Shops and businesses in Lelant: 1960s onwards

© Maxwell Adams

Version 23 January 2010

You might also like to read the articles on Shops and businesses in Lelant in the 1930s and the Post Office.

In this article I discuss the shops and businesses that were in Lelant in the 1960s and after. A few have survived from the 1960s but most have closed. I also look at those that opened after the 1960s and subsequently closed.

Astleys

This was a hairdressers for women in the north, left hand side looking from the road, of Trecott, Fore Street and was owned by Mrs Broadhurst. It did hair styling, perming, tinting, and shampooing. It was closed on Mondays but open until 7pm. See the entry on Strawberry Blonde.

Badger

The public house at the Cross.

Central Garage

A garage and repair service which at one point sold petrol. It was owned by two brothers Palmer and Edgar Harry. In 1971 the garage was bought by the company WR Sandow Ltd and often known as Sandow's Garage. Paul Sandow retired from the garage in 2002 and his son Michael continued the business.

Evans butchers shop

This was at the corner of Church Road and Station Hill, where Matthews Bakery was later. It was opened by RT Evans in 1965. He was a brother to Mrs Mitchell, owner of Evans sweet shop across Church Road.

Evans sweet shop

This is mentioned by Mary Wills in the 1930s and was at Crossways facing the main road and opposite the butchery. It had been opened by Mrs Evans, the mother of the owner in the 1960s who was Mrs Mitchell.

Fore Street shop

This is the Fore Street shop next to the village hall. Edmonds Brothers signed a 99 year lease in December 1907 and it was run by them as a butchers. It was still Edmonds butchery in the 1930s. In the 1960s it was H Symons, an ironmongers and plumbers. It was opened in the mornings only. In the 1980s it was an antiques shop called Collectorama and run by Walter J Duncan and Deborah Gronert. In the 1990s it was called the Court Shoemaker and run by Jeanette Ongaro. There are articles on this in the Cornishman 13 June 1996 and 3 October 1996.  It is now the artist's shop of Brian Jay. The upstairs is a private dwelling, Trenwith Flat.

General Stores

At the Old Bank House in Fore Street. In the 1930s this building contained a small branch of Lloyds Bank and a grocery shop and a post office. In late 1965 Mr and Mrs Neal took it over as a shop and cafe. It was open on Sundays and the cafe there was called the Happy Cafe. It is now a private house only.

Harrys Garage

See Central Garage

Lelant furniture superette market

This was in in Station Hill behind Evans Butchery and opened at the beginning of 1965. It sold carpets and new and secondhand furniture and also operated as a storage depot for Express Removals and Delivery Service of Market Place, St Ives. The site is now occupied by houses.

Polglase stores

This is mentioned by Mary Wills in the 1930s. It was taken over from Mr Simmonds by Mr and Mrs Heffer in early 1965. This long-standing shop in Tyringham Road was a grocery and general stores. It sold toilet goods, paraffin, fruit, vegetables, milk, and bread and arranged shoe repairs and dry cleaning.It also made deliveries by van. It was closed on Tuesday afternoons.

In his manuscript history Some glimpses into the history of Lelant Methodist Church Cedric Appleby comments that a prominent Methodist, John Nankervis, was a grocer in Lelant. His daughter married William John Polglase who kept the shop after Nankervis gave up. Nankervis died in 1919.

It is no longer a shop.

Post office and general stores

This is the present post office and general shop at Ivy Mount. See the article the Post Office.

PTT (Providers of Telecommunications Training)

This company provides online training and is based at the Old Pump House, St Ives Road, Lelant.  There is an article about it, with a photograph, in the Cornishman 21 January 2010 page 26.

Rogers butchers shop

This was at Roseleigh and owned by Phil Rogers. In 1987 Andrew Besley opened a photographic business here. It is now wholly residential.

HE Tuck

A plumber and heating engineer.

Cornucopia and Little Jack's Corner

Cornucopia was set up by Leslie Caswell at Griggs and included displays of shipwrecks and smuggling, a model railway, a Cornish model village, art gallery, junior commando course, and a King Arthur sound-and -vision tableaux.. The Cornishman of June 1971 reports a divided village meeting about Caswell's proposal to set it up.

In March 1989 it was sold to Vic and Sean Patrick and renamed Little Jack's Corner, a general amusement park [St Ives Times and Echo 24 March 1989]. This had a log flume and motorcycle rides, for example. It closed about 1998.

