00:00So we're here at Watson and Thornton, Fabrics and Haberdashery, and erm, hello sir Brian, how are you?
00:06Good morning, I'm very well actually, getting very excited.
00:09Well yeah, your working days are nearly done aren't they sir?
00:13Well, I don't know about working, I've got jobs at home.
00:16Well yeah, so you're about to be leaving here, and sadly to the customers of Shrewsbury and beyond,
00:24because you've clocked up 50 years with the company.
00:27I'm a man and boy, I have, for the company.
00:29So let's go back to erm, yay old days then.
00:32How did you first get involved and what was that role?
00:36Well, I was a Saturday boy on the market, at Ellesmere Port to begin with.
00:42My boss, Colin Thornton, he lived next door to my mum and dad when he first got married.
00:46And I said, do you need a Saturday boy? And he said, come along.
00:50So we did, so every morning, 7 o'clock we used to be off to Ellesmere Port.
00:55Yep, and you were living Congleton Way at that time?
00:58I lived in Congleton in Cheshire, I did.
01:00So markets were the start, and that was Ellesmere Port, and there was a couple of others you used to travel to?
01:06Yes, we did. Wellington, we came down here on a Wednesday to Shrewsbury, Oswestry as well.
01:13And we had actually a shop in Congleton in Cheshire.
01:15Yeah, and then you eventually moved into this shop.
01:20This shop, I mean it's expanded over the years hasn't it?
01:23Very much so, very much so.
01:25The part that we're in with the original part, and then all through the years we've expanded,
01:30it got bigger, got bigger, and we can't get any bigger.
01:33It is, it's like a TARDIS, it keeps going up when you come in doesn't it?
01:36I get my step counting.
01:37Yeah, I can believe it.
01:39What was that little, we were just having a little chinwag off camera, just tell us that little anecdote.
01:43This used to be a newsagents didn't it, back in the day?
01:46Well this part, number 27, used to be Hollyoaks, the newsagents and fishing tackle shop.
01:51Maybe older people might know it, remember it.
01:56And it was the only shop, newsagents, open at the time when we used to come down to the market.
02:01So we used to get our newspaper, wait for the market to open and that was it.
02:04Who'd have thought, it's funny how things work isn't it?
02:06If someone would have tapped you on the shoulder and said, well you'll be here, you know.
02:09And we were.
02:10Yeah, yeah.
02:11So how old are you now then Brian, I'm getting personal.
02:14I will be 66 in September.
02:16So you literally started as a young lad then didn't you?
02:19I was 13.
02:20Yeah, wow.
02:21So this shop's been here 46 years.
02:2446 years we have.
02:25How long have you been on the ground here then, serving customers here?
02:28Actually, probably 35 of those maybe 46 years.
02:34Might even be a little bit longer than that, might be coming up to 40.
02:37Because I used to do the markets in Wellington.
02:39Used to come over on a Wednesday to Shrewsbury Market, go back to Wellington on the Thursday.
02:45On Friday off and back to Wellington on Saturday.
02:48So you must, I mean, you must have built up quite relationships with customers really haven't you?
02:53Oh, that's been one of the best things about the job actually.
02:56Meeting so many people and over the years people have grown up
03:01and they've come, they've left Shrewsbury, they've come back and they say,
03:05Oh, are you still here?
03:07You haven't changed have you?
03:09Well I hope so, I've got less hair and more wrinkles.
03:13But yeah, I guess these kind of shops, it's about that kind of proper service isn't it?
03:18You don't just come in and beep something on the till and pick something off a shelf.
03:21We've always prided ourselves on customer service actually over the years.
03:25It does make a big difference, it does make a big difference and people appreciate it.
03:29You can go into supermarkets and you'll see nobody really,
03:32or nobody to interact with apart from the people on the till.
03:36Here we give advice.
03:38Do you think that's what's kept you here, that personable side of the job?
03:42It has, it has, it's been one of the plus points.
