The original “Lost Shops” list.

45 Responses to The original “Lost Shops” list.

1. Simon C says:

   13/12/2024 at 13:00

   Does anyone remember the fish and chip shop in Old Town, around 1966-67 called ‘Eat Wells’, I recall? Lived in Moreton Park (now Moreton Park Road) at the time and we used to stop there on the way home from 2nd Bideford Cubs. The guy who ran it looked a bit like Private Walker from Dad’s Army (the spiv) and was not the friendliest that I recall.
2. Mark Toms says:

   24/10/2024 at 20:51

   Does anyone remember a National Express travel office located on the quay in the 1980’s I cannot remember the name of this office.
3. Dan says:

   05/02/2024 at 21:44

   Hi,
   I’m looking for anyone who knows where Perkins & Son (florist) was located on the quay?

   My grandparents got married in bideford and have a picture outside the florists, I’d love to take my Grandfather there to show him what’s there now.

   Thanks in advance
4. Michael Rowe says:

   23/06/2023 at 10:28

   The three Mitchell’s bakery shops one at the top of the high street , one in the middle of mill street and one at the bottom of bridge land street my grandmother mrs Elsie lock used to work in all of them .
5. Jim Jilbert says:

   22/06/2023 at 22:04

   My parents moved to Bideford in 1957 from Exeter. We took over the gents hairdressers in Mill St opposite Lower Gunstone. Jilbert’s hairdressers and tobacconists. We lived above the shop and I went to school at Geneva. Sold to jewellers probably about 1967.I also remember a coffee bar at the top of High St called The Cat’s Whiskers.
6. Eliz. Blight says:

   20/06/2023 at 20:47

   First specs bought at Batemans (Bridgeland St). Hughes were at the top. Hubson Verity was in Mill St before it became Dolland and Acthinson. The now Oxfam was once Lady Fayre. With another posh dress shop further down Bridge St.
7. Elizabeth Blight says:

   20/06/2023 at 20:35

   In the 1970s I worked in Boots the Chemist at the bottom of High St., (Beside Grocery shop Home and Colonial) Then it became Scott’s bakery, then Specsavers before the recent fire. Boots moved further up High St on right hand side when it took over Timothy Whites. At the time my to be husband worked in Dingles cash and carry, East the Water and in laws bought us a barometer from Acourts the jewellers in Mill Street. My sister worked in Holman Ham chemist on the corner of High Street. There was Rawstrons chemists in Allhalland St and another Pullens in Mill St. Taylors chemist was where Gales toy shop was. Husband went to work at North Devon Farmers in1980s. Council were eager to develop the site (same state to this day 2023) so they temporary moved to the old UBM at East the Water before going up to new premises which is now BJs. Norman’s went in I think after NDF. He then went to work at South West Vets on the Pill. Other shops were Heywood and Cox, Goamans wholesale, North Devon Paints. First mortgage was from Western Countries Building Society that changed to Portman.
8. Colin Brown says:

   20/06/2023 at 15:42

   And don’t forget Cyril Petherick’s fishing tackle shop in Grenville Street. And technically Bartletts is still there as it merged with Bayly’s from Plymouth the Powell Duffryn Timber and now trades as Jewsons…..
9. Gavin Draper says:

   21/02/2023 at 00:17

   Also 11 Mill Street was a men’s clothes and shoe shop called misters and under Tony’s barbers was Indigo ladies clothes opposite Lamazone and 45 next to encore was Small wonders a clothes shop for kids. All owned by my parents Rose and Brian Draper. My dad also was the first to open the bar above the printers up lower gunstone called Bards ,jointly owned by fish monger Anthony Rutherford therefore the initials BARD,S.Not all shops didn’t leave a lasting impression especially for my local family.
10. JOHN LOUIS ROWSON says:

    16/01/2021 at 12:58

    WHO OWNED KINGSBURY FISHERIES IN MILL STREET IN 1960?
11. JOHN LOUIS ROWSON says:

    16/01/2021 at 12:57

    MY FATHER LOUIS ROGER ROWSON WAS MANAGER OF RON LAKE’S MOTOR CYCLE DEALERSHIP IN NORTH ROAD BIDEFORD FROM 1950 UNTIL IT WAS SOLD TO GODFREY SAMPSON, HE WAS ALSO A FIREMAN
    HE DIED IN 2005 AT THE AGE OF 87
12. Carole Caple says:

