Category: Trade: Toy Shop

Where Was The Treasure Trove Of A Shop In Warminster That Sold Toys, Sweets And Loads Of Lovely Stuff?

Wednesday 21st September 2016

Mrs Cecilia Wright writes ~

“Hello, 
I do hope you can help me. From 1976-1979 we lived in Sambourne Gardens, Warminster, in a newly-built house. My husband was in the Army posted to Warminster. We loved Warminster and were very sad to leave there. A few weeks ago, we returned to Warminster and tried to find some of our old haunts. The Three Horseshoes Walk looked very different and we couldn’t find The Gorge Cafe; or Safeways and realised that is it now Iceland!”

“I could not remember the Cornmarket Shopping Mall being there during our time, but can remember a lovely shop which from memory was at the entrance to an “alleyway” which could be the Cornmarket Shopping Mall. This shop was a treasure trove of a place and sold toys, sweets and loads of lovely stuff.  As well as the entrance off the Market Place, there was another exit from the shop which brought you out onto this ‘alleyway’. I have made some enquiries and looked online and M & Co is there now and they tell me that a shop called Cristettes, was there before them, and previous to that Gateway’s.” 

“We are now racking our brains trying to remember just where this treasure trove of a shop really was – please help!    I do remember that it was not far down from where Pearson’s Estate Agents used to be at No. 67 Market Place and near to the bus stop, where my children would get the bus to St. George’s R.C. School.” 

Danny Howell replies ~

“Hello Cecilia Wright,

Thank you for your email.

Yes, there certainly have been many changes in Warminster in the last 40 years. The shop you are recalling was Payne’s, which was a newsagents and toy shop at No.49 Market Place, Warminster. It also sold confectionery, greetings cards, stationery, local books, postcards, maps and travel goods, etc. It also offered photocopying and was a parcel agent for the Wilts & Dorset bus company. Father Christmas in his grotto was a regular feature every December. The shop window also displayed Warminster Carnival photos each year, allowing people to order prints. On the first floor of the building was Polly’s Tearoom which was also very popular. You are quite right when you say the shop had an entrance off the Market Place and another entrance on to ‘an alleyway’. The alleyway you are referring to was part of the Anchor Yard on the west side of Payne’s, between Payne’s and the Anchor Hotel. Payne’s and Polly’s Tearoom were owned by Alan Gallagher who was much respected and well-liked by his staff and customers. Payne’s shop was much loved by the people of Warminster. Alan retired in 1989, because of ill-health, and the business passed to Balfour News. Alan’s hopes of spending a long and happy retirement in Salisbury, enjoying music and going to the theatre, were soon dashed. Not long after he moved from Warminster to Salisbury he died (in 1997). The Co-op acquired Balfour News in 2003 and eventually closed down the shop in Warminster. No.49 Market Place is now a much smaller retail outlet, being a charity shop, raising funds for the Blue Cross. There is a photo of Payne’s shop on this website. And there’s also here a photo of the Blue Cross charity shop. I attach a couple of sketch maps I have drawn to show you the location of the shop, then and now.

With best wishes from Warminster,

Danny Howell.”

Payne’s (second from left), 
between the Anchor Hotel and Stiles Bros.

Now (2016) the Blue Cross charity shop
between the Anchor Hotel and Dorothy Perkins.

Memories Of Miss White’s Toy Shop At George Street, Warminster

Wednesday 11th April 2012

D.B. Starke, of Radyr, Cardiff, writes ~

Dear Mr. Howell,
I recently acquired a copy of your book ‘Five Connected Lives’ and have enjoyed reading it, particularly the section about Marjorie Fudge.

I was born at Salisbury in 1920; my maternal grandparents and two aunts and their families lived at Warminster so that I came to know the town very well. We visited frequently; as I recollect the return rail fare from Salisbury was 1/6!

