BITS AND PIECES a tale of two shopkeepers by Frances Hardcastle
P
oignant memories from the past landed in my laptop the other day and I wondered if you would like to share a little piece of Clevedon history with me.
Well known local historian Jane Lilly forwarded me a picture of my mother’s shop in Copse Road called Lilian’s. Mum sold re-conditioned pine and satin walnut furniture plus an eclectic mixture of what she always called her “bits and pieces”. These were all hand-picked by Mum from various contacts and auction rooms and her business flourished in Clevedon during the 1980s.
But I get a bit ahead of myself. My Mum (Lilian Trueman) and my father Horace Trueman moved to Clevedon in 1962.
My father was a fishmonger and game merchant and he bought the fish shop in Hill Road. They had moved from Teignmouth where they had a flourishing similar shop selling to the visitors to the seaside town. This was their second retail outlet in Devon as they also bought and ran a fish and chip shop in Chudleigh
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during the 1950s having emigrated from Birmingham after the Second World War to give myself and my brother a lovely country childhood.
As a couple they were excellent retailers, good communicators and not afraid of hard work. Mum helped in the fish shop in Clevedon and supported Dad in many ways especially cooking him breakfast early in the morning after he had risen every weekday at 4am to go to the fruit and veg market in Bristol. “That’s where I make my profit”, he always said.
Their retail partnership worked successfully through the 1960s and into the 1970s when Mum decided to branch out and open her own shop. She had a good eye for the kind of furniture which she knew would appeal to people at the right price.
Her first shop was rented in Kings Road, Clevedon (now a house) and this was followed by a move into an
empty shop in Alexandra Road (now a hairdressers). Her furniture, antiques and bric-a-brac were extremely popular and in the 1980s she took on the responsibility of organising the display cabinets in the Walton Park Hotel. These she filled with jewellery and exquisite choice pieces which she knew would appeal to the hotel guests.
Dad retired from the fishmongers and joined Mum in her business. Until his untimely death in 1981 they travelled up and down the West Country enjoying themselves buying bits and pieces to stock Mum’s shop in Copse Road.
We have a connection with the space left by the demolition of Mum’s shop in Copse Road as my husband and I now live in one of the houses built where Lilian’s shop once stood. After her death in 1990 many people said to me: “Oh you’re Lilian’s daughter. I have some of her furniture in my home and I love it”. I really like that!
‘Lilian’s’ shop in Copse Road before it was demolished to make way for Coppice Mews
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