    17/11/2020 at 14:27

    I remember some of these shops, we used to live on the top floor of the Curry’s shop building in the High Street, opposite the tobacconists Finlays (now closed). I remember so many shops, the lovely stationery shop in Allhalland Street where I used to buy 1p Christmas cards, the little tobacconist and newsagent that opened just along from there on Sunday mornings after church for 15 minutes only! Does anyone remember the delicious pasties from Cleverdons? I wish I had the recipe for them, they were the best ever. My Mum used to work in Torridge Hospital opposite Baldy Fred’s grocery shop and Matchams post office where the old lady used to sit in her chair and watch us kids pile in to choose sweets or use the post office in the very dark corner of the shop. I remember the First in Last Out and the sweet shop opposite. I went to St. Mary’s Infants (by St Mary’s church) & then Junior School (Honestone Street) before going to Edgehill College. Anyone else on here from Stucley Road? Remember the Crawfords shop next to the lane to Clovelly Road and Twinaways?
    Good times!
13. Keith Williams says:

    28/10/2020 at 08:11

    I am not a native of Bideford but I hope I am permitted a few words.
    I spent some very enjoyable times in North Devon in the late 70’s and 80’s. I have some extremely fond memories of the area and of some very good friends.

    Madge’s Garage is on your list. I remember Cecil Madge well, we did some business occasionally.

    I was offered a very tempting job in Barnstaple in 1977. I eventually declined but the decision was a tough one. The area still has a soft spot in my heart.
14. Andrew Hutchings says:

    06/07/2020 at 19:29

    I’ve been looking into early Skoda cars of the 1960s (not the V.W. designed ones produced now) and have found that the motorcycle business run by Ron Lake in North Road, Bideford, was a Skoda dealer in 1964! Back in the 1970s I remember a motor accessory shop opposite the entrance to the Government offices & I wonder if this was the same premises…..
15. Alan Sturk says:

    29/05/2020 at 21:03

    In Mill Street near where the Co-Op now is there was a sweet shop. I think it was called The Chocolate Box. I remember it from the 1940-50’s.
    Was owned by Mrs Kivell.
    Nearby was a butcher shop; was it Locks? A boy from my class in Geneva
    (Baz Bailey) and later at the Tech in Barnstaple worked there until he suddenly died of peritonitus. That would have been in the 1960’s
16. Andrew Hutchings says:

    10/04/2020 at 20:26

    I’ve just looked over a few of the earlier comments on this site, and noticed the following:

    1/ Hutchings Electrical was my Father’s and Grandfather’s business!
    2/ The car sales business that was Bideford Dairies was (many years before that!) the engine shed for the Bideford, Westward Ho! & Appledore Railway!
    3/ “The Gannet” was the restaurant half-way up the High Street & I remember it well, as I do The Durrant House Hotel, in Northam.
17. Andrew Hutchings says:

    07/04/2020 at 08:44

    Does anyone remember Bideford Motors, on Torridge Hill. They were Audi & Volkswagen dealers in the 1970s and 80s. I worked there for a few years, learning the motor trade, before moving away. I expect they closed their petrol pumps when the Atlantic Way bypass opened, killing the petrol sales of garages in the town stone dead!
18. Patricia Beer says:

    06/11/2019 at 19:23

    Sandra clare, i hope this puts your mind at rest, the pub steak house half way up the high st was called the gannett, we use to eat there quite often,
19. Patricia McLaughlin says:

    09/08/2019 at 21:17

    I remember Gunner Philips scrap metal yard at Handy Cross, and next door a shop/flower nursery called ?Braund.
20. Patricia McLaughlin says:

    25/06/2019 at 09:15

    The steak house was, I think, The Gannet. Also there was a newsagent’s in Allhalland Street called Gill’s and a ladies dress shop with a very narrow entrance next to what was Trapnell’s, and The Gannet?
21. Sandra Clare says:

    02/05/2019 at 17:39

    In 1972 there was a pub/steak house about half way up Bideford High Street on the right. It was a very nice, quiet place to spend a few hours. It is driving me mad that I cannot remember the name. Anyone help please?
22. Sarah says:

    11/04/2019 at 20:12

    I lived in Bideford until 1968 and went to Edgehill school with the daughters whose families owned some of the shops mentioned – Janet Walters, Treena Derrigan and Robyn Trapnell
23. Sue Montgomery says:

    17/01/2019 at 14:37

    I remember Trapnell’s Department Store and Funeral Directors. This was my grandfather’s – Howard Trapnell and his sons Peter and David worked there too. As children we used to love seeing our grandfather greeting people with a carnation in his buttonhole put there by our Granny.
24. nick lee says:

