O/T Bens toy shop.

69 WALLOP · Post by **69 WALLOP** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:15 pm

Jedi the shop where Frydays is now was definitely the sports shop in 1990’s as my mate worked there on Saturdays for a good few years.

Rodneyyouplonker · Post by **Rodneyyouplonker** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:15 pm

Ahhh Benns Toy Shop was a kids dream, absolutely loved it in a there, seem to remember it being very tight and not much room for maneuver. Used to get my 'big heads' from there, my favourites being Del Piero and Dennis Wise. Good memories.

Eloise Laws · Post by **Eloise Laws** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:16 pm

[quote]Thanks for clarifying, I thought I was dreaming it./quote]

Don't think they were open at the same time though

Jimmymaccer · Post by **Jimmymaccer** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:19 pm

Who can remember Fitzpatricks toy shop?

Now that was a proper toy shop with air fix kits, scalextric, and I think I got a sooty puppet from there!

I think the son went on to own The Harper’s pub, then the Higher Trapp so not so bad for a toy shop owner!

jedi_master · Post by **jedi_master** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:20 pm

Just to add a bit of further confusion/strangeness to this delightful delve into various shops of Burnley yore, does anyone remember a rather bizarre shop that used to be across from Focus (formerly Do It All)?

I reckon it was called Quest, but it could have been something even odder than that. It used to be so ridiculously packed (with tat, not people) and to me as a nipper was like a maze. I used to get lost and find myself surrounded by snow globes and christmas decorations. A real oddity.

69 WALLOP · Post by **69 WALLOP** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:23 pm

Quest world then quest word

69 WALLOP · Post by **69 WALLOP** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:24 pm

Anyone remember Malcolm Yardleys?

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:30 pm

Who remembers Taskers. Now that is bringing back memories. I remember going down every isle and filling the trolley - I think I had change from a tenner. Cheap as chips.

Pstotto · Post by **Pstotto** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:52 pm

I had a t-shirt with a monster that said Hi! I went into Benns and the lovely girls who worked there said "Hi!" I was completely amazed, I thought why are they saying that to me? I didn't realize I had it on my shirt.

Websters. Now that was a toy shop. It was at the bottom of that steep street down from working class zero's photo, before the town centre was ripped out. I got a Lancia Matchbox car there. I still have it, minus the luggage.

Dark Cloud · Post by **Dark Cloud** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:01 pm

The people with the longest memories (i.e. older!) have it correct. When I was a kid Benn's was in the large building with the rectangular windows and was quite an Aladdin's cave which went on to 2 floors. We'd often go in on a Saturday morning and I actually bought a fairly large sheath knife in there!! (Didn't everybody buy one in those days??) as they sold loads of stuff besides toys and games, including leather goods as outlined above. They eventually shrank into the Frydays building and sold only toys for quite a while before closing altogether.
Websters: I got my farm yard and all the animals in Websters! Fantastic.

Eloise Laws · Post by **Eloise Laws** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:25 pm

Whilst we remember the Wimpy Bars one on the Market Sq Balcony and one on St James St, between what is now Frydays and Althams Travel, can anyone remember the original one in the 60s on the opposite side of the St James St, near to Timpsons shoe shop, and if my memory is correct there was a dark sloping passage way went down from the main Street to Webster's toy shop .....

TVC15 · Post by **TVC15** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:26 pm

69 WALLOP wrote:Anyone remember Malcolm Yardleys?

Oh yes - used to get my Samba from there. Plus he used to resole your old sambas for £8 !!

Jeremy_Bentham · Post by **Jeremy_Bentham** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:37 pm

. did his two weeks work experience from school at Benn's. He didn't enjoy it.

ClaretEngineer · Post by **ClaretEngineer** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:37 pm

Benn's was a great shop. I had a Scalextric Ferrari F1 from there along with numerous Airfix Hurricane's, Spitfire's and Lancaster Bomber's.

I probably had enough planes to launch a decent raid in 1:72 scale. They're still in my dads loft.

On a similar note, does anyone remember Windmill Models down near the old Empire Theatre?

Edit: Cocker's was my Uncle's shop (or at least his family's), I used to think it was mega that a relation had a shop!

