VIDEO: Nostalgia in store at 1930s grocer's (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Hands on History project turns back time at former Brown, Muff building in Ivegate, Bradford

3:45pm Friday 3rd December 2010 in News By Emma Clayton

Wooden shelves are lined with tinned fruit and corned beef, jars of biscuits, pickles and cinnamon sticks, while baskets are filled with fresh vegetables and eggs.

Behind the counter a smartly-dressed grocer weighs a slice of cheese, chatting to customers about whether his delivery boy will be able to get through the snow on his bicycle.

This was the scene at Sergison’s Grocer and Confec-tioner in Bradford city centre today, where visitors enjoyed a 1930s shopping experience.

Crowds filled the Ivegate shop, where Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Peter Hill cut the ribbon as a 1930s-style jazz band played.

The shop, which is open until Sunday, is part of the BBC’s Learning Hands on History project running alongside BBC1 series Turn Back Time – The High Street.

On display is 1930s produce, including familiar brands such as Lyle’s Golden Syrup, Rolo sweets and bottles of Tizer. A brass bell and an old-fashioned till sit on the counter, and young visitors are encouraged to dress up as a pre-war grocer.

A 1930s Jowett Jason was standing outside.

“I worked on the grocer’s counter at Bradford’s Co-op Emporium in the 1950s – it was just like this,” said Ann Crowther, of Fagley.

“It’s fabulous, it brings back many memories. These days shopping is all hectic bulk-buying but back then you did your shopping every day, and bought whatever the butcher or grocer had. It was a chance to catch up on the day’s gossip – for some women it was their only time out of the house. The shopkeeper knew you.”

For Coun Hill, the shop evoked childhood memories. “I remember the rationing years so a lot of these products are familiar to me, as they came back after the war,” he said. “This shop gives a great insight into how people lived and shopped before retail changed in the 1950s.”

Visitors are invited to share shopping memories in a ‘back room’, where representatives from West Yorkshire Archives Service are recording people reminiscing, for the nowthen.org website.

On display are items loaned from Bradford Museums and Galleries, including a pair of 1932 Brown, Muff shoes, a feathered Busbys hat and an 1890s silk dress from Parkinson Clark & Co.

Archive footage of Bradford shopping is shown on a 1930s-style television set, and interactive exhibits provide smells of a typical grocer’s shop. Visitors can recline on a settee and read a 50-year-old Telegraph & Argus or, by picking up an old-fashioned telephone, hear memories of rationing and running a shop.

e-mail: emma.clayton@telegraphandargus.co.uk