Practically Classics Forum

tractorman wrote:Aar0sc - IIRC Robbs were having financial problems last year, hope they are coming around. I have friends at Consett who often go there (a model railway shop in particular) and rate the town highly for the "traditional feel" the place has.

Robbs were still there - Grannie thought they'd gone too. Very pretty town The model railway shop's actually on one of the platforms of Hexham Station! (went there today for a nosy around). Also found a proper old fashioned sweet shop, so got Gramps a Dandelion and Burdock Lolly

Robbs' Hexham town centre frontage is still there, but their big store on the way in from the 69 is now one of those huge, 24 Hour Tesco megastores. Very sad, since even those of us who stay at the coast used to find the 50 mile trip south west to Robbs worthwhile.

Now that is a shame

Those tescos are everywhere - is it the one in Carlisle that's built to look like a castle? (but is horrendously ugly!)

There are loads of the flaming things in Carlisle! OK, at least two.
I arranged to meet a mate, who was coming down the west coast from Glasgow, at the "big Tesco just outside Carlisle" one day some years ago. Well there I was, waiting in the car park of the place. No sign of my mate's car at the arranged time, and this fella wasn't one to be late. Eventually, he rang my mobile to ask where I was. I told him and he then pointed out that he was in fact at a different Tesco store. That's one shop that I wish would get long lost!

Tesco bought a sizeable plot in Alnwick shortly before Sainsbury built their new store just outside the town on what had been some of the Duke's land. There's still no Tesco over there, but as long as Tesco owns that plot, there won't be any other supermarkets either. The ba5t4rds! I wish I could afford to leave a 2 acre plot standing idle simply to prevent anyone else's buying it.

I don't know if the big one (that JPB was at) is meant to look like anything other than a modern industrial building - though is clad with red brick. The old one (near the station) is typical '60's supermarket and has offices on two stories over part of it (I used to work in one); it sticks out like a sore thumb against the older buildings in the street. A friend's parents used to own the "Viaduct Hotel" that was there before the old Tesco's was built and, coincidentally, my friend built a milking parlour and cattle housing just after the hotel was sold! There again, his outside toilet had a never ending supply of old-fashioned toilet paper: his wife had banned it from the house!

The new building was built on the flood plain for the Eden and, though I'm sure it had nothing to do with the floods a few years ago, locals were amazed that it could be built there. I remember seeing sandbags at the front door a week or so after the floods, but the shop seemed unscathed.

Stanwyx Tandoori still there?

Funny enough, Mum and I (still living at home) were talking about this last week. There was Courts, MFI, Gambleys, Safeway and Woolworths in Hastings, which is only about half an hour away from us.