Loyalclaret · Post by **Loyalclaret** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:51 pm

Only place a kid could buy smoke bombs in the 90’s that I remember!

Flatline · Post by **Flatline** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:55 pm

Jimmymaccer wrote:Who can remember Fitzpatricks toy shop?

Now that was a proper toy shop with air fix kits, scalextric, and I think I got a sooty puppet from there!

I think the son went on to own The Harper’s pub, then the Higher Trapp so not so bad for a toy shop owner!

I used to live next door to Ken Fitzpatrick on Hawthorne Rd in the 80's,it was a toy shop and bike shop and he carried it on from his dad I think.Pretty sure it was him who owned The Harper’s pub, then the Higher Trapp.

iluva64 · Post by **iluva64** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:57 pm

Am I right in thinking that the first floor of Benn's became one of the first Indian Restaurants in Burnley.

I vaguely remember going there at 1:00 in the morning usually drunk. Would have been 1979,80,81??

Funkydrummer · Post by **Funkydrummer** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:32 pm

Their main competition in 50's and 60's was Websters on St James' Street, next to
The Palace.

As I remember, it was a huge building on several levels right the way down to Hall
Street which ran across the back.

Pstotto · Post by **Pstotto** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:56 pm

There was a toy shop with an upstairs that wasn't Benns, I have the memory of looking at a diecast model jet there. It must have been Websters because I remember the shop having several levels.

Eloise Laws · Post by **Eloise Laws** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:59 am

Am I right in thinking that the first floor of Benn's became one of the first Indian Restaurants in Burnley.

I vaguely remember going there at 1:00 in the morning usually drunk. Would have been 1979,80,81??

Are you not thinking of restaurant that was on the corner, it was initially the Lin Hong Chinese restaurant then went on to become the Al Kadin?

RocketLawnChair · Post by **RocketLawnChair** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 7:42 am

I remember Knockout and Hooby Do, you could get your hands on some really useless shite in either of those.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:31 am

For us older ones, the main toy shop in Burnley was Websters. Difficult to say exactly where it was now but somewhere in the car park below the shopping centre.

duncandisorderly · Post by **duncandisorderly** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:27 am

I went every saturday for years, in both buildings. Val continued the wargames side of it for a few years after in the big pet shop on Princess Way (I think it's called, just off the roundabout on the way into Burnley from the Nelson side). Happy daze.

Pstotto · Post by **Pstotto** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:55 am

http://oldburnley.blogspot.co.uk/p/town-centre.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; According to this link, Webster's was just down from Manchester Road, so my initial memory is almost correct (previous posting.) However I also have a memory of it being down at the bottom of the street from Kierby Walk to where the car park links to the Bridge pub.

CrispyClaret · Post by **CrispyClaret** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:31 pm

Webster’s was on the right hand side going downhill under what is now Boots, vague memories of going into a dark passage to get to it. Cockers when it was on Church street seemed to occupy hundreds of floors it was so much like a rabbit warren. Fitzpatricks I was never a fan of but loved Windmill Models when it was further down the road from Fitzpatricks, lovely tiny shop with treasures crammed in. Lost their way when they took over Fitzpatricks old premises. Zodiac in the market square, roughly where Staples used to be. Brightly lit and exciting with a decent range of Action Man stuff. Benns used to scare me, no idea why but I always felt like it was trespassing going upstairs.

THEWELLERNUT70 · Post by **THEWELLERNUT70** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:52 pm

I used to be a window cleaner in my youth down Burnley town centre. Previous posts are correct about Benns having two premises. The big two floored one which was in the grey tiled fronted shop with rectangular windows. The ground floor was stepped as you entered the shop to the left and sold your Lego and board games and stuff like that. The staircase to the 1st floor was on your right as you entered and curved around to the left as you went up the stairs. Up there was your Airfix models,Subbuteo sets and all the Dungeons And Dragons and Citadel figures. It was great in the run up to bonfire night as they had an unbelievable selection of fireworks.