Matthews Bakery

In 1985 a bakery was opened on the former Evans butchery at the Cross, the corner of Church Road and Station Hill.. Michael Matthews, originally from Nottingham, opened his bakery before Christmas with his wife June and mother-in-law Jean Potter. He began by mixing his dough by hand. He baked bread, fruit pies, buns, cakes, sausage rolls and pasties. The bakery closed in summer 1995 and eventually became a private dwelling.

Merlin's Magic Land

This was an amusement park owned by Duncan Bell at Griggs opposite Little Jack's Corner. There are boats, cars, motorbikes, crazy golf, Merlin's magic castle, and a cafe. In 1997 a development company wished to buy it and build a supermarket on the site but this was rejected by the council planners and many villagers. In 2003 planning permission was given for building seventy four houses on the site and in 2003 Merlins amusement park was demolished.

Sandows Garage

See Central Garage

Smithy at Griggs

In August 1910 Mr Tyringham submitted plans (drawn by John Johns) to West Penwith Rural District Council to "erect a smithy in place of the existing one occupied by Jas Banfield" (CRO DC/WP/295/268). This is now a couple of shops selling tourist goods, pottery, garden pots, and so forth.

Strawberry Blonde

See the entry on Astleys in this article.

Strawberry Blonde is a unisex hairdressers at the back of Trecott and on the south, right hand side, next to the village hall. It was opened on 7 June 1989 and initially run by Jane Furneaux of Trecott [St Ives Times and Echo 15 June 1989].

At one time in the 1990s it was run by a man called Gary from Victoria, Australia. It is a unisex salon. It changed hands in 1997 and again in 2002.

From 2002 it was run by Sue James ['Worrying first year? Not at all' in St Ives Times and Echo 7 February 2003]. From 3 March 2003 Sue James (proprietor) and Emma Cock (senior stylist) were joined by Candice Ford, beauty therapist from Buckinghamshire [St Ives Times and Echo 7 March 2003, page 4, article and photograph].

Some prices in 1997 were:
Men
Cut £3.25, beard trim £1.25
Women
Dry cut £5.00, wash and blow dry £4.50, cut and blow dry £10, colour tint whole head £19, tint roots £14, cap highlights £18, perms from £28.

Some prices in 2003 for women were:
Manicures £7.50, hi-lites from £27.50, nail extensions £29.50, eye lash tinting £6.50, cut and blow dries £17.50, colurs from £31.50. They also cut men's hair.

Miscellany

During this time several individuals ran their own businesses from Lelant. For example, Harold Lucas at Wayside, Tyringham Road, was a domestic and commercial plumber with forty five years experience (advertisement 1995) and Tom Sides of 4 Tyringham Row, a painter and decorator.

Some houses in the village are holiday homes owned by people who do not live here full time. At various times there are several houses offering tourist accommodation: examples are Hindon Hall, Rosemundy Cottage, and Chiverton Lodge.


Banks at Lelant

Until 1939 there were two small bank branches at Lelant. I do not suppose they ever did much business and they kept very limited hours. The recession of the 1930s seems to have finished them off.

Barclays Bank

There was a part-time sub-branch at Lelant from 8 May 1923 to September 1939, the outbreak of World War II. Barclays leased for a rent of £13 year the ground floor front room at 1 Orchard Villas, Fore Street, the house of Thomas Harry. The room was the one on the right looking at the house from the road. The bank had very limited opening hours: at first on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 am to 2 pm and staff from Barclays Bank in St Ives ran it. By the mid-1930s the bank was opened only on Thursday mornings, from 10.30 to 12.15, presumably reflecting poor demand in the recession.

Lloyds Bank

There was a branch at Lelant from March 1907 until September 1939, when, like Barclays, it closed because of the outbreak of War.

It opened in March 1907 as an agency of Lloyds Bank at Penzance and became a sub-branch of the St Ives in August 1927. As a sub-branch it was at the Old Bank House, Fore Street.

For 1907-1927 the agent was J. Sandow. The bank was opened from 10 am to 3 pm. There was a half day on Wednesday from 10am to 1 pm. The hours changed several times and in 1932 the bank was opened only on Thursdays from 1030 am to 1230 pm, presumably for the same economic reason as Barclays's reduced opening.

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