In their latter years my grandparents lived in George Street right opposite Miss White’s toy shop. This was a veritable Aladdin’s cave and carried a good selection of cap and blank cartridge pistols amongst other things. I was a regular customer and remember Miss White very well – she was the tall and grumpy one and I was somewhat in awe of her. I think that she regarded small boys with considerable suspicion.

Thank you for a good read which brought back so many happy memories.

Danny Howell replies ~

Thank you D.B. Starke. I’m glad you enjoyed reading the book and I was pleased to hear your anecdote about Miss White. If you were born in 1920, that makes you 92 years old or thereabouts, so I guess you have many such recollections. Once again, thank you for sharing the story of Miss White’s toy shop. The property, now numbered No.7 George Street, Warminster, BA12 8QA, has been owned since the mid-1950s by my aunt Diana Turner, who runs The Baby Shop there still to this day.

Mad About Toys

From the leaflet Warminster Christmas Gift Ideas 2009, produced by the Economy And Tourism Group of the Warminster And Villages Community Partnership, September 2009:

Mad About Toys, 20 Three Horseshoes Walk, Warminster.
We sell toys and games including puzzles and stocking fillers for both children and adults. We stock Warminster Christmas cards, as well as HM Armed Forces dolls and accessories (made by Character Options).
01985 214550.

Waylen, Newsagent & Tobacconist, 32 High Street, Warminster

Two photographs showing the exterior of Waylen’s shop at 32 High Street, Warminster, photographed by Danny Howell, on Sunday 21st February 1999.

Miss Vera Waylen and her sister, Mrs. Jean Hunt, were newsagents, tobacconists, and sellers of toys, postcards, sweets and chocolate.

To the left is the Chantry (Dental Surgery). To the right is Jacqueline’s restaurant.

Pleasures Toy Shop, 1 Market Place, Warminster

Pleasures, 1 Market Place, Warminster (on the corner with North Row). Photograph taken by Danny Howell during August 1987.

Toys and prams on the ground floor; models including railway layouts (large layouts!) on the first floor.

The manager was Alan Sims, who lived at Rock Lane, Warminster.

Pleasures was owned by Alan Gallagher (who also owned Paynes and Delights).

At the time this photo was taken, Alan and his wife Moira were living at the rear of the premises (in a conversion of what had been the former stables and bakehouse of the Warminster Co-op store which was here circa 1907 ~ January 1982). 

Pleasures Toy Shop, 1 Market Place, Warminster

Pleasures, 1 Market Place, Warminster
(on the corner with North Row).

Photograph taken by Danny Howell
during August 1987.

Toys and prams on the ground floor; models including
railway layouts (large layouts!) on the first floor.

The manager was Alan Sims, who lived at
17 Rock Lane, Warminster.

Pleasures was owned by Alan Gallaghe
(who also owned Paynes at 49 Market Place
and Delights at 19 Market Place).

At the time this photo was taken,
Alan and his wife Moira 
were living at the rear of the premises
(in a conversion of what had been the
former stables and bakehouse of the
Warminster Co-op store which was here
circa 1907 ~ January 1982). 

Paynes The Newsagents, Market Place, Warminster

Paynes the newsagents, 49 Market Place, Warminster, BA12 9AZ. Proprietor Alan Gallagher decorated the tradesman’s bicycle outside the shop (on the right) with flowers, adding colour to the street. To the left of the shop doors is
a rotating display rack of local postcards. On the far left is a glass-fronted noticeboard, on which advertisement for items for sale and wanted or job vacancies available or sought, could be placed by the public for a small fee.
Below it is an advertising placard for The Sun newspaper. Several lesser known newspapers are displayed on the wall on the right.

Photographs taken by Danny Howell during August 1986.

Ewins, Newsagent, Toys & Gift Shop, Market Place, Warminster

 

Ewins, newsagent and toy and gift retailer, at 17 Market Place, Warminster.* Photograph taken on Tuesday 2nd June 1953, showing the shop decorated with flags to mark the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Ewins started their Warminster business in 1946. (*Property later renumbered No.24).