03:45I actually always wanted to be a teacher but I ended up marrying one.
03:48Oh did you?
03:49I did.
03:50Well you've got a ruler in your hands.
03:53I remember having a few rulers in my time before.
03:58Before it was banned.
03:59So you leave Shrewsbury now, you moved a number of years ago to the town itself.
04:04I moved in 1984, moved to Castlefields from Congleton.
04:08I was travelling more or less four or five days a week.
04:12Sometimes I used to actually stay over here with Mr Thornton
04:16because he's got a flat above the shop.
04:18And then I decided it was time to leave home.
04:22I think my mum was fed up with me.
04:25And it's still the Thornton family isn't it?
04:27It's still the Thornton family.
04:29Even though they kept the name of Watson and Thornton,
04:33it was easy to keep all the stationery and everything.
04:37And everybody knows us either as Watson and Thornton or the boys.
04:41And you were saying people thought the shop was closing when you said you were going, didn't you?
04:45They did, they were very worried.
04:47But don't worry, the shop's still going to be here.
04:51Expanding all the time.
04:53Mr and Mrs Thornton's daughter, Pascale, has now taken over the business
04:56and she's got things up and running and tickety-boo.
05:01And what's kind of your role then?
05:03So you come in, you assist, just fill us in on what you do in the haberdashery.
05:08Well over the years I've been Jack of all trades, but master of none.
05:13I don't like using that term.
05:16I do virtually anything.
05:18I do the tills, I help clean the shop, help keep it tidy, keep it restocked,
05:23do the stock taking.
05:25Yep, I can do most of the things.
05:27And serve the customers.
05:30So are we getting customers, is it Shrewsbury people
05:33or do people kind of travel in from outside of the town to come here?
05:37We have a very big catchment area.
05:40A lot of people from the West Midlands, Wolverhampton Way, Mid Wales,
05:46even sort of Chester now because they've lost their fabric shop.
05:49Yeah, well there was a...
05:51Reputation precedes us.
05:52Yeah, well Express and Star covered a wool shop closing in Wolverhampton
05:55and I guess as those kind of places close this becomes even more important
05:59doesn't it to serve the community?
06:01It does, it does actually.
06:03I mean at one time there were at least seven senior schools doing GCSE and A level
06:08dressmaking, sewing, but now I think it's down to maybe two, two and a half.
06:13Yeah.
06:14And that's a shame really because where's the younger talent coming from?
06:17Yeah.
06:18And also apparently a lot less colleges and so on doing upholstery courses
06:23these days, some I've been told.
06:25Yeah, there's a few.
06:26I mean the sewing bee on TV always gives us a shot in the arm
06:29and I think hopefully inspires the younger generation
06:33and maybe people who have lapsed and would say,
06:36Oh, I can do that.
06:38Yes you can.
06:39So does it tend to be mostly people coming in who are doing stuff to do with clothing
06:44or is it furniture, is it 50-50?
06:46Well over the years it's developed, as a shop we've developed and expanded.
06:52We used to be predominantly dress fabrics, but now we do furnishing fabrics,
06:56craft and lots of haberdashery.
06:59So patch workers, we have lots of patch workers.
07:01Yeah.
07:02And we offer classes as well, so if people want to learn.
07:04Oh wow.
07:05Yeah, my boss's daughter, she does the teaching.
07:09Does that happen on site here?
07:10It does.
07:11Oh wow.
07:12We've got a classroom upstairs.
07:13Oh fantastic.
07:14And lots of other things.
07:15Yeah, yeah.
07:16It's a big shop.
07:17Yeah, yeah.
07:18So what are your skills like back at home?
07:19If we went to your house, are we going to find tatty cushions,
07:21do you have your fill of it at work?
07:23My wife's the sewer, because that's how we met.
07:25She was at Sixth Form doing O-Levels and A-Level while I was on the market,
07:29so she's the sewer.
