Louth, Mercer Row c.1955
Photo ref: L305035
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Photo ref: L305035
Photo of Louth, Mercer Row c.1955

More about this scene

Louth was a prosperous, compact market town serving a large area of the central Wolds. Its revival in the late 18th and early 19th centuries resulted in some fine town building and re-fronting of earlier buildings. Mercer Row is a good example, and the Georgian shop window to the right survives intact. The town is more famous, though, for its superb and grand church, crowned by its 295 feet high spire, built in the early 1500s at a cost of £305.

Memories of Louth, Mercer Row c1955

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. These memories are of Louth, Mercer Row c.1955

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The wages and conditions were good and I enjoyed my time there. It bought me my first guitar from Jesse Halls. I remember one Saturday asking off time off to play cricket for the school, not only did the manager give permission, but he proudly informed staff and customers alike how proud he was.
I started work here when I left school in July 1974 and worked here till it closed in Feb 1975.
My paternal grandparents lived in Schoolhouse Cottages off Lee Street where we occasionally stayed on holidays, Christmas etc. There was an alleyway called "Pawnshop Passage", emerging onto Mercer Row by the bow window in the photograph (Stationers Shop then?), which we children used as a shortcut to the town centre, or perhaps the Playhouse Cinema; when skipping through the passage we used to sing out to hear our ...see more
I wonder if anyone remembers Topliss, 16 Mercer Row? It was there until 1975 when it was taken over by Boyes. It was probably the last shop in Britain to have a "cash railway" for taking customers' payments to the cashier and returning the change. The money travelled in a hollow wooden ball, like a croquet ball cut in half. There is a photo on The Cash Railway Website. Cash ball systems were generally superseded by overhead wire or pneumatic tube systems.