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Old 25th Aug 2021, 8:03 pm   #601
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: Bygone radio traders

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Originally Posted by kalee20 View Post
Bicycles and gramophones must have been quite a common combination, many 78 record sleeves mention, So-and-so, for Fine Cycles and Gramophones.
A lot of cycle-shops in the 20s and 30s used to offer accumulator-recharging services; it would seem only natural that they also moved to offer gramophone- and radio-related services.

Currys being a good example: as well as their main business of cycles and perambulators they sold radios under their "Westminster" brand [often made under subcontract by Plessey].
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Old 1st Nov 2021, 1:57 pm   #602
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Hi,

It is with much sadness that I have to report the death after a long illness of Howard Turner of Centre Electronics in Birmingham. He passed away late on Saturday night, and I am sure he will be remembered and much missed by all his old customers and friends.

My condolences to his wife Maureen and his son Chris.

Rest in Peace Howard,

Dave
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Old 2nd Nov 2021, 1:03 am   #603
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Didn't know him but please add my condolences.

Does anyone remember 'Telekit' supplies in Beckenham?

Peter
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Old 3rd Nov 2021, 11:16 am   #604
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Sad news about Howard.
I'm glad to have known him. Condolences to his family.
Alan
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Old 3rd Jan 2022, 3:14 pm   #605
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As well as Hanneys on the Lower Bristol Road in Bath, we also had J.Kiss components on the Upper Bristol Road. This shop was run by a rather grumpy Hungarian and his wife. Most of the stock was government surplus and was a good source of old knobs and radio bits. It closed in the late '70s or early '80s. Hanneys closed only about five years ago and Maplins came into town a few months later. In the mid '70s I used to trawl all of the radio and TV shops in Bath to pick up old sets and often entered the basement workshops for a good nose around. Happy Days!
Neil
There used to be Tommy Best on Avon Street (?) down near the river who had big crates of resistors, some from the 1930's. Lots of interesting radio bits as well - valve bases and other bits as well as sheets of metal and angle, useful for making chassis. It started as a shop on Lower Bristol Road and moved, probably in the 1950s.
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Old 6th Jan 2022, 5:03 pm   #606
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The site of New Cross Radio, 6 Oldham Road, Ancoats, Manchester in 1961 before the shop sign was changed, the building has gone but No. 4 next door to the right survives as does The Crown & Kettle next door to that:

https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web...ue&refirn=8078

https://goo.gl/maps/TxW2sMWemQA1diZA7

Lawrence.
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Old 6th Jan 2022, 5:21 pm   #607
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The old Masteradio depot, Shude Hill, Manchester in 1958:

https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web...e&refirn=69042

Lawrence.
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Old 23rd Feb 2022, 4:04 pm   #608
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Bygone Radio Traders? This one is still trading!

H. Flint and Son of Shirebrook, Derbyshire.

Owned and run by Jeremy Flint, Grandson of the original founder of the business. His Grandfather started the business in 1945 in a workshop at the bottom of his garden, after leaving his job as an electrician at the local pit, and opening the current shop in 1947!
The shop has always sold household electrical items such as irons, toasters , cookers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dryers, radios, gramophones and televisions.
It is nice to see a business like this still in existence, possibly due to the personal service given to his customers, all of whom are middle aged upwards.
Attached photos show a few valve radios, bought by customers over the years, and the first television sold by the shop in 1952, a Pye, model unknown!
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Old 24th Feb 2022, 12:15 pm   #609
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Hi Lawrence,the picture in post #607 brought back memories.My first job was at Avery Scales a little further down the hill from Masteradio although by the time the picture was taken I had moved into the radio and tv trade.It all seems so recent to me but don't the buildings look Dickensian.In fact things have changed considerably including the language,look at the sign on the shop next door where the word "Crindery" is used.Try and find what that means today.As far as Masteradio was concerned I only saw their products very rarely so cannot offer an opinion as to their quality or reliability.I'm finding this thread fascinating especially when I remember the traders shown. Peter.
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Old 24th Feb 2022, 12:56 pm   #610
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Bygone Radio Traders? This one is still trading!

