bacon sandwich by the lake.

goldings bedford and they do toys & airfix at the back. It has an old creaky wooden floor and a distinctive smell.

Whitestone – my eldest nephew had a weekend job in Yates, from the age of 14 – 18. To save up for his university education.

Love mooching around hardware shops and the most awesome one I’ve ever visited was in the Welsh borders.

Pics:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x487003c44de711f9%3A0x2f83bc7c8ae58ab3!2m17!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e6!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e5!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Fsredir%3Funame%3D115828592087069381095%26id%3D6502783909480476386%26target%3DPHOTO&imagekey=!1e3!2s-2Gzf9JVYqAc%2FWj6Hgy-1ruI%2FAAAAAAAAG60%2FFoOBLMwbJoABif1soquPmAGzj5K9lM24wCLIBGAYYCw&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBlMe6v-7YAhWnKcAKHbObAQQQoioIeDAK&activetab=main

Hmmm, don’t think that link is working. 🙁

Bills Tools is the gorbals is pretty special.

Not as good as it used to be, though – too much new rubbish, not enough old MoD stuff for pennies 😉

Crocketts used to be brilliant. Going up to the counter with a note of exactly what I wanted, to be told “No, that’s not what you want, you want these instead” by the elderly lady behind the counter.

Small town USA still has great hardware stores. Once went into one looking for a metric bolt (helping my uncle fix his European car) and the guy behind the counter had the most amazing gormless look on his face.

bencooper – Member
Bills Tools is the gorbals is pretty special.
Not as good as it used to be, though – too much new rubbish, not enough old MoD stuff for pennies

Thats true actually for years i went in and saw the vices. Then when i needed one… Nae MOD ones!

Crockets i used occassionally has it gone?

The one in Bala, my memory may be swayed by the fact I went to get maths so it resulted in a bacon sandwich by the lake.

Yes, I remember the Bala one. We also used to get pyjamas for the nippers from the nearby factory shop.

Last year on the way to Aberdyfi we stopped at Montgomery where there is an old fashioned, huge and seemingly prosperous ironmonger. I lusted over a PZ4 screwdriver. Never seen one before. Might go back this year just to look at it again.

When choosing a holiday destination, I want to see if there is a proper ironmonger (ferreteria) there. 2 reasons – I like to replace my metric-only tape measures, and if there isn’t an ironmonger then it’s just a holiday hell-hole with no real locals living and working there, except those in the tourist trade. Yes, Venice and Seville, I’m looking at you.

Justnoticed my glasgow geography fail.

The one in Stockbridge gets my vote was there not a thread about it before where the guy kicks you out the door still with your cash in your hand with your tail between your legs

Castles in Christchurch if down south, staff still in brown coats and little wooden drawers full of stuff. When I lived in Reading years ago there used to be one with a giant spanner up on the wall outside that said King Dick on it which always made us smile.

we stopped at Montgomery where there is an old fashioned, huge and seemingly prosperous ironmonger. I lusted over a PZ4 screwdriver. Never seen one before. Might go back this year just to look at it again.

BigJohn that’s the shop I was trying to link to, Bunners. Spent a good half day exploring in there!

My favourite was Sinclair’s Emporium in Kirkwall, Orkney. The ‘shop’ was housed a series of wartime Romney sheds.
It was like one of those frontier supplies emporiums where you could buy gold panning equipment, a tent, a stove and food for your mule. It smelt of coconut mats, tarpaulin and paraffin. It had tools, plumbing fittings, a glazier, blacksmiths ‘shop, tractor parts. paint, just about everything you could ever need. Nothing was on computer, the guys knew where to find the most obscure requests. They would put things on he ferries to the Northern Isles too.

Sadly it closed and there was a surplus sale at the auction mart. You could buy a pallet of wheelbarrow inner tubes for £10. I overheard someone say their stock control was poor. They told the tale of an order of wheel barrows that filled an artic truck. It took twenty years to sell them all.

redmex – Member
The one in Stockbridge gets my vote was there not a thread about it before where the guy kicks you out the door still with your cash in your hand with your tail between your legs

Corsons

https://citythreepointzero.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/corson-the-rules/

Clerkenwell Screws is a fantastic shop

joshvegas – Member
Not a hardware shop but…

Bills Tools is the gorbals is pretty special.

The one in peebles is properly shit which is a dissaointment

As is your typing…. 😉

Crookes Hardwear in Crookes in Sheffield is pretty good, you get the sense the guys who run it are actually bothered about supplying the local community with things to help them with towards maintaining their home. You can buy singular or a few nuts and screws in a paper bag if you want from there, and bike lights, and anti-mould spray for the bathroom.

It’s too small to have ‘everything’, but it’s got most things.

as is your typing

Not sure why thats relevant. I’d say that was one of my more coherent posts!