Shutters raised for Ellesmere shop’s last encore
Monday 26th December 2011, 10:59AM GMT.
Ellesmere’s oldest shop, which closed last month, opened its doors one last time due to popular demand from Christmas shoppers eager to snap up last-minute presents.
Fred Roberts in Ellesmere closed in November after 139 years trading in the town. But bosses were inundated with an avalanche of requests from people to reopen for the Christmas rush.
Others said they just missed the shop, which has traded in the town since Victorian times.
So bosses lifted the shutters one last time on Christmas Eve and enjoyed a brisk day’s trading with customers old and new.
Owner Debbie Hayward said it was a family affair as her relatives joined her to help out as the tills rang out for the final time.
She said: “We weren’t planning on opening again but with my daughter coming home early from Australia after 12 months we said ‘shall we open one more time?’.
“Lots of people had been ringing up to ask for things after we closed in November, so we thought opening once more would be a good idea.
“It was pretty busy. It never stopped all day.
“Customers said it was nice to see us open again, but we had to remind them it was just for one day only.”
Joining Mrs Hayward in the store for the final festive shift were husband Phil, daughter Sarah and mother Beryl Hewitt.
The shop, in Cross Street, started out as a printer’s before becoming a gifts and stationery shop after World War Two. An Aladdin’s cave of gifts, cards, toys, stationery, china and glass, it has been in the same family for five generations.
Mrs Hayward’s great great grandfather Charles Roberts first took over the tenancy of the property in 1872. She said the family now wanted to let the pre-mises to another retailer.
By Tom Johannsen
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