Inside the Cornish shop he froze in time for 50 years

Stepping into this store in Cornwall is like stepping back in time half a century.

Elliott’s shop on Lower Fore Street in Saltash looks exactly as it did in 1971.

Fifty years may have passed, but the shop still holds a vital place in the heart of the community.

Although it can no longer compete with today’s supermarkets, the preserved store now functions as a museum and a key link to the past.

Why was it closed?

Former owner Frank Elliott closed the business in 1971 rather than give up pounds, shillings and pence as decimalisation was introduced.

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Before he died in 1995, he said he wanted the store to be a museum.

The shop’s shelves are all clocks that transport the visitor back to early 1970s Britain.

A packet of eight Lyons sponges costs one shilling and eleven pence ha’penny, while Stork margarine is on special offer for 1/6d (15p).

Mr Elliott, a bachelor, decided the family grocery business should become a museum, partly as a way of avoiding paying the newly introduced business rates.

He envisioned it as a place where future generations would learn what shopping looked like.

On his death in 1995, Mr Elliott left the shop and the two floors of rooms above it to the conservation organization Tamar Protection Society.

100 years

The shop was established in 1902 and left to Mr Elliott by his father 50 years later.

The customers sat down on the stool next to the long polished wooden counter, then handed Mr. Elliott their shopping list.

He weighed items like butter, cheese and flour on his classic Avery scale.

If a customer couldn’t carry all their shopping home, they would arrange a delivery using the shop’s bike.

Mr Elliott lived above the shop for 24 years after he closed it, keeping all the old boxes and cardboard packaging for use in the museum.

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The shelves contain Bird’s cream powder, Rowntree jelly, Angel Delight, boxes of Ambrosia rice pudding, tubes of Signal toothpaste, bottles of Domestos bleach and boxes of Daz, Ariel and Persil washing powder.

Mike Couch, vice-chairman of the Tamar Preservation Society, said the charity’s small team of volunteers and trustees were working hard to fulfill Mr Elliott’s vision as heirs to his entire estate.

In addition to the store’s contents, they continue to compile, catalog and display evidence of the fascinating experiences and memories of Mr Elliott, his twin brother Harry and their younger sister Laura Sophia, none of whom married or had children. children.

The shop is open to schools and groups by appointment through the Tamar Protection Society, although it is hoped to have more opening days in the summer of 2022.

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