Runcorn Memories: Trader bows out at 102

By Runcorn And Widnes Weekly News on Dec 18, 09 09:17 AM in 1900-1945

MARKET trader Walter Brown, who has died at the age of 102, was an unerring, intuitive and instinctive judge of what the customer wanted.

And he was as almost as well known in Widnes and Frodsham, not to mention Ellesmere Port, as he was in his home town of Runcorn.

On leaving school, he began his working life at the old Highfield Tannery and subsequently moved on to ICI Rocksavage.

In the meantime, he had opened a little shop in Lowlands Road or thereabouts (it may have been just round the corner in one of the side streets) and soon afterwards opened a crockery store in Bridge Street.

He always had his supportive wife, Annice, by his side, but soon concluded that he could not do justice to both his jobs.

Deciding to take the plunge, he became a full-time market stallholder.

He ran a crockery stall in the town's old Bridge Street market just below the Baths Hall and moved into the then new market in Church Street when it opened in February 1961.

He also opened stalls on Widnes and Frodsham markets and another at Ellesmere Port. The latter venture was to prove a real breadwinner!

"I'd just opened the stall," Walter told me, "when a gentleman came by and asked me if I could supply 400 plates and 400 cups and saucers!"

The gentleman turned out to be the boss of Bowaters newsprint factory and all the crockery was needed for their new canteen.

On the first occasion I interviewed Walter at his then home in Oxford Road, Runcorn, he was chatting with his lifelong friend, Walter Bennett, of Halton Road. The two went back a long way for both had been pillars of the old St Luke's Congregational Church on Mason Street, serving as Sunday school superintendent and secretary.

Now 93, Walter Bennett was a former brass bandsman and readers will remember he did the honours when Friends of Runcorn Hill were looking for someone to open the new bandstand on the hill.

Walter had been with the original band, which was on duty when the first bandstand was opened several decades ago.

Like his longtime friend, Walter Brown was amazingly agile.

On a third visit to his home I found him doing the washing up.

"I do the dishes," said Walter "and Annice does the gardening - she's younger than me!"

Towards the end of his life. he was resident in Simonsfield Care Home on Boston Avenue.

His wife, Annice, now 91 and in a wheelchair, is a resident of the Ferndale Home in Widnes.

Even until very recently, Walter remained fairly active and was regularly able to go along with his son, David, of Grange Park Avenue, when they visited Annice in Widnes.

Walter passed away suddenly at the Simonsfield Home and the funeral took place at Heath Methodist Church on Tuesday, December 8, followed by cremation at Walton Lea.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by his daughter-in-law, Susan and grandchildren Nicola and Christopher.

The picture shows Walter Brown and his wife Annice on the old Runcorn Market five years ago with a teapot similar to the 1953 Queen Elizabeth version.