Three much loved shops from bygone days in Weymouth

We’re sharing an advert for the rather grand and huge V.H. Bennett, which was a ladies, gents and children’s outfitters with drapery departments, which was at 89 and 90 St Mary Street and 17,18, 19 and 20 St Thomas Street and Bond Street.

V.H. Bennet went on to become Debenhams.

We’re also recalling Lovell’s Creamery in 16 St Mary Street.

Sue Hogben, who kindly shared these old adverts, has very fond memories of visiting Lovell’s.

She recalls: “They used to have earthenware bowls in the window with thick cream which my mum used to buy. They’d break the yellow crust to scoop out the cream below. Most of these adverts come from pre 1960s guides if I remember rightly.”

Reader Graham Ryan remembers Lovell’s. He said: “I grew up in Governors Lane and Lovell’s creamery shop, which is where I used to pick up my wages at the end of the week.”

We also have a picture of an advert for Tilley & Son, a motor and cycle engineers on the Esplanade.

'Tilleys' continues today, of course. As a business it has existed for more than 100 years serving Weymouth and Portland plus Dorchester, Poole, Bournemouth and surrounding Dorset villages. 

The firm even sold one of Dorset's most famous sons Thomas Hardy, a bicycle and taught his wife to ride her cycle!

Tilley’s motor showroom in South Street, Dorchester, decked out for Christmas in the 1930s (Image: NQ)

To round off our look at Weymouth stores from the past, here's a more recent shop.

Appropriately, on Christmas Day, here is a photo of the main Co-op store in Westham Road suitably bedecked in time for Christmas.

The Co-op store in Westham Road, Weymouth, bedecked for Christmas (Image: NQ)

It probably dates from the 1960s.

A notice on the front wall advertises “a Toy Fair at 5 p.m. TODAY”.

Wishing all our online readers a very Merry Christmas 2023 and wishing you all the very best for 2024.