You are standing in front of Buxton Pets, but this shop was once home to the Buxton branch of Mac Fisheries, a popular chain of fishmongers. As you can see, the shop has an open front where customers could serve themselves. Although common and unremarkable these days, this would have been quite radical at the time. Many locals can still recall the powerful aroma of fresh fish whilst walking past.
We recorded local memories of MacFisheries, including this gentleman, who had worked at the shop after school:
You can find out more about this photograph, and read a transcript of the audio, below.
This photograph, taken in 1937, also shows part of a covered walkway, or colonnade, that used to extend down each side of Spring Gardens. If you look to the left you can see a surviving section at the far end of the street.
The archive of JR Board, now housed at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, shows many Buxton locations from the 1920s-1970s, and is a comprehensive visual archive of the town.
Audio Transcript:
“Mac Fisheries was one of about 3oo-400 shops nationwide which were owned by Unilever. When I left school I went direct into Mac Fisheries. The short time that I was there I really enjoyed it. I got on with everybody there. When you went in, of course, me being a young one, then it was a hand display. That was to see if there was any muck down your nails. Then you turned your hands up. If that was OK, you worked. If it wasn’t, you had to go. But that’s how it was. Mr Charles, as he was formerly known, the manager there, he educated us how to approach customers and if a lady came in, you said “Yes, what can I do for you love, how can I help you love?”, you got dragged over the coal. “Good morning, madam, how may I help you?” that was the norm and that was how it was done proper in those days and that was when you gave people their change in their hands with a smile.”
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“I’ve been told by my father that the precursor to Mac Fisheries was run by somebody else but in the Edwardian days they had a lot of errand boys who had little ponies and they took Mac Fisheries or the forerunners’ fish out, delivered it round the town but that was before my time.”
“I think Mac Fisheries was not just a Buxton shop, it was a chain of shops, I might be wrong, but I can remember this awful pervading smell of fish which extended all the way down Spring Gardens.”
“Mac Fisheries was one of about 3oo-400 shops nationwide which were owned by Unilever. When I left school I went direct into Mac Fisheries. The short time that I was there I really enjoyed it. I got on with everybody there. When you went in, of course, me being a young one, then it was a hand display. That was to see if there was any muck down your nails. Then you turned your hands up. If that was OK, you worked. If it wasn’t, you had to go. But that’s how it was. Mr Charles, as he was formerly known, the manager there, he educated us how to approach customers and if a lady came in, you said “Yes, what can I do for you love, how can I help you love?”, you got dragged over the coal. “Good morning, madam, how may I help you?” that was the norm and that was how it was done proper in those days and that was when you gave people their change in their hands with a smile.”
“Quite a busy shop I remember, but cod eight pence, eight old pence! Spring flowers. Halibut one and eight pence, oh my gosh! Yes, those were the days indeed.”
“My dad, I think, worked there for a short while. He was a fishmonger himself and had his own fish shop but I think at Christmas times he used to go and help out there, perhaps when he was a younger man, but at this time of year you’d have all the chickens and turkeys and, of course, we as a family would only have chickens. I should think that’s all we could afford but there’d be the turkeys, the rabbits, the geese, everything hung up and to a child it would be quite a scary look, you know, when you saw all these dead things hanging about but that’s how it was, but again, it was all so neat.”