Shawclough & Healey May 2019

Joining the business in 1958, Anthony Senior
carried on the family tradition of producing
quality clothes. By 1960 the company expanded
and to meet the fashions of the day set up a
ready-to-wear department on site. However,
by 1999 the menswear department which had
been at the heart of Seniors closed down and,
on Anthony Senior’s retirement in 2001, so too
the ladieswear section.
Redman’s
Situated on Yorkshire Street, Redman’s
was one of the main grocery competitors to
James Duckworth’s although its provisions
were distinctive and different. A large store,
Redman’s seemed to be specialists in cooked
meats and that smell was the first thing that
hit you as you entered the shop. It was a smell
which was carried through the store and into
a large café that was a meeting place for many
shoppers in Rochdale.
But Redman’s had certain products for sale
that other shops didn’t have. I remember there
being wire baskets containing what were
promoted as ‘continental foods’ where you
could find such strange delicacies as
chocolate ants (goodness knows what they
were !) and frogs legs which came in small
sardine-type tins and which tasted of chicken.
Haworth’s
One of the most prominent spots for a shop
in Rochdale was on the South Parade just
around the corner at the bottom of Drake
Street. Owned by three generations of the
same family, Haworth’s operated from this
site for many years with the first Haworth,
Edwin, opening ‘The Toggery’ in 1896 to sell
menswear. Edwin was joined by his son
Alfred in the company, expanding the shop
over the years by taking over adjoining
premises and setting up new and different
departments – even launching a popular
ladies hairdresser’s. The store sold both
men’s and women’s clothes and at their
height was the place to go if you wanted
quality clothes in town. Geffrey Haworth
continued the business after the war but
Manchester shopping in the 1960’s and
the rise of a new youth culture with which
Haworth’s never really kept up, led to the
shop’s decline. Haworth’s was eventually
sold in 1984, falling between two stools in
terms of its size - it was neither big enough
as a department store nor small enough to
maintain trade as a local specialist retailer.
With the prospect of an ever-bigger shopping
centre at the heart of Rochdale and the rise of
on-line shopping, it could be said that the days
of the independent family store are over. That
might be the case, only the names remaining
of a town with ‘local shops for local people,’ a
phrase that has sadly become only a sit-com
joke. However, let’s hope for distinctiveness,
style and shops that reach out to Rochdale
with our future new shopping centre.
If you have any memories or comments
about these old stores (or any others)
in Rochdale, I’d be delighted to hear from
you and add them to a growing Rochdale
archive on the subject.
Please contact Gary Heywood-Everett
at garyheywoodeverett@yahoo.co.uk
or leave your comments by text or by
recorded message at 07745201263.
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