Wonderful Woolies – gone but not forgotten

We’re storing up the memories of a well-loved British institution that began its retail life in the UK when FW Woolworth first started trading in Liverpool exactly 100 years ago.

Despite a rather chequered history, Woolies (as it is affectionately known) was forced to close its doors for the last time in January 2009.

At the time of its demise, Woolies had a total of 815 retail outlets throughout the UK.

During its height in the mid-1920s Woolworths was persistently hounded by local authorities countrywide to open stores in their town. In fact, at one point there was a new Woolies opening somewhere in the UK every 17 days.

It’s a fair bet that most of us here in the UK have fond memories of our local Woolworths store.

I personally used to shop there as a youngster in Chester-le-Street, County Durham. Brian Clough tells me he used to walk through the Consett store every day on his way to school.

My children (12 and 10 years of age) were devastated when they learned that Woolies was closing down. They loved to browse the toy section (not forgetting a visit to pick ‘n mix) whenever we were shopping in Durham City or on a camping weekend at Keswick (the Lake District, north west UK for non-uk members).

Now, this may sound like a Harry Hill style “daft Idea of the week” but this is what we would like you to do before all the Woolworths stores are bulldozed or rebranded forever. This is our national call to action across the United Kingdom!

Take at least one photograph (two or three different angles is better) of your local Woolies store over the next week and send a digital copy to us here at the Old Photo Forum. Yes, I know these are not strictly old photos, but they will be in time and if you don’t do this right now we will all have missed the opportunity to preserve an important social record which is part of all our lives here in the UK.

As the photos arrive, I’ll post them on The Time Machine and if we can really get our act together and produce a definitive visual collection, then we can submit it to the relevant historical body for preservation.

What do you think? Is it a plan? Let me know ASAP and we can get this ball rolling straight away.

Just to get things started here are a couple of shots from Brian Clough and myself of the closed stores in Chester-le-Street and Consett in County Durham.

Important details:

* Take your photos at the highest resolution your camera will allow
* Provide details (store location, street name) and anything else you think is important
* Keep the original photo yourself. This is an important document for future generations

Send the photos as .jpeg attachments to me here: editor@oldphotoforum.co.uk

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