No. 3 High Street

North Street days

In the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses, the street was known as North Street.

The 1891 Census for North Street has William H. Sleeman in residence, aged 33 - Draper. His wife Henrietta, aged 35 is a Milliner.

The business must have prospered because in the 1901 Census the Sleeman's have Elizabeth Beale as a Milliner, Henrietta Cooper as a domestic servant and an eight years old son named William.

Sometime before the 1911 Census William Sleeman died leaving his widow to run the draper's shop with the help of son William, now aged 18 and Edward Pearson her nephew. What brought William Sleeman from his parents' farm at St. Minver in Cornwall to Barrow?

High Street days

For many years, numbers 3 and 3a High Street were a single premises.

Allman / Allwood Chemists

In the 1939 Register, Mr Arthur P Allman is listed as living at 3 High Street, his occupation Chemist & Druggist. It is not clear when Mr Allman took over the premises as a dispensing chemist's.

In the 1960s Mr J.W.S. Allwood M.P.S. succeeded Mr Allman at the chemists. He was certainly in occupation by November 1965. Mr Allwood sported a monocle and had a very dry sense of humour, suggesting to children that they go and play on the railway line.

The shop was wood panelled and had a set of leech jars. Dispensing medicines was carried out in the shop.

During this time, number 3 was used as the dispensary, and Mr Allwood lived over the shop.

Middleton Chemists

Baby department at #3	Left hand side of 3a	Right hand side of 3a

Mrs Lillian Middleton took over the business in 1971. She moved the dispensary to what had been the dining room at the rear of the number 3a and changed the front area of number 3 to a baby department where mothers could bring the babies to be weighed etc. The first floor became a flat.

Within eighteen months a new Health Centre was proposed at the present site. Mrs Middleton took on 21 High Street.

Besides dispensing prescriptions the shop sold perfumes and other gift items. In both locations Mrs Middleton and her staff were noted for their eye catching window displays. These frequently won prizes.

North Pole Frozen Food Centre (Late 1970s / Early 1980s)

The North Pole Frozen Food Centre occupied both 3 and 3a High Street. In this photograph of the High Street there is a board on the side wall of number 3 advertising the North Pole Freezer Centre. It was run first by Dermotts and then Kings.

After the North Pole Centre, numbers 3 and 3a became separate premises.

Second Cup Café

By the end of the 1980s, the café  Second Cup had opened. It certainly did good business when the road bridge over the railway was closed to repair the decking and parapets in 1989 or 1990. The workers on the bridge got their breakfasts at the café.

N Townend Ltd.

In the early to mid 2000s, N Townend Ltd. had the premises as a display and office for their Double Glazed Windows, Doors & Conservatories business.

This advert is taken from the autumn edition of Barrow Voice in 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sparkles

Sparkles opened its ironing and cleaning business in 2008 and closed in 2012. Since then the internal walls have been removed and work done on the driveway. The property was empty for a while.

Creative Touch Beauty Studio

Emily Adcock opened her Beauty Studio in the mid 2010s.

Hope & Glorious

The Hope & Glorious beauty salon opened at the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020 and by the end of 2021 it was closed.