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Thread: Just found a little piece of the past

  1. #1
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    Just found a little piece of the past

    For want of something better to do I have been going through my collection of airguns, opening boxes that have not been opened for a long time. In a box with a Webley Omega is a half full tin of .22 pellets which have a round golden coloured label marked at the top 'Magnum Hunting Pellets', in the centre is a scope reticule with a bunny in the cross hairs. The bottom of the tin is marked T. Cooper, Pall Mall, Hanley, Stoke On Trent, 0782 21589
    Apparently Tom Cooper had a shop in Pall Mall, Hanley, in the early seventies next door to the National Bank of Pakistan. Now there's something you don't find every day

  2. #2
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    pic of the shop here http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/way-p...ail/story.html DERRICK Baddeley regularly enjoyed window shopping at Tom Cooper's store when he was a lad.
    The 69-year-old, of Market Drayton, recalls: “It sold guns and fishing tackle, and was one of my favourite shops, but it's gone now

    Read more at http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/way-p...FCTkSMmRSMo.99

  3. #3
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    I wouldn't mind opening some boxes and finding Omegas I'd forgotten I had.

  4. #4
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    Check on top of the wardrobe in the spare bedroom P.J. that's where I found mine
    Last edited by ken69; 11-01-2017 at 07:22 PM.

  5. #5
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    Just checked......found some dust

  6. #6
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    I remember Coopers in Pall Mall, Hanley.

    It must have been there mid to late 70's as I remember drooling in through the window when I was about 17. There were also Army and Navy shops at the bottom of Tunstall ( Highgate ) and in Burslem ( near Woolworths ) that sold airguns stacked on racks. I drooled in those shops also. I eventually bought my own first airgun from the Army and Navy in Burslem aged 17 ... a Webley Hawk mk3 in 0.22.

    That area of Hanley was almost on the outskirts then with the main, and busier, shopping areas further up with Lewis's ( with the massive steel ice man sculpture on the front ), BHS, M&S, Woollies etc. If you'd strayed down to Pall Mall area it almost seemed like a run down area where the pavements always seemed grubby ... and weirdly cold, always, like it never got any sun, and an icy wind rushing through it.

    If you crossed over the cross roads from Coopers and headed further downbank there was Tung's camera shop on the right. A weird little shop that was like an Aladdin's cave of old Nikons crammed everywhere. Old man Tung ran it with a few of his daughters. All had very very broad Chinese accents and they always said the same thing when showing you a camera and offering you a price ... " This is a buy it now, today, not tomorrow, just today, now offer ... if you go away to think or come back tomorrow then the price will have gone up ... this is a buy it now offer ... so best buy it now ". It was my first experience of hard sales. Great little shop. That's gone too.

    Ironically ... that area of Hanley ( which is the real Stoke ... there is no actual Stoke ) is now a culture centre. The pavements have all been redone and there are some nicer shops and lots of little cafes with outdoor continental seating areas. The old picture house ( that's cinema to you young'uns ) was all refurbished as the Regent Theatre, and the theatre has spread around the corner to Pall Mall, as can be seen in the more modern photo in that article.

    Old times eh!

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by bozzer View Post
    I remember Coopers in Pall Mall, Hanley.

    It must have been there mid to late 70's as I remember drooling in through the window when I was about 17. There were also Army and Navy shops at the bottom of Tunstall ( Highgate ) and in Burslem ( near Woolworths ) that sold airguns stacked on racks. I drooled in those shops also. I eventually bought my own first airgun from the Army and Navy in Burslem aged 17 ... a Webley Hawk mk3 in 0.22.

    That area of Hanley was almost on the outskirts then with the main, and busier, shopping areas further up with Lewis's ( with the massive steel ice man sculpture on the front ), BHS, M&S, Woollies etc. If you'd strayed down to Pall Mall area it almost seemed like a run down area where the pavements always seemed grubby ... and weirdly cold, always, like it never got any sun, and an icy wind rushing through it.

    If you crossed over the cross roads from Coopers and headed further downbank there was Tung's camera shop on the right. A weird little shop that was like an Aladdin's cave of old Nikons crammed everywhere. Old man Tung ran it with a few of his daughters. All had very very broad Chinese accents and they always said the same thing when showing you a camera and offering you a price ... " This is a buy it now, today, not tomorrow, just today, now offer ... if you go away to think or come back tomorrow then the price will have gone up ... this is a buy it now offer ... so best buy it now ". It was my first experience of hard sales. Great little shop. That's gone too.

    Ironically ... that area of Hanley ( which is the real Stoke ... there is no actual Stoke ) is now a culture centre. The pavements have all been redone and there are some nicer shops and lots of little cafes with outdoor continental seating areas. The old picture house ( that's cinema to you young'uns ) was all refurbished as the Regent Theatre, and the theatre has spread around the corner to Pall Mall, as can be seen in the more modern photo in that article.

    Old times eh!
    You've triggered some memories there Col.

    Steve C.
    AirArms S400k L/H (.177)BTAS, tuned, AirArms S410k L/H (.177) walnut, BTAS tuned, AA MPR .177 L/H walnut (STOLEN) and...L/H EV2
    BASC

  8. #8
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    That all triggers memories. My mother is from Stoke. I remember as a child looking at that spiky ice man,is it still there?

  9. #9
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    Hey up Steve.

    You know ... I very nearly typed that Steve C will be along soon and make comment.

    Hope you are well fella.

    I'm old ... and like most old'uns I don't know what I make of modern times.

    As I said that area is supposed to be a culture area ... I'm not sure ripping the front off a café and replacing it with a full glass frontage, so people can sit in there like goldfish and show that they can afford to have an Expresso with a fancy biscuit at £4.50, when the little café up the road does a perfectly decent coffee for £1.20, makes for culture. Neither does a few stainless chairs n tables on the pavement.

    Hanley's Hanley duck. There doesn't seem much culture on display at 2am when the vodka molested teenage girls are lifting their frocks up and taking a pee by the kerb.

    Same with some of the bars up 'castle. I went to watch my youngest perform on guitar at a gig at some newish fancy bistro/wine bar. Again all glass fronted, girls standing outside dragging people in with money off vouchers, like they used to do in Magaluf 30 years ago. Inside some weird twisted stick things on the table for décor and continental lager at £4.50 for 2/3 of a pint. My friends ordered some pasta and bread. They asked me to just dip in. I thought I'd try some of the salad, which tasted weird. My friends all stared at me with mouths wide open. Apparently I'd been ripping bits off the table floral arrangement.

    I did go into that corner place on Pall Mall a short while back. They did a bowl of lobby and crusty bread for a few quid. It wasn't too bad. I'd of liked the lobby thicker to be honest ... but it did the job.
    Last edited by bozzer; 12-01-2017 at 08:20 AM.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by p.j. View Post
    That all triggers memories. My mother is from Stoke. I remember as a child looking at that spiky ice man,is it still there?
    Yup he's still there. As a young kid going up there with my Grandparents and seeing him I was terrified. I was always told he was Jack Frost. Apparently it's supposed to be something other than that but Jack Frost did for a 3 year old. It's not Lewis's anymore though. I'm sure it turned to Debenhams?

    A fair old sculpture to be fair.

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