    09/05/2018 at 21:25

    At the top of Bridgeland St just below Braddicks there was an optician’s. Think the old boy who ran it was called Price.
    Between Jacquemands and Leetes there was a small road that ran up to Bookers wholesale depot.
    Wouldn’t describe the Burton Art Gallery as ‘New to Bideford’ although it has grown a bit. I remember it years ago as having quite a few model ships carved by Napoleonic prisoners of war; assume they’re now in storage.
25. Bernard Merrick says:

    26/04/2018 at 22:53

    At the top of High Street there was Pickards Dairy (on right going up), and further up on left there was a grocer. This was in the ’40s.
26. Bernard Merrick says:

    26/04/2018 at 22:50

    In the ’40s there was a gents hairdresser in Mill Street, opposite Lower Gunstone and next to Mr Littlejohns photographic shop. Cannot remember the name unfortunately!
27. Bernard Merrick says:

    05/02/2018 at 23:00

    Two more just remembered. Stuart Turner Photography (bottom of Bridgeland Street and Mr Edwards sweet and tobacco shop in the middle of Old Town. Oh Yes! Mr Alford’s sweet and tobacco shop at the bottom of Clovelly Road, just after turning the corner from Meddon Street. Further up was Miss Hicks sweet and grocery shop on the right going up, just opposite the “First In, Last Out”. Four or five doors down from her lived a dairyman who, in the 40s, used to go around with a small cart hauled by a pony containing a churn of milk and filled bottles, capped them (cardboard tops) and delivered to our doorstep. What about the Co-op bakery in Old Town – shop and actual bakery – next door to commercial stables. Co-op used to deliver bread and cakes in a large horse-drawn cart. Next up from Madges Garage (there was a cottage in-between) was the Devon Creameries Bakery with a shop. The Bakery had been a garage before it was converted, if I recall. Opposite the top of Meddon Street was a Post Office run, when I was a small boy, by a Miss Seaton. Between the PO and Geneva Road was a grocery shop – now – was it called Taylor & Hooper? I’m dragging the memory now!
28. Bernard Merrick says:

    05/02/2018 at 22:41

    Have just found this site today (5th Feb 2018) and find no mention of my father’s glove factory at the end of The Strand. It was W.E. Gloves and was there from 1940 until sometime in the 1960’s. Also Hooper’s the Estate Agents in Mill Street?? The was a little corner shop in Royston Road run by Mr Jewell while I went past on the way to Grammar School during the late 40’s , early 50s.
29. William Grant says:

    06/05/2017 at 20:57

    My grandparents Erny and Olive Blackmore ran a clothes shop at 12 North Road.
    They made a lot of clothes on site.
30. Faith Greenfield says:

    16/01/2017 at 19:04

    Does anybody remember Pats Bakery in Northam, North Devon. A lost shop.
    I am trying to trace the recipe for their Cut Rounds which my Granny used to buy from them and serve with jam and cream – jam on first! – this was in the early forties but they were probably there much longer.
    I’ve tried several recipes but they are not how I remember them. I feel that the name cut round probably refers to the shape of the roll, rather than the flavour.
    Please can anybody help?
31. Malcolm Harvey says:

    17/06/2016 at 23:42

    Don’t forget Geneva School, which I attended, is now closed and Cordings were on Mill Street and the Quay. Nicklins Music store was in Mill Street and there was a pub across the bridge to the right on the right hand side of the road which backed onto the railway line, but can’t remember the name. The railway sidings were farther along bthe road on the left hand side, now a housing estate.
32. Malcolm Harvey says:

    17/06/2016 at 23:17

    I worked at Leetes for five years and I didn’t know what they made! I was an apprentice with them, but only managed two years before they closed, and don’t forget Geneva School which I attended is now closed. Cordings outfitters were in Mill Street and on the quay, my dad was manager of Cordings on the quay.
33. colin brown says:

    02/04/2016 at 09:55

    Don’t forget MacFisheries in the High Street,on the right hand side down from Bromleys cafe.
34. steve fowler says:

    25/11/2015 at 06:36

    Hi I remember my mother taking me to Gales toy shop, Mill Street. My mother lived under the bridge in Torrington Lane, by the name of Schillers. Good days.
35. michael sheppard says:

