ISSUE 6 – MARCH/APRIL 2015 – FREE
Terry and his four-legged rat catcher Arnie Behind the scenes of Broad Street’s Poyners Football memories from barman Gary Ludlow Smokehouse Liz runs rings around Ludlow Handmade hideaways Henry V reviewed
“Margaret has to take herself into the children’s department... until the lady who just bought the big knickers announces that she’s off to buy a sausage” ONE of the great attractions of BBC period dramas is the fact that, for a short time on Sunday evenings, it’s possible to immerse yourself in a world where porters carry luggage to the train, a new ribbon is cause to throw a party, and spam isn’t emails extolling the benefits of Viagra. From Downton Abbey and Cranford through to Call the Midwife, the period drama not only has the enduring appeal of bonnets or bicycles, but taps into a national longing for an age where values were centred around the community. It’s perhaps no surprise then, that one of the great delights of life in Ludlow is exactly that (minus the bonnets of course). And, with many of Ludlow’s charms so firmly rooted in the past, E J Poyner, Family Drapers, hardly needs introduction. Outstripping even Rickards for an authentic, historic shopping experience, replete with ancient drawers and scuffed wooden counter, this iconic Ludlow family business has been trading since 1897. Unmistakable from the street for its original signage and
peg board window displays, to step into Poyners is to experience a curious combination of Are You Being Served, Mr Selfridge and Open All Hours all at once. In fact, “Ground floor perfumery, stationery and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery ….going up” jingles around my head during my entire visit. Yet Margaret Edwards and Jean Parker, the two sisters who together have clocked up over sixty years working at Poyners, are in fact living historians masquerading as a far nicer version of Mrs Slocombe (without the colourful hair). When I first go in, I find Margaret polishing the mahogany counter with sweet smelling polish and I’m given a very warm welcome and the history of Poyners – related in great detail, right down to the tradition of sweeping the outside of the shop every single morning. It is all quite wonderful and I can’t believe I’ve never stepped inside the shop before. Standing in the Ladies’ Department next to a box of plastic hair visors (the type my grandmother used to protect her weekly blue rinse from the perils of rain), I’m treated to a
scene of pre and post-war design and ephemera – ranging from a 19th-century hat stretcher, peeling original 1950s wallpaper, drawers carefully labelled Ladies’ Bedsocks and Interlock Pantees (more on these later) and a set of dark oak drawers inscribed Liberty Bodices in worn gold lettering. It’s a set designer’s nightmare – I’m not sure what era I am in at all; but this is what makes Poyners so fascinating. The evolution of the shop, from 1897 until the clock stopped somewhere around 1956, is all too evident. Yet almost four generations of locals and visitors have shopped here and continue to do so, despite the fact that hair visors and knickers the size of pillow cases might have limited appeal to Generation H&M. Instead, Poyners are still popular enough to supply their regulars with hats, gloves, ladies’ clothing and undies – welcoming locals and an endless stream of intrigued tourists from as far away as the USA alike. Margaret tells me that they can even boast Fiona Fullerton, Joe Brand and a transvestite as three unforgettable visitors. And there is,
– www.ludlowledger.co.uk –
perhaps, nowhere else on earth that can say that. So how did the legend that is Poyners begin? In true costumedrama fashion, the history of the shop began with a Pre-Great War romance between a young and lovely milliner and an apprentice draper, Ernest Poyner. Milliner Jane Goodall worked in the previous incarnation of Poyners, under Draper and Dress Maker Charles Gough, whilst Ernest was apprenticed to Bodenhams Drapers and Outfitters. Ernest and Jane became engaged to be married and, while Ernest was away fighting in the First World War, Jane bought Charles Gough’s business after Charles’ death. This, being 1918, Jane needed her own and Ernest’s father to guarantee the bank loans, and the name E J Poyners was assumed. Ernest returned safely from the trenches, they married, set up home above the shop and, together, built the business using their combined experience in the drapery trade.
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