The second where Frydays is was originally Benns Sports and stocked stuff like what Cocker Sports did at that time. The sports shop became the toy shop when indeed Benns scaled things back

THEWELLERNUT70 · Post by **THEWELLERNUT70** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 5:03 pm

Jimmymaccer wrote:Who can remember Fitzpatricks toy shop?

Now that was a proper toy shop with air fix kits, scalextric, and I think I got a sooty puppet from there!

I think the son went on to own The Harper’s pub, then the Higher Trapp so not so bad for a toy shop owner!

Fitzpatrick was at the top of Redbrick Terrace and next door was Windmill Models

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:26 pm

CrispyClaret wrote:Webster’s was on the right hand side going downhill under what is now Boots, vague memories of going into a dark passage to get to it. Cockers when it was on Church street seemed to occupy hundreds of floors it was so much like a rabbit warren. Fitzpatricks I was never a fan of but loved Windmill Models when it was further down the road from Fitzpatricks, lovely tiny shop with treasures crammed in. Lost their way when they took over Fitzpatricks old premises. Zodiac in the market square, roughly where Staples used to be. Brightly lit and exciting with a decent range of Action Man stuff. Benns used to scare me, no idea why but I always felt like it was trespassing going upstairs.

The dark passage you refer to was the one that went down the side of the Palace Theatre from St. James' Street. That would be roughly where the more recent Woolworths was. And it went down to the bottom which I now think could have been Bridge Street. The other way of getting to it was down Hall Street and then left into what is now the car park. Was a fantastic place for kids at the time and far, far bigger than Benns.

uni_queue · Post by **uni_queue** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:17 pm

The street at the bottom of the steep passage was Cannon Street. Ran from the bottom of Hall St to Bridge St.
Bridge street ran from the cross roads at the bottom of Manchester Road through to the side of the Bridge pub. Websters was a big shop and sold household goods and electricals I think, as well as toys. The main part was on the corner of Bridge Street and Cannon Street but the toy dept was on Cannon Street .

CrispyClaret · Post by **CrispyClaret** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:01 pm

The dark passage I had in mind was the entrance to the shop, as though you had to go down a corridor. I wasn’t meaning to suggest the road down was a dark passage. Friends of my parents had a jewellers on the left hand side of the road as you went down. Again fuzzy memory, at 56 most of that part of the 1960s is a bit of a shadow.

Dark Cloud · Post by **Dark Cloud** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:31 pm

I also remember entering Websters back in the 60's via some kind of corridor, but it also seemed to have more than one entrance and exit on different levels. One entrance was definitely down the slope which now leads to the underground car park. I loved it in there.

In the early 70's I bought a drop handle bar 5 gear bike from Fitzpatrick's. (Well my dad did because he forked out the cash!)

We also used to spend hours in Woolworth's when it was on 2 floors in the DW sports shop building on the corner opposite M&S.

Gerry Hattrick · Post by **Gerry Hattrick** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:58 pm

ClaretTony wrote:It was Benns and I'm sure it was further up than Frydays, closer to Croft Street.

Benns moved from their Yorkshire Street shop into the now Frydays shop a few years before closing the business down in 2006.
Before they moved in there, 4 St James Street was the long established ironmongers, C F Hargreaves Ltd, better known as the ‘Golden Padlock’. My dad worked there for a number of years.
The toy shop you’re talking about Tony was Stockdales, on the same block about two doors from the Boot Inn, but I wouldn’t have thought a ‘young old un’ like you

would be able to remember it because I’m fairly sure they moved to premises on the left hand side going up Cliviger Street in the fifties. They certainly did have a shop half way up there because I’ve been in there.
Unlike Benns and Websters, they sold nothing but toys, Well not quite true ‘cos they sold Standard fireworks every year for a few weeks coming up bonfire night.

Dressinggown · Post by **Dressinggown** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:40 pm

Oobidoo
Taskers
Hitchens

Those were the days.

As a young kid my mum used to drag me into 'Hitchens'. It was a 2 floored affair near the Empire. It sold branded seconds ladies clothing. It was like a OAP riot at a jumble sale. There were clothes and bodies everywhere. You could hide under piles of clothes and then jump out causing the elderly to have heart / breathing difficulties.

If I didn't scare pensioners my mum occasionally took me to Zodiak. Benn's was far too posh.