H. Flint and Son of Shirebrook, Derbyshire.

Owned and run by Jeremy Flint, Grandson of the original founder of the business. His Grandfather started the business in 1945 in a workshop at the bottom of his garden, after leaving his job as an electrician at the local pit, and opening the current shop in 1947!
The shop has always sold household electrical items such as irons, toasters , cookers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dryers, radios, gramophones and televisions.
It is nice to see a business like this still in existence, possibly due to the personal service given to his customers, all of whom are middle aged upwards.
Attached photos show a few valve radios, bought by customers over the years, and the first television sold by the shop in 1952, a Pye, model unknown!
Fantastic!
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Old 24th Feb 2022, 1:04 pm   #611
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There were two companies, J&F Stone and J&M Stone. Civic was just a name on a facia, the stores belonged to J&M Stone, who in turn became part of the Firth Cleveland Group, who curiously also owned Haywards Pickle.

My introduction to retail began at the age of 21 when I became a manager of a J&M Stone store in 1961.

This was “Putney 1" the smaller of the two stores in Putney.

It was situated on the corner of Putney Bridge. For a small store, we were reasonably busy, but the staff consisted of just me and a young salesman.

One of our customers was the actor Clive Dunn, he lived with his wife, the actress Priscilla Morgan in a flat in Kenilworth Court, round the corner, overlooking the Thames.

He came in fairly regularly for lightbulbs etc., and if we weren't busy, he'd stay for a cup of tea. As this was long before his Dad's army days, I guess he had quite a bit of time on his hands.

He also bought I think a tape recorder. Because I remember his cheque had, “Morgan Dunn Enterprises” on it. We never mentioned anything to do with his occupation.

A year later, I got promoted to a fairly new “Civic” store in Edmonton. In those days, the stores were self-supporting. There was me, a salesman, a young teenage girl cashier, an engineer and a driver of our van.

None of the staff were older than I.

It was a very busy store. I really enjoyed the job, the engineer and I became life-long friends. Sadly, he died two years ago.

I left in 1965, to eventually become a manager of a store of one of the major retail chain stores, and then moved into managing departmental stores and eventually Superstores.



Here's a few recollections of a happy time I had there, I recently posted on another board.

It was a regular sales promotion to offer "money off" on certain TVs, via part exchange It could be as much as £20 on certain models. Of course, we weren't interested in the old sets, they weren't likely to be working anyway, the sets where this was offered had been bought at a discount. The policy was to take the PXs to the tip.

However, there were some surprises. Once a Bush VHF 64 radio in perfect working condition came in. So I "recycled" it. On another occasion it was an upright piano, I had that too.

Some of these PXd sets could be "revived," My engineer was really good at his job. So we got a good little sideline going. We had an arrangement with the barber across the road. We'd sell them to him for a few pounds and he'd display one of these sets in his shop each week and sell them to his customers. Between us we made about twenty quid a month, which was a lot of money back then.

A few of the sets had dim pictures, but if they were dropped to 200v they were brighter. (Yes I know, but at that age we didn't care).

Once a month the engineer and the driver would take the rest of the PXd sets down to the tip. Our van was a new Ford Thames, I really liked that shape, now a retro classic.

The procedure was to drive the van onto the weighbridge and then back up to the tip. They'd then heave the sets out of the back on to the rest of the refuse. The tip workers would stand and watch. They'd then drive the van back onto the weighbridge for the office to calculate the charge. One month when they went into the office to pay, they noticed one of the sets they'd chucked onto the tip the previous month, was up and working on a shelf in the office!

We had a big TV rental business, with particularly the Ferguson FR21 and a popular set back then, the 17" Ultra 1775.

But they were notorious for rolling. A "quick fix" was to change the PCL82 valve.

We had a lot of elderly customers. One little old lady with one, broke the control on the back of the set. She thought it was a screw that as you turned it, it rubbed against the picture and stopped it rolling. When the engineer fixed one for another old lady, it still had a partial frame collapse. He adjusted it for her. She hadn't complained as she thought the gaps top and bottom were because TV was now in "wide screen" like the cinema.

