York Museums Trust Blog

A new shop has now opened on York Castle Museum’s Victorian Street, Kirkgate, as part of our ongoing development work on the street, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

The Little Dust Pan is named after a real York shop in Fossgate, which was the Victorian version of today’s Barnitts, a city ironmongers which aimed to sell anything you could want for your home.

It is situated opposite the stairs where visitors enter the street and greets them with an array of everyday goods crowded into its bay windows.

We spent a couple of days finishing off the displays trying to show as many objects from our collection as possible, with the help of two guest experts from Bradford Museums and Galleries, Daru Rooke (who you may have seen on Channel 4′s The 1900 House) and Dale Keeton.

The real Little Dust Pan was owned and run by entrepreneur John Parkes. Originally from the Midlands, John moved to York with his wife and started a business as a Commission Agent, buying and selling goods. By 1881 he was running a furniture dealership in Fossgate and he soon took over his neighbour’s shop and opened The Little Dustpan.

He advertised his business widely and offered a diverse range of goods including ironmongery, glass and china, general home furnishings,  brush making, cutler, general dealer, hardware, mattress maker, bedding warehouse, locksmith, iron and tin plate worker and tool warehouse.

He and his wife had seven children and the eldest son John trained as an ironmonger. He died in 1920, but shortly after his death the business was sold by auction. J Parkes&Sons Ltd continued trading until 1927 and was then replaced by a grocery business, marking the end of an era of a self-made man’s emporium.

A typical display of boots in J Kidd's window

The latest shop to get a new look as part of the re-development of our Victorian Street, Kirkgate, is J Kidd, the boot maker, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, Curator of History.

Again we have used research to make sure each shop we complete is based on a real Victorian York business. Look out for more blog posts, or visit the museum over the next few months, to see them taking shape.

The shop window of J Kidd, bootmaker

James Kidd was born in 1841 and grew up in rural Melbourne, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. His mother was a dressmaker.

As a young man James moved to Wheldrake, a village on the outskirts of York. He married Amelia in 1865 and lived with his in-laws who were agricultural labourers.

A pair of children's boots in the shop window

Two of the couple’s children were born in Wheldrake, and they went on to have five children although two girls died young. In the 1870s the family moved to York and James set up as a boot maker. He was to stay in business for over 30 years, with his sons as apprentices and later boot makers in their own right.

The business was located on Wellington St, close to the family home and the work of his daughter, Elizabeth, who was a housemaid at a private lunatic asylum.

An advert for another boot and shoe business in York

Another boot shop in York used cautionary verse in its advertisement...

There were very many boot and shoe shops in York. In 1896 there were 137 listed in the Trade Directories. The majority were York-based with a clog maker in the Little Shambles.

Boot makers who advertised showed that there was a huge product range, from Boots & Shoes Made Without Stitches  to French imported silk and satin shoes.

Boot makers like James, working on the streets where people lived, were as important as the corner grocer, somewhere to go for a quick cheap repair of an expensive, essential commodity.

This advert for a corn 'cure' shows the need for a good pair of boots!

Work is well underway on the re-development of our Victorian street, Kirkgate, which is being changed and expanded to reflect the lives of real shopkeepers from York, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, Curator of History. 

Epworth's shop window in Kirkgate

The first shop to have received its facelift is Epworth’s Jewellers, which has had its window decorated and redesigned.

The Epworth’s family business began as a pawnbrokers, jewellers and silversmiths in 1831 in Precentor’s Court near York Minster. It was run by husband and wife Charles from Lancashire and Rachel fromDevon.

By 1851 they had six children and four years later had bought another business in High Petergate.

Detail from Epworth's shop window

When Charles died, Rachel ran the business with the help of her children before remarrying. Rachel and her new husband sold their High Petergate business to local pawnbroker Henry Hardcastle.

In 1874 the youngest Epworth daughter, Elizabeth, opened up a jewellery and silversmith business at 79 Low Petergate and four years later moved to Spurriergate.

