Woolworths: The glory days in Nantwich and Sandbach
MANY people will mourn the passing of Woolworths with the sad closure of its stores in Nantwich and Sandbach. But it also revives memories of when Woolies was a feature of Crewe's shopping centre.
Over recent years, people have often said what Crewe town centre needed was a branch of Woolworths.
But back in the 1960s, F W Woolworth and Co was one of the main stores in town with a flourishing branch in Market Street opposite the junction with Earle Street.
The large branch, across the road from the corner where the Adelphi public house once stood, is shown in a couple of pictures in the Crewe Memory Lane series of books by retired Chronicle photographer Gordon Davies, including one from 1962.
Back in those heady days of the 60s, the big brown counters at Woolworths stocked practically everything - usually cheaper than anywhere else - and in more recent years it was still a big draw for many.
Former Chronicle journalist Mark Smith, who now writes the excellent Northerner column for the guardian.co.uk weekly digest of the best of the Northern press, is one with fond memories. He wrote: "Being in Nantwich this Christmas, will have further significance for me: it will be the last chance I get to shop at the local Woolies.
"The town has so far remained defiant in the face of galloping chain store procurement, but Woolies was the exception. In fact, until I was about 11, I thought it was Nantwich's very own. Then I saw a Woolies in Inverness, and wished I could tell my late nan that there was another - she loved Woolies.
"My nan practically raised me, and I swear that, every single day in every summer holiday at primary school, she took me to Woolies. There would always be something she wanted, or something she wanted to get me, or something I wanted her to get me. We practically lived there. I fear her passing may also have sounded the death knell for Woolworths Nantwich."
Copies of the Crewe Memory Lane books by Gordon Davies are on sale at the Crewe Chronicle office including the final one, Volume Six, offered at a reduced price of ã6.99.
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