Age Concern Dorchester - Dorset's Living Memories

We never close - even open Christmas Day

In the 1920’s my father, Percy Green borrowed £50 from his father to start his own business, selling hardware, and paraffin from his lorry.

Customers were able to buy a tin bath, metal bucket, clothes pegs, matches, candles watering cans; everything for the home.

Paraffin was carried in a tank on the lorry. Customers supplied their own gallon cans or containers.

He also sold coconut mats, and soap powder in boxes. Soap flakes came in bulk and were sold weighed out into a brown paper bag.

The coconut mats were delivered to him tied up in bundles, and the crockery came in tea chests, packed with straw.

The daily rounds stretched from Wool to Church Knowle, and Lulworth to Upton. On Saturdays he did his round in Wareham.

During the war customers had to exchange coupons, and supplies were hard to get hold of.

Later on after War War II had started, my father was called up to serve in the Army, and my mother carried on the business. Although as she could not drive, she had to employ a driver to get about.

The way of life changed after the end of the war, so in the 1950’s, the business closed.