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Memories of Wigfalls

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Thank you all for the comments so far.

 

I have noted all of them, and hope to see many more.

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Didn't the Morrell (sp) family own/have something to do with Wigfalls?

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I bet you were my manager at some point if you worked in Sheffield branches. I cut my "working" teeth in Granada TV and Video from the age of 16 to 20.
Hi Titian yiou must have been reliable most of my young trainees did not last

were you at the Moor?:)

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Hi Titian yiou must have been reliable most of my young trainees did not last

were you at the Moor?:)

 

Yes, I was! I sometimes used to cover at Fargate too if they were short. I didn't like doing that though.

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Regarding Roy, could be Roy Crampton, he lived at the top of Rutland Rd., until he married then moved out to Chapeltown. He and John Moore operated Moore and Crampton in Ecclesfield. I believe Roy retired to live in Spain, and the last I heard John was still running the business.

 

 

A guy named Morell, can't remember his first name, married one of Wigfalls daughters, and became a company director. He drove a Jag XK 120 for his sins.

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Josephine Wigfall went to Notre Dame in the late !940s/50s.

 

hazel

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My mum bought, from wigfalls, an english electric washing machine in a beige-y almond colour. single-tub, with an electric mangle that fitted over the tub. the mangle dismantled and "lived" inside a "door" on the side of the machine when not in use.

 

I remember the chap who used to collect the weekly money from my mum and dad, we called him "uncle Tom". I'm sure he lived on one of the short cul de sacs, at the top of Staniforth road, in Darnall somewhere. I remember he used to give me and my sister a Sixpence, between us, to buy an icecream which we used to save, all day, till the ice-cream van came round!

 

My parents also bought some carpet on the "weekly" from wiggies. I still remember it vividly. red, grey and black speckled. Our living room was so massive, she needed to buy two pieces to join together to make a fit.

 

I remember my mum played heck with the company because she bought two living-room quality pieces, but when they were delivered they got one living-room quality and one bedroom quality, so they "wore" differently, almost straight away. one looked pristine and new (the living room quality) the other looked worn and shabby.

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My Dad used to work as a service engineer for Wigfalls at their Rotherham branch around 1967 to 1969. I remember getting a bike for either my 6th or 7th birthday from there, It was a massive thing, or so it seemed to me, I was absolutley petrified of getting on it and would not go near it, which really pleased my dad. He was that pleased with me he sold it a couple of months later.

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wigfall also manufactured bikes under the wigfalls name at the Royal Cycle works 156 Rutland Rd s3 still listed as such in the early 1950/s,we called them Wiggies gas pipes but were a strong if old fashioned bike.i can only remember them in black.

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My dad bought me my first adult bike from Wiggies at Firth Park. He paid cash and demanded a discount, which he got. The bike was a Raleigh. It must have been about 1964 or so.

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If anyone's interested, I can tell you what we were selling at the Bellhouse Road, Firth Park, branch of Wigfalls between 1976 and 1978.

 

Well, for colour TVs we had the atrocious British-build pieces of crap known as the GEC . Even, all those years ago, I felt shame that we British were manufacturing such apalling garbage. At this time in British manufacturing history the UK was unable to make a decent television tube. The GECs were fit for the scrap-heap.

 

Only slightly better were the Ferguson/Thorn TVs. Rubbish, rubbish tellies.

 

The best ones were ITT and the Hitachis - with their new-style PIL tubes - and the trinitron SONYs. At this time the UK authorities, using import restrictions, weren't allowing big sized Japanese TV sets into the country, just portables and those with screen sizes below 22in.

 

In the years before the mass use of credit cards, it was difficult to buy anything if you didn't have the ready cash up front. The government did not like working class people to have any goods that were being paid for with HP or credit. In these days credit was so tight that people used to rent vacuum cleaners and fridges! It seems insane now.

 

If you wanted to rent anything you had to put up six-months-worth of payment up front. Why this was a legal requirement, I don't know; but it was. six-months payment in advance, before you were allowed to hire a vacuum cleaner. It staggers belief, but it's true.

 

Hoover used to get around this requirement by buying your old vacuum cleaner - or washing machine, if you were thinking of buying one of their brand of washing machine - and then the price they'd pay for your old junk would pay for the down payment. It seemed a desperate ploy to me, but there had to be some way to get past the government's obsessive need to make sure the common people of the UK lived in empty houses.

 

God, the 'seventies were depressing! I saw people having to go through a lot of undignified checks for creditworthiness so that they could take home a twenty-quid reconditioned vacuum cleaner.

 

More later, folks.

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worked at wiggis around 1960. at london rd first job after leaving school, rember mr finch manager,all the staff were brill enjoyed my time there.

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