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| No.1. Thorpe Avenue - Cobills Store and Post Office |
I have been given this photograph by a reader that depicts Cobills, the former Thorpe Avenue Store and Post Office, which was open for many years on the corner of The Ridgeway and Thorpe Avenue. It has now been converted into a residential property.
It's an early 1960's image showing displays of stacked cans in the shop windows and vegetables outside in wooden boxes. One of the boxes has TIZER stamped on the exterior. It was a time when cigarette advertising was the norm, as one can see from the Guards advert in the upper right hand window. I loved the little boy hanging onto, what I presume is, a sweet machine and of course that would have taken old money then ... pennies and half-pennies and threepenny bits. Other details I can just make out are the red Brooke Bond Tea advertising strips on the bottom of each window, a yellow enamel Lyons Cake sign and brass scales to the right of the entrance for the weighing of fruit and vegetables.
Does anyone remember Cobills? If so, please send your memories to tonbridgedaily@gmail.com or write in the comment box below.
I remember Thorpe Ave. stores when it was Lawson's in the early 1950's. My mum would send me there on my scooter with a basket tied on the footboard.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the food items were still sold 'loose'.
On the floor in front of the counter were boxes, sacks of cloth or thick paper and other containers holding such items as fruit, vegetables, sugar and tea.
The wooden tea chests were lined with thin sheets of lead or tin and were quite large. They were very much in demand as storage boxes when moving house.
Loose dry products were dispensed into brown paper bags and meat and dairy produce were first wrapped in greaseproof paper. On hot days mum would give me a container for the butter in case it started to melt on the way home.
In the summer holidays there always seemed to be lots of bikes and scooters laid about the forecourt (as in the photo) and young boys drinking from large Tizer bottles.
For me this is the best photo so far 'Tonbridge '. Many thanks for the happy memories of hot summers climbing trees, making camps and jam sandwich picnics.
The phone Directory shows a G E Lawson at the shop from 1950 to 1960, there was also a G E Lawson, Upholsterer and Antique Dealer, 165 The High Street as far back as 1920 and in Shipbourne Road up to 1982, although I am not sure if they are the same person.
The entries for E W Cobill at the shop start at 1961 and end in 1971.
In 1903 G E Lawson is at 133 High Street.
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