Remembering Chawners
When visiting Hanley recently one could not help but notice the decline in Hope Street.
In the 1970s it was a bustling thoroughfare which featured a multitude of shops that included the famous joke shop near to the top and the 'stale cake shop' half way up which featured not so fresh cakes and broken biscuits to buy for not much more than a ha'penny (half of one pence).
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The ‘Canary’ coloured building is Chawners on Hope Street, Hanley, now in 2012
Near to the bottom and by all accounts the big attraction on Hope Street though was Chawners. Chawners was a fashionable clothes shop featuring the avant-garde Hanley styles of the day for children, teenagers and young adults.
In the 1970s Chawners were selling clothes that were 'in'. This included the Ben Sherman with the panda collar, Star Jumpers that featured 3 stars on the front, Tonics, Tonic checks and Parallels. The latter were trendy slacks where both legs were parallel with each other in width all the way down; thus the name Parallels.
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The trousers were usually held upstairs in the two storey shop where they bore names indicating their particular colour. There were Wines (a maroon or purplish colour) Stones (a cream or an off white) Petrol Blues (a light blue) and Canaries (a bold yellow).
Information on Chawners as in who owned it, when it first opened and when it finally closed down is obscure.
Comments
by miss_d_fyed85
Thursday, December 06 2012, 5:13PM
“Can remember Blue John Pottery just down the road. My father worked there. Like most Pot Banks, pub close by. The Three Crowns.”
by claire1066
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:57PM
“eeee, them were the days!”
by MusicHallFan
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:42PM
“The Music Shop at the top was Chatfields, run by Dennis Chatfield and his wife Mildred. A great place to frequent and Dennis was a superb pianist! Unfortunately they both died a few years ago.”
by Dazwozere
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:33PM
“I remember the joke shop at the top that used to sell stink bombs and joke poop and such. The shop was an orangey colour or a tanny colour with a big window frame. I do remember one night in the early 1970's when I was a kid and found some 'false poop' outside the shop. I remember it started to become softer in the rain and I picked it up. I don't know to this day if it was false poop or real. How's that for nostalgia?”
by oatcake_eater
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:12PM
“this item needs the "hovis theme" hummed quietly in the background as it's being read”
by Stan_Byerman
Thursday, December 06 2012, 3:32PM
“Trentvale - I don't think that it was Bourne Sports opposit the top of Hope Street, I think it was Dales Sports.”
by johnygreenway
Thursday, December 06 2012, 12:53PM
“I too can remember Chawners and the tubes where the money fired through . They were made by a local company called "Dart Cash" , a fitting name for the product . Dart Cash later became a fabrication company in Stoke but sadly like many others is no longer in business”
by johnboy2011
Thursday, December 06 2012, 12:38PM
“Chatfields music shop was at the top of Hope St on the corner in the 70s, I was in a band at the time and we got all our instruments from there, guitars drums amps the lot. Great days.”
by stokeandvale
Thursday, December 06 2012, 12:24PM
“Talking of Closing down sales, can anyone recall Bourne sports at the top of Hope street (maybe the other side) there closing down sale went on forever.
Got all my subuotteo football teams from there.”
by zxcvbn2
Thursday, December 06 2012, 9:49AM
“My uncle Reg worked at Chawners for many many after Coxs in Burslem got shut of him.”