She ran the shop with her niece and Mrs Emma Owen, a widow and lady of ‘independent means’. Elizabeth traded for 27 years retiring in 1905.

Epworth's Martinmas sale advert

This lovely advert was printed to co-incide with the annual Martinmas Fair, which was a big event in York and took place on November 22.

It started traditionally as a ‘hiring fair’, where workers would go to find work with employers, but grew to become a pleasure fair with stall and exhibitions.

More shops will be completed as work progresses over the next few months. Regular visitors will see some shops close – then open again – as we install new displays and tell the stories of York’s Victorian traders.

Another detail from Epworth's window

Real-life York stories of struggle, hard work, riches and losses are being gathered together for the next stage of improvements to York Castle Museum’s Victorian Street, Kirkgate, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

We’ve been working for several months now on researching the  history of York shops and businesses to see if we can build them into Kirkgate over the next few months.

We wanted to bring real traders’ names into the street and to combine their stories with the vast collections held at York Castle Museum to give a fresh look to the street while keeping its long-held appeal for visitors.

The interior of Sessions' booksellers - photo used by kind permission of Sessions family

An advert for Leak & Thorp

Names familiar to York residents today will be there – such as Robson and Coopers (then Coopers’ Saddlers), Banks’ Music, Sessions’ booksellers and Leak & Thorp drapers. We’ve had a fascinating time talking to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Victorian owners of these businesses.

The exterior of Horsley's Gunsmiths

An advert for taxidermist Edward Allen

We’ll also be including names probably forgotten to today’s generation, such as The Little Dust Pan – a shop which sold ‘everything’ (similar to York’s Barnitts’ today), Greenwoods Antiquities (the Victorians loved antiques), Horsley’s Gunsmiths, Kendalls’  Toy Shop and Fancy Repository, Henry Hardcastle Pawnbrokers and Edward Allen the taxidermist.

We’ll be opening up a corridor previously closed to the public and including a Cocoa Room, where people were encouraged to drink hot chocolate rather than alcohol, plus Rymers’ Undertakers.

A group of York people photographed as part of Seebohm's 1901 report on poverty, photo used by kind permission of the Rowntree Society

Another corridor will be doubled in height and will be altered to resemble a back alley, or ‘snickleway’, where visitors will be able to peer into the inside of a poor family’s home, based on how York’s Seebohm Rowntree described living conditions at the time.

Preparations are nearing completion now with building work scheduled to start in the New Year, and we have already started making small changes to the street which sharp-eyed regular visitors will probably notice.

There’s much more planned and we will be updating you via this blog over the next few months as work progresses!

Our Victorian street piano has been renovated recently and is a regular feature of Kirkgate, entertaining visitors at York Castle Museum, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history. 

Museum guides Carl Newbould and Alan Milner with the refurbished street piano in our Victorian street, Kirkgate

It now plays ten tunes, the clearest being  There they are and Funiculi funicula.

Street pianos, or barrel organs, were in most towns in England by the 1880s with their heyday around 1900. They began to decline steadily during the Edwardian period and rapidly during the First World War. By the 1930s they were a rare sight.

They were generally made by Italian immigrants in London. The first ones were also played by Italian immigrants but by 1900 over half were played by Englishmen.

Records show that a lot of money could be made on a good day, organ-grinders who knew their patch knew which tunes were popular, and when their customers had just been paid so Saturdays was always the best day of the week.

However, in some streets, residents would pay organ-grinders to move away from their houses further down the street so they didn’t have to listen to the music!

This street piano was built around 1895-1900 by Capra, Rissone & Company of 30, Warner Street, Clerkenwell, London.

It was bought by Canon Algernon O. Wintle of Lawshall Rectory, Bury St Edmunds in 1947.

Canon Wintle was a clergyman but his life-long hobby was mechanical musical instruments. He re-furbished many street pianos, primarily to give work to ex-servicemen after the First World War, and learnt how to set the tunes, he traded as The East Anglian Automatic Piano Company. Between 1948 and 1950 Canon Wintle rebuilt this street piano and set the tunes and he donated it to the museum in 1950.