07:30But me, they call me Break It Bri.
07:33If it can be broken, I can break it.
07:36But I'll give it a go.
07:39Any particular notable customers that come to mind over the years?
07:43I'm putting you on the spot here really.
07:44Oh, Barry's putting me on the spot because there's been that many of them
07:47because of my time here.
07:48Yeah.
07:49Many, many, many customers.
07:51Yeah.
07:52And I guess that's probably made,
07:53did that make the decision all the more difficult to say,
07:56right, now is the time I'm going?
07:58Oh, very much so, very much so.
08:00It's going to be the interaction that I am going to miss.
08:02But I go to the gym five times a week,
08:04so I've got guys there I can sort of chat to.
08:07Yeah, yeah.
08:08Just keep myself fit and chatty.
08:10So do you think you'll still be popping in for a cup of tea in a chin rag now and again?
08:13Well, I'm not a big tea drinker or coffee drinker actually,
08:16but yes.
08:17Yeah.
08:18I mean, like I said, I've been part of the family for such a long time.
08:21They've grown up with me and I've grown up with them.
08:24You know what, when you think about it actually,
08:26I guess you've probably spent more time in your working life with your colleagues
08:32than I have with my relatives, you know.
08:34So you do become part of that family, don't you really?
08:36Yeah, you do, you do.
08:37And it is lovely actually, it really is.
08:39You feel part and parcel of the company.
08:43Yeah.
08:44And I was going to ask what you're going to be doing with your spare time,
08:47but obviously the gym's a big thing.
08:48Well it is, but I'm going to maybe, because I'm usually in at half past six in the morning,
08:52so maybe won't have to get up so early.
08:54Yeah.
08:55I can sort of do my own thing when I want to.
08:57I've got a wedding in Australia next year
09:00and a local wedding, a concert to go to.
09:03I'm going to give myself time to settle in.
09:06I'm a creature of habit.
09:08Creature of habit.
09:09So half six, that's an early start isn't it?
09:11Well yes, I have to be up at five past six to get there for half past six.
09:15Yeah, yeah.
09:16Luckily the gym I go to, the Shrewsbury Club,
09:18is only about five, ten minutes away from home.
09:20So I can more or less change, fall out of bed, get in,
09:23and get in and do the class.
09:25Well, we'll give you the last word Brian.
09:27Is there anything you want to say to the customers
09:29that you've worked alongside with over the years?
09:32I'd like to thank them for coming in, putting up with me.
09:35Sometimes my rival humour can be a little bit.
09:39I hope to see them around, but you never know.
09:43So here we have Pascal Thornton
09:45and a lot of customers think you're husband and wife.
09:50We can set the record straight, that's not the case.
09:53That's not the case.
09:54So Pascal, it's your family business.
09:56Will you be sad to see Brian go?
09:58Yeah, of course we are.
09:59He's an absolute gem.
10:01He's done us proud over the years
10:03and we wish him all the best.
10:05Yeah, I mean I've got a sense just the few minutes I've spent with him
10:07the kind of warmth.
10:08So I can imagine when you've got a customer face in business
10:11that's what you want, isn't it?
10:12Yeah, absolutely.
10:13He's brilliant.
10:15The customers come in for miles and miles and miles
10:17and they're all amazed that he's still here.
10:20Yeah, we are finally managing to get rid of him, aren't we Brian?
10:24Yeah, we've been trying for a while.
10:26What we were saying, I bet you've spent more time with Brian,
10:29although you're not husband and wife,
10:31I bet you've spent more time with Brian
10:32than a lot of your members of your family, haven't you?
10:34Well, he's literally been around my whole lifetime.
10:37So yeah, he's been a dad as well as a husband.
10:41But you'll be sad to see him go then?
10:42Of course we will, yeah.
10:43That's nice, isn't it?
10:44End of an era for him, but all the best in the future.
10:48Never say never.
10:49Yeah, he's welcome back at any time.
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