    03/02/2015 at 20:15

    I remember a small bakers shop just above Madges garage in Clovelly road and and Captain Marshalls which became Twinaway stores with Catsall lane behind, which lead to a farm – now a housing estate. I used to go to school across the fields until the Pynes lane/Highview estate was built. I remember well taking my shoes to Mr Taylors for repair and taking our accumulator to Mr Vanstone on Clovelly road for recharging, and paid the princely sum of 6d for a fully charged one !. I wonder how many remember Mr Scarborough the PE teacher at Genva? I nearly spiked his foot with a javelin when the wind changed, he was not amused ! and I remember well his moustache bristling wildly as he told me off.
36. Richard Vellacott says:

    18/10/2014 at 23:13

    There was also “The Knitting Box” at 1 Pitt Lane, which moved down to 35 Mill Street and became “Vellacott’s Wools”. I remember them well – they were owned by my parents and I grew up above them!
37. Frances Harding. Nee Littlejohns says:

    18/05/2014 at 16:38

    Lost shops there was also Order Office for HA&EJ Littlejohns coal business between
    Blanchards shop and my parents photography studio/shop Mill street Studio

    When it went I do not know ,after I left town !

    I do enjoy reading the Buzz ,brings back memories thank you
    Frances Harding
38. nick lee says:

    13/05/2014 at 15:04

    Road Freight Repairs, New Road.
    Mitchells Transport, New Road.
    Bus Office / Waiting Room, The Quay.
    Bus Depot (Mainly Southern National), Bank End.
    Astburys Stationary Shop, Chingswell St.
    Bill Milton’s Grocery Shop, Hight St (opp Liberal Club).
    Bookers (I think) wholesale depot behind Jacquemands
    Devon Concrete Works, Bank End.

    The guy who owned the sweet shop halfway up Pitt Lane was called Mr Curtis and Leetes manufactured amongst other things bullet casings (my father had the transport contract with them in the 1970’s.
39. Jonathan Frayne says:

    07/02/2014 at 15:15

    You have listed Fraynes Stores as a lost shop on the High street. I think this would have been my grandmother’s grocery shop. Originally the shop was a double entry and the other shop that shared the threshold was her husband, Roy’s, pork butcher’s shop. Also called Frayne’s but a Pork Butcher’s. The double entrance has now gone and the two shops are now one (a firm of accountants) opposite the entrance to Grenville Street.
40. Tony Morris says:

    14/12/2013 at 19:15

    Another one was Charles Morris & Sons Ltd, Abbotsham Road.
41. kenneth beer says:

    04/07/2013 at 13:21

    Perhaps the hardware general store that Di Walker refers to was Stevens and Brains.
42. Di Walker says:

    14/06/2013 at 13:02

    This list has bought back so many memories of my youth, when I used to help my mother with shopping errands. What a pity so many are gone.
    I would like to add Pats the greengrocer in Mill Street, also Little the greengrocer. There was also a Hardware general store half way up High street which I can not remember the name now.
    There was also Pats the baker who was at the top of Bridgeland Street for a time.
43. Andrew Hutchings says:

    22/05/2013 at 15:08

    As a child of Bideford I also remember a builder’s merchants behind where Elliotts Garage now stands, called Rawle, Gammon & Baker. The building was built on stilts (if memory serves) and sold all manner of building materials.

    I think one drove into their yard via a side entrance between Elliotts and J. Leetes premises. Leetes were an engineering company, I believe, but I never knew quite what they made…

    Memories!!!
44. Jane Cooper says:

    11/04/2013 at 12:51

    Wasn’t there also a Colwells (or Colwill) delicatessen – he was also Mayor in the 70s
45. carol king says:

    11/03/2013 at 15:26

    More lost businesses

    Mrs Langs, general store, North Road.
    DAWES general store, High Street.
    Sweet Shop, corner of Elm Grove.
    Sweet shop/Haberdashery, top of Gunstone/ Coldharbour.
    Sandras Music shop, Allhalland Street.
    Armada Cafe, Chingswell Street.
    Francis Flower Shop.
    Butterworth Dairy, Royston Road.
    Ashley Dairy, opposite Geneva School.
    Des Taylors Gents Hairdresser, corner Meddon Street and Clovelly Road.
    Chumleys, Old Town.
    Ponderosa, Queen Street.
    Chicos, next to Bus office ( I think it was previously called ? Ice cream parlour).
    Devon Creameries, Quay.
    Pickards Dairy, High Street.
    General Store, Bottom of Littles Hill /Lime Grove( owned by two ladies).
    LLOYDS Gallery, High Street.
    My old hairdresser’s – (Carol Anne ),Moreton Park.
    Aquarius Night club ( now the British legion), High Street.
    Jon Browns
    Leetes ( morrisons now).
    Sudburys Gloves.
    Jaqumans (Morrisons)

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