Bourne's first department store

A property in Eastgate that began life as Bourne’s first department store 100 years ago is still doing useful service for the town. The building opposite Queen's Bridge, on the corner of Willoughby Road and Victoria Place, stood empty for twenty years, used only as a storage facility, but in March 2005 it was bought by Sally Lewis who moved her Attica business there from Cherryholt Road later in the year.

The original store on this site was opened by John Branston in 1860, selling a wide range of goods including household linen, curtains and fabrics, boots and shoes, men and women’s clothing, candles and groceries, and soon became the biggest retail outlet in the town, surviving a big warehouse fire on the night of Thursday 28th October 1908. The Stamford Mercury reported the following Friday:

On Thursday evening a serious outbreak of fire occurred on Mr Branston's premises in Eastgate. Mr Branston occupies a grocery and drapery premises in Eastgate and just opposite the entrance to the shop is a warehouse in which is stored brushes, candles, firelighters &c., on the ground floor and heavier goods on the top floor, which included on Thursday last a box of boots which had not been unpacked. Mr Branston was returning home on Thursday evening when he noticed a volume of smoke in the vicinity of the premises and on arriving home found it was issuing from his warehouse. On opening the warehouse door, the volume of smoke burst into flames. Buckets of water were immediately thrown on the flames and with some assistance the fire was extinguished before it spread to any of the adjoining premises. As it was, considerable damage was done to some of the stock in the warehouse by fire and water. The loss is fully covered by insurance.

Mr Branston also built a pair of houses next door in Willoughby Road that bear his initials and the date 1900 and he lived in one of them in retirement after handing over the business to his only son, Thomas Elmore Branston, and in 1909, he built the present premises of yellow brick and blue slate, the same materials used for a terrace of new houses erected in the Austerby a few years later. A stone plaque on the front records the date of construction together with his initials TEB while the name Branston has been picked out in mosaic in the front doorway. 

In 1913, the business was sold to George Bett who had wide experience of the retail trade, having been apprenticed to a grocer and draper at Mareham-le-Fen, near Horncastle, Lincolnshire, and in 1895 went to work at the Bon Marché at Brixton, London, built in 1878 and the first department store to be established in Britain, employing 400 people who all worked and resided on the premises.

Mr Bett ran the business for 33 years during which time he became one of the town’s leading citizens, making a significant contribution to local affairs as a member of Bourne Urban District Council, being elected in 1923 and becoming chairman twice, in 1928-29 and again in 1936-37.

When he retired in 1946, the business was sold to Messrs L and H Hayhurst who remained there until 1970 when the building was bought by Geoffrey Worley, a former RAF serviceman, who used it for a furniture retail business known as Kinnsway and it remained in his family until 2005, the clock dial over the main entrance bearing their name. The shop closed 1985 when the firm moved to new premises in South Street, now run by his twin sons Barry and Michael, and the Eastgate property has since been used for storage although an application to turn it into flats was submitted to South Kesteven District Council in 2003 but the scheme did not materialise.

The new owner has retained many desirable features in the premises including Victorian wood-panelled rooms, fireplaces and period doorways and windows. “It is a spacious and stylish old building”, said Miss Lewis, “the biggest shop in Bourne until Budgens opened and I have retained as much of the original as possible.”  

 
Store advertising poster from 1930 

REVISED MAY 2005

See also     John Branston     George Bett     Eastgate

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