Street pianos were made of wood so they were light enough to push. They have a wooden frame with tuned strings hit by felt-faced hammers. These hammers are caused to move by a large wooden pinned barrel turned by a handle on the side of the box.

There is another handle for changing the tune, and when turned it raises the keys clear of the pins, moves the barrel along to another set of pins, drops the keys again, and indicates the number of the new tune.

Watch this interesting old Pathe News film  from 1960 to see Antonion Tomasso, preparing a barrel, marking it, and later seen playing it.  Mr Tomasso was this country’s best barrel piano arranger and came from a family extensively connected with the street piano business.   

Wartime fashions are the focus of a new film we’ve made as part of a year-long project called Talking Textiles, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

We’ve been looking behind the scenes of York Castle Museum at highlights of our costume and textile collection with the expert help of ex-conservator Mary Brooks. She has been shedding new light on what we know about how these fashions were made and worn.

As part of the exercise we decided to make some short films giving a close-up of some of the delicate pieces of clothing in our stores. We’re really pleased with the first one which looks at utility clothing, made during the Second World War and in the post-war rationing period.

Take a look and see what you think: Wartime Fashions at York Castle Museum

Thanks to the Monument Trust and the Museums Association for the funding for this project.

Buying a quarter of sweets is a childhood experience that visitors love reminiscing about when they visit our Terry’s sweet shop in York Castle Museum, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

We’re hoping they’ll be able to re-live those nostalgic purchases when we start selling hand-made Victorian-recipe sweets next year.

Museum guide India Hood in our sweet shop

The move is part of a makeover we’ve given the shop over the last few months which has enabled us to try and make it as authentic as possible to the 1890s.

Visitors are amazed to discover the variety of sweets Terry’s were selling in this period – long before they became nationally famous for their chocolate products in the 1920s and 30s.

Popular choices which people still remember today were cachous, a variety of boiled sweets made in numerous flavours, as well as jujubes (jellies)  and sherbert.

A page from Terry's wholesale catalogue

But Terry’s were also producing a full range of pharmaceutical and hospital lozenges including a morphine variety, as well as a range of smokers’ cachous range – usually mints!

Our shop doesn’t go this far, but has a large selection of sweets which were made specially for the museum by Terry’s when the company was still operating in York. They don’t have flavourings in but were otherwise made to historic recipes. We’ve got them out on display in large jars behind the newly-lowered counter, where visitors can buy sugar mice.

Next year visitors will be able to buy a quarter of hand-made sweets, weighed out in old fashioned trading scales then poured into traditional paper cones to take home.

We’ve also tried to include more advertising material from Terry’s on the shop counter and in the window, including a great image which gave us a lot of inspiration for the  new look.

An original advert from the 1890s

It shows a happy young girl clutching her newly-bought cone of sweets outside Terry’s sweet shop, which was in St Helen’s Square  in the centre of York – and was discovered by my fellow curator Sherri Steel after a long search through our archive material from Terry’s.

The sign above our counter

Terry’s distinctive logo, which is still recognisable today, is emblazoned across the top and we were lucky that our maintenance technician Andrew Wilson also happens to be a trained sign writer, so he was able to recreate the 1890s design above our shop counter.

During the 1890s Terry’s shop served quite an upmarket clientele in York and was expanding with its new cafe and the advert shows the kind of image Terry’s wanted to portray as they branched out into a new cafe and expanded their range of confectionery.

Terry's shop in York

It’s been a team effort and we’re still adding to it, but we hope the new-look shop continues to be enjoyed by our visitors long into the 21st century!

STOP PRESS!

We’ve just confirmed that we’ll be selling hand-made chocolate Vanilla Creams in our sweet shop over the Christmas at the Castle 2010 period, inspired by an original Terry’s recipe!

For more about the history of Terry’s see our website.