Bought football gear from Malcolm Yardley's on Hall Street. He also had a shop in Padiham.

Anyone remember the Joke Shop on Church Street near the Horse & Coaches ?

Pstotto · Post by **Pstotto** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:08 pm

... Where I got my Mitre Madrid footy boots from Yardley's mum. I had the boots I had the ball I had a pitch, so I can't really have any excuses apart from a lousy school. Oh yeah and poor health and growing up slow, which is an absolute disaster for any aspiring footballer.

beeholeclaret · Post by **beeholeclaret** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:32 pm

I remember dashing into town after school (circa 1971?) to see World Cup hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst who was present to re-open the refurbished Benns store and sign autographs.

chipbutty · Post by **chipbutty** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 11:44 pm

Dressinggown wrote:Oobidoo
Taskers
Hitchens

Those were the days.

As a young kid my mum used to drag me into 'Hitchens'. It was a 2 floored affair near the Empire. It sold branded seconds ladies clothing. It was like a OAP riot at a jumble sale. There were clothes and bodies everywhere. You could hide under piles of clothes and then jump out causing the elderly to have heart / breathing difficulties.

If I didn't scare pensioners my mum occasionally took me to Zodiak. Benn's was far too posh.

Bought football gear from Malcolm Yardley's on Hall Street. He also had a shop in Padiham.

Anyone remember the Joke Shop on Church Street near the Horse & Coaches ?

Yes, it was called RIff Raff. Used to by fart spray and them paper fire cracker things!

Dressinggown · Post by **Dressinggown** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:53 am

Stink bombs, Bangers in a type of Rizla paper wrapping which included some explosive grains, fake blood, chewing gum packs which had a mouse trap inside.

Kids used to crap themselves in the shop to create a more natural aroma.

Building nails that look like they have skewered your thumb. Bits of what looked like cinnamon sticks which you pushed into your parents cigarettes. (Upon lighting there were flames which removed most facial & nasal hair).

Black Tar Soap anyone ?

DHClaret · Post by **DHClaret** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:08 am

Electron Records, Malcolm Yardley Sports (watching Malcolm struggle to put a new grip on your cricket bat was a schoolboy treat) both on Hall Street. Quick Google Search reveals that Electron is still in business - amazing! What was the Record Shop on the top deck of the Market Square (above WH Smiths)? Record Exchange? There was also a shop at the top of Standish Street ...maybe that was Record Exchange. Bought my first ever vinyl there, an Elvis LP, can't remember which one but he was well past his prime

DHClaret · Post by **DHClaret** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:11 am

...and I remember that Malcolm Yardley participated in the 1960 Rome Olympics in the 400 metres.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:39 am

Electron Records - I spent many an hour in there in my teens when it was run by Jim, a proper record shop.

Pstotto · Post by **Pstotto** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:22 am

Ames Records. There was also once a record shop on Parker Lane, briefly. I bought a Roy Wood single there (sad

.) I know someone from Sutton Colfield who says he goes in the local pub and is a down to earth decent bloke. Ahahahahahahaha!

That Standish st. shop was ace. Spent ages looking for slade singles for 20p then hid them down the back of a drawer to get it the following week when had the money.

Dark Cloud · Post by **Dark Cloud** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:43 am

Ames had a number of record shops in several local towns. Most people bought their records there, or in Wooly's.

CrispyClaret · Post by **CrispyClaret** » Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:12 pm

Dark Cloud wrote:We also used to spend hours in Woolworth's when it was on 2 floors in the DW sports shop building on the corner opposite M&S.

I thought Woolies has 3 floors, food in the basement, no idea what on the ground floor and the only bit I cared about, Airfix kits upstairs.

1963Claret · Post by **1963Claret** » Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:18 pm

beeholeclaret wrote:I remember dashing into town after school (circa 1971?) to see World Cup hat-trick hero Geoff Hurst who was present to re-open the refurbished Benns store and sign autographs.

I'd forgotten all about that but you're spot on. I reckon 71 or 72. My friend at school was a Hammers fan and he went down but was gutted as Hurst walked past his tentatively offered autograph book and he never got the signature.