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.