Co-operative Grocery Department

Loftus Co-operative Store in the days of long white aprons, no check-out and no pre-packaged produce! I don’t suppose anybody knows any of these immaculately turned out shop assistants? Lorraine Williams tells us: “From at least 1890 the Fenby family ran a fruiterers business in Loftus probably until the 1920s. Skelton Fenby, one of the son’s, was the Loftus co-op manager in 1911 when he was 41 but I don’t know how long he remained there. He later moved to Darlington and opened a drapery store and eventually became Mayor of Darlington in 1947.”

Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection, Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum and others; also than ks to Lorraine Williams for that update..