It had everything you wanted and stuff you didn't know you needed
North Staffordshire historian Mervyn Edwards recalls some of the well-known names of yore from Merrial Street, Newcastle
Mervyn Edwards
Adam GrattonNostalgia Writer
06:00, 8 MAY 2019
Merrial Street in Newcastle always interested me as a child growing up in the 1960s, when I regularly accompanied my mother to what was a busy street in a bustling market town.
Her visits to Newcastle were prompted by the need to conduct some esoteric adult business known as 'paying the rates' at an imposing building called the Civic Offices.
Once this was done, the pleasures of Merrial Street gradually began to unfold. The pet shop in the street sold rabbits and guinea pigs that snuffled around in their little boxes, just inside the shop window, thus providing free entertainment for children of my age.
Merrial Street, Newcastle
For a family who regularly had a dog or a budgerigar or both, the shop was always handy if we'd run out of millet or other pet provender – and it had its own distinctive smell of the straw covering the base of the animal boxes, and of loose dog biscuits.
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The neighbouring Knowles' hardware premises had a greater reputation than anywhere else in town for being a 'really useful' shop.
'It sold items you'd forgotten'
Like other hardware specialists, it sold items you'd forgotten that you required or that you needed to renew, such as mop handles, sweeping brushes and shovels. It was a much-loved family shop of 55 years trading that announced in 1993 that it was about to close on account of a council rent hike.
Other shops in Merrial Street that will be remembered from the 1960s include Bookland, Babyland, Sylvester's Music Shop and Boot's Herbal Stores. A slightly later trader in Merrial Street was jeweller Bryan Kirkham, who retired in 2016 after operating for 21 years.
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He originally came from North Wales and in the past had been a bookmaker on racecourses for 25 years and then a marketing manager.
Bryan, who had served as chairman of the Town Centre Traders' Association, was 74 at the time of his retirement, when it was announced his son would be taking over the shop.
And what of that imperious building that mum used to visit for the purpose of boring transactions with stuffy-looking people?
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'It was then most architecturally attractive building to be erected in the town'
The Civic Offices were officially opened on September 22, 1967, in my view, the most architecturally attractive building to be erected in the town centre in the 1960s.
The building included offices, a council chamber, Mayor's parlour, committee rooms and a council members' retiring room, allowing all the borough council's departments to be housed under one roof for the first time. Previously, they had been scattered around the town.
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One newspaper journalist remarked that the staff and public had already become accustomed to the Merrial Street building.
With a sense of mischief worthy of Arnold Bennett, the reporter mused: "Those who live by the sword perish by the sword, and those who put on formal ceremonies are bound, in the same way, to suffer by formal ceremonies, for they are sure to offend someone.
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It didn't take long at Merrial Street on Friday to sense that something was wrong. Possibly it has something to do with the fact that half the councillors and their wives were in the Council Chamber itself and the other half were up in the public gallery.
"Why do the English have to have formal opening ceremonies? Merrial Street has been working smoothly for weeks now, and despite this little contretemps, will go on doing so in the years to come."
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Although the Civic Offices were opened with no great fanfare, The Sentinel gave lavish praise to the new building, saying it was a credit to the Corporation and its architects.
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Alluding to the demolished Municipal Hall, and with his tongue firmly in his cheek, the newspaper's reporter closed with the line: "We can now almost forgive them for pulling down that clock tower!"
History has a habit of repeating itself and in 2018, services offered by Newcastle Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council and the police as well as Newcastle Library and register office all became housed under one roof at the new Castle House building.
The presently-boarded Civic Offices are intended to be demolished for the wider development of Ryecroft.
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