I often took my dog to work. A miniature poodle. He liked going out in the van. At other times he'd sit on the cashier's high stool in her cubicle where he could see everything. She'd be doing a bit of dusting, or polishing the reflectors of electric fires. A few customers coming to make HP or rental payments would not notice it wasn't the usual girl sitting there as they were looking at the payment card in their hand and start to talk to him. He'd just say quietly, "woof."

We didn't have the old-fashioned convential widows. A big plate glass frontage. Double doors led onto a 20ft paved area with carpeted displays areas either side, then the main showroom began. The dog would sometimes sit amongst the small radio displayed near the big glass window. It gave some people on the pavement looking in, a shock when he moved.

When he was there, customers made a fuss of him. But it was a good guard dog. Sometimes when we were busy, he'd watch people coming into the shop, they could look at anything and then go out without any problems. But if they picked something up and then put it down or even touched something, he'd position himself between them and the doors,

Happy days!
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Old 24th Feb 2022, 1:06 pm   #612
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Default Re: Bygone radio traders

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Hi Lawrence,the picture in post #607 brought back memories.My first job was at Avery Scales a little further down the hill from Masteradio although by the time the picture was taken I had moved into the radio and tv trade.It all seems so recent to me but don't the buildings look Dickensian.In fact things have changed considerably including the language,look at the sign on the shop next door where the word "Crindery" is used.Try and find what that means today.As far as Masteradio was concerned I only saw their products very rarely so cannot offer an opinion as to their quality or reliability.I'm finding this thread fascinating especially when I remember the traders shown. Peter.
It's also known as 'grindery'. I found this (not about this particular seller/photo):

We were intrigued if not a little amused (no sniggering please) at his line of business "Leather & Shoe Grindery" not having come across the term grindery before. After a bit of background reading it seems that grindery here pertains to leather working equipment and materials (sometimes the term used is crindery but the meaning seems to be the same). At a guess this suggests he did various types of leather repairs, presumably including boots and shoes. One other definition of "grindery" is for somewhere where knives and such like are sharpened. Take your pick.
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Old 24th Feb 2022, 2:12 pm   #613
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Default Re: Bygone radio traders

I got a huge amount of printed materials mostly service information via a 3rd Party in the 80's from a company called Thorne and Harvell their address was Magdalene Rd, Exeter. The whole of that area one of the few not destroyed in WW2 was destroyed by the planners in the 60's and 70's to make way for the inner bypass link, for anyone interested:
http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.co...-holloway.html
I have spent a considerable amount of effort over the years to try and find pictures of the shop so far without success.

Of course if there is anyone who has such info I would be delighter to hear from you.

Cheers

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Old 6th Mar 2022, 6:31 pm   #614
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I bought something from J.Birkett of Lincoln about 40 years ago. My wife and I had a holiday last week (strange but true) in Lincoln and as I walked up the steep hill I noticed that Birkett's was still there. Unfortunately, to my wife's relief, the shop was closed.

Tony
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Old 7th Mar 2022, 3:34 am   #615
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Hi Lawrence,the picture in post #607 brought back memories.My first job was at Avery Scales a little further down the hill from Masteradio although by the time the picture was taken I had moved into the radio and tv trade.It all seems so recent to me but don't the buildings look Dickensian.In fact things have changed considerably including the language,look at the sign on the shop next door where the word "Crindery" is used.Try and find what that means today.As far as Masteradio was concerned I only saw their products very rarely so cannot offer an opinion as to their quality or reliability.I'm finding this thread fascinating especially when I remember the traders shown. Peter.
I had a look on shudehill recently for the masteradio shop or what was the masteradio shop,sadly i think it is long gone. Do you know what number it was? i think the photo is towards the bottom of shudehill on the right looking up shudehill towards where globe radio was on the left,is that right? if it is a lot has been demolished on that side especially when the tram came through.
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Old 7th Mar 2022, 5:44 am   #616
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All these wonderful places which I didn't know about in their era and never visited. All those tempting adverts in WW PW and SWM beautifully preserved at American Radio History.

The photos of the shop windows are pure torture.

I'm going to have to get that time machine off of the round tuit pile.

David
Don’t suppose anyone has a photo of “Jobstocks” in Walthamstow? Now that was a shop window to drool over!

