Forum menu
Old School Ironmong...
 

Old School Ironmongers and Hardware Shops.

Posts: 6933
Full Member
 

We’re still selling nails by the pound (OK, kilo) and to spend so time sorting them out as in the depths of time someone had put some 2” nails in with the inch-and-a-half’s! I can also confirm that 5 handfuls of 3/4” clout nails is about half-a-kilo 😀.

We get some of the best laughs when questioning customers (regular locals usually) about their strange combinations of purchases - bottles of drink, cable-ties and gaffer tape are surprising frequent!


 
Posted : 23/07/2023 12:24 pm
Posts: 8857
Full Member
 

<p style="text-align: left;">Used to be one in Chesterfield on Chatsworth road. Unfortunately the owner passed away a few years ago and it’s now some clothes boutique</p>

@jeffl - was just asking my mum about this last week, she needs a grub screw for her garage lock. My dad used to take me down there as a kid and spend (what felt like) hours staring at stuff. I was bored. But how I wish it was still there now. My memory of the old boy was just like a Ronnie's sketch.


 
Posted : 23/07/2023 8:52 pm
jeffl reacted
Posts: 2551
Free Member
 

Worley's Hardware Store in Rhydypenau, Cardiff often comes up with the goods when other places don't. Focussed on home and light gardening stuff. And, against stereotype, run by a very helpful asian guy.


 
Posted : 23/07/2023 10:36 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Latimers of Langholm

Jacks Ironmonger Lanark

Boa in Biggar

Lindsay in Golspie

or

https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/obituary-andy-scott-skilled-blacksmith-dedicated-to-preserving-crafts-traditions-3336640

https://www.bordertelegraph.com/news/selkirk/19505716.tribute-andy-scott-1931-2021/

T R Keddie still going in Selkirk, but in an old industrial unit now.


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 11:09 am
Posts: 7128
Free Member
 

Norton's in Uppingham.


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 11:43 am
Posts: 8401
Full Member
 

We had a great one in Newhaven when I lived there. Survived despite having a Do It All and a B&Q in the town. But I guess it couldn't also survive the advent of online shopping and now ironically it's the job centre

Brighton still has Dockerills, opened their first shop in 1915 mainly selling bicycles and spares, nice bit on their website about their history here

History (dockerills.co.uk) 


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 11:44 am
Posts: 2944
Free Member
 

I must have walked past Dockerills loads of times while living in Brighton and didn't even know it was there, probably because I was usually on the way home from the pub. Does the Mash Tun still have the Dead Pool board behind the bar?


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 12:05 pm
Posts: 340
Full Member
 

I used to work near Dockerills in the mid 90's, there were stories about a tunnel from their celler to the dome, apparently dateing back to the regency period when the royal stables were there.  I never did find out whether there was any truth in this.


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 1:28 pm
Posts: 7560
Free Member
 

<hr />

Some of the places I deal with are a bit of both/open to the public, the ones I mentioned above are.

My local hardware suppliers are all irrigator’s cooperatives. 10 years back they were a strange place to go in a way as they weren’t really geared up for household things, but they’ve pivoted (irrigation joke 😬) and now I can go in and buy anything from a culvert pipe to a tube of superglue.

They’re ugly as sin though. I miss the places I used to go with my dad as a kid where you got a brown paper bag with the exact number of bits and bolts you wanted.


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 1:31 pm
Posts: 384
Full Member
 

I remember Pollards in Bletchley, proper goldmine of a place.
Now my local hardware shop is the (locally) famous Towy Works.


 
Posted : 26/07/2023 1:34 pm
Page 3 / 3