Like most residents I was dismayed to learn that three more shops will be closing; Monsoon/Accessorize, Sugar Smith and Botsfords.
Botsfords is almost synonymous with Hertford. It is sad to see such a famous name disappear from our town.
I have written countless reports which have no doubt ended up in the same place as that written by the Retail Group (see previous post). I used to point to Hertford as being almost unique these days as having a haberdashery (Margaret Hart), a diving school (In Depth) and an ironmongers (Botsfords).
‘What made Hertford famous made a loser out of me’ – apologies to Schlitz beer, Milwaukee, Rod Stewart and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Quite ironically Mrs B saw a plea on Facebook from a person looking for information on Addis. My curiosity fanned I took a look through ‘Mercury Remembers’. This was a 120 page supplement issued by the Hertfordshire Mercury in 2001 and looking back over the town’s history.
I saw the headline: ‘Shutting up shop after 200 years’. It was a feature on Gravesons which was closed in 2001. Now in 2020 the current tenants Monsoon/Accessorize are also closing down in town.
Inside I had stored a yellowing copy of ‘Hertford Past & Present’; a Midweek Mercury Supplement from July 1983. From this and the above here are three photos showing Gravesons through the century. I cannot give any more credit to the photographers other than they all appeared in those two publications.
An exterior view of Gravesons as it was in 1928
The interior of the shop as it was in 1905 with chairs supplied for customers
Gravesons as it appeared in 1920
The end of an era approaches and we all await with bated breath the future development of Bircherley Green.
All my previous posts archived here:
- July 2020 (2)
- June 2020 (1)
- May 2020 (2)
- April 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (1)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (2)
- December 2019 (1)
- November 2019 (1)
- October 2019 (3)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (2)
- July 2019 (1)
- June 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (1)
- March 2019 (3)
- February 2019 (2)
- January 2019 (3)
- March 2018 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- September 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (1)
- June 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (2)
- November 2016 (10)