Have you noticed that over the years shop windows with displays of their wares have almost disappeared? When I worked at Curry’s customers could not enter the shop without walking past the window displays which were in a “funnel” shape.

Peter
Yes, I remember Jobstocks in Walthamstow E17 every thing from a 19 set to Slippers, Officers, RAF, size 13, qty 1 pair.

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Old 7th Mar 2022, 7:34 pm   #617
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Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpixel View Post
Hi Lawrence,the picture in post #607 brought back memories.My first job was at Avery Scales a little further down the hill from Masteradio although by the time the picture was taken I had moved into the radio and tv trade.It all seems so recent to me but don't the buildings look Dickensian.In fact things have changed considerably including the language,look at the sign on the shop next door where the word "Crindery" is used.Try and find what that means today.As far as Masteradio was concerned I only saw their products very rarely so cannot offer an opinion as to their quality or reliability.I'm finding this thread fascinating especially when I remember the traders shown. Peter.
I had a look on shudehill recently for the masteradio shop or what was the masteradio shop,sadly i think it is long gone. Do you know what number it was? i think the photo is towards the bottom of shudehill on the right looking up shudehill towards where globe radio was on the left,is that right? if it is a lot has been demolished on that side especially when the tram came through.
Masteradio was at 41 Shudehill, it was roughly between the tramway and Hanover Street where the bus station is on sat. view....

....And on the old maps between Bradshaw Street and Hanover Street:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/101103770

Here's a closer view of Masteradio in an old photo c1959:

https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web...e&refirn=69041

Lawrence.

Last edited by ms660; 7th Mar 2022 at 7:50 pm. Reason: grammer
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Old 8th Mar 2022, 1:16 am   #618
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Quote:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by peterpixel View Post
Hi Lawrence,the picture in post #607 brought back memories.My first job was at Avery Scales a little further down the hill from Masteradio although by the time the picture was taken I had moved into the radio and tv trade.It all seems so recent to me but don't the buildings look Dickensian.In fact things have changed considerably including the language,look at the sign on the shop next door where the word "Crindery" is used.Try and find what that means today.As far as Masteradio was concerned I only saw their products very rarely so cannot offer an opinion as to their quality or reliability.I'm finding this thread fascinating especially when I remember the traders shown. Peter.
I had a look on shudehill recently for the masteradio shop or what was the masteradio shop,sadly i think it is long gone. Do you know what number it was? i think the photo is towards the bottom of shudehill on the right looking up shudehill towards where globe radio was on the left,is that right? if it is a lot has been demolished on that side especially when the tram came through.
Masteradio was at 41 Shudehill, it was roughly between the tramway and Hanover Street where the bus station is on sat. view....

....And on the old maps between Bradshaw Street and Hanover Street:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/101103770

Here's a closer view of Masteradio in an old photo c1959:

https://images.manchester.gov.uk/web...e&refirn=69041

Lawrence.
Thanks,it has to be said it looks very rundown,do you know when it shut?
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Old 15th Mar 2022, 8:41 pm   #619
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When l was a kid in Stockport in the 1970's there was a TV repair and sales company called "Glenbond Videotel"

l used to go every day and hang around, they would give me some money to get rid of me, the area was full of derelict houses so there was plenty for me to pass my time.

The place was full of TV's and they would do them up and sell them.
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Old 18th Mar 2022, 8:07 pm   #620
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Does anyone in the North Notts / S.Yorks area remember Worksop Electronics on Potter Street?

Brian, I think the chap was called, a bit of a character and always seemed quite entertaining to me, as a young 'un. The pokey little shop is long gone now, I think there are flats on the site now, don't know what became of Brian. It would be around 40-45 years ago I used to stroll down on a Saturday morning, after a visit to Tandy... I particularly remember filling paper bags from bins filled with mixed components and other oddities, as much as you could stuff in for 50p IIRC. Lots of those ex-ministry surplus components sealed with a printed paper label into plastic bags. He always seemed to have something interesting on the counter to chat about!

Then there was N R Bardwell of course, on Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, sad to hear they finally closed around 5 years ago. I'm sure a few of you will have spent many an hour there. Do I also remember a small electronics shop on Canklow Road, Rotherham around the late 70s / early 80s era?
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