Newth's Stores 1
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Newth's Stores 1

This is a picture of Will Newth's 'novelty' shop which was at 3 Adelaide Street Penzance, at the junction with Bread Street. The house was pulled down and is now a little car parking site. This picture was among his son Colin Newth's possessions when Colin died.
Can you remember when we lost this shop? It is on the 1962 OS map. It was a visit to Nighs and Newths. And it was only a few pence in each place. How did we survive without all the claptrap of modern life ... video games, mobile phones, blackberries and ipods ... my it was hard going, but we survived ... happier than most kids now.
 
I can remember peering through the windows as a small child at Christmas time to see festive display, and near November 5 to see fireworks stacked up
 
what a surprise to see this photo my Father was related to Colin and his Mother, Nell. Who was a Courtenay before she married Colins Father Will Newth. I can just remember going to visit the house next door which they also owned and lived in and was also filled with alsorts of novelties including I remember a set of tubular bells which as a very small boy fascinated me
 
I am not sure when the shop and accompanying house were knocked down, but I suspect it was sometime between 1963 and 1969 when I was living abroad. I think that when I returned the house was gone. Certainly Newth s shop was a treasure trove. I remember lots of musical instruments in there, particularly piano-accordions and Mr. Newth seemed very fond of a concertina that he had. The whole area from Adelaide Street up Bread street was fascinating for me as a boy. There was Norman Jenkin s blacksmith s forge between Newth s shop and the Crown Inn in Bread Street and I remember pumping the bellows for him, making the sparks fly! Health and Safety would have something to say nowadays. Norman was an ex Japanese POW and a lovely man. Farther up Bread Street there were several slaughterhouses on the Market Jew side, the cattle were housed on the other side. As children we were fascinated by the bloody process of slaughtering: the animal would be dragged unwillingly across Bread Street into the completely open slaughterhouse, a bolt-gun would be put to its temple and BANG! the animal fell to its knees and rolled over. It would be quickly hoisted vertical by its rear legs and its throat slit. The quantity of blood that flowed out onto the floor and down the drain in the middle of the floor was impressive! Particularly to the watching boys; I suppose it was all good for our education about how the real world operates. Nowadays children generally do not get such chances, I think they lose by it.
 
Thank you ... I also think there is much truth in what you have said, we are so used to the niceties of just going to a shop and picking up a piece of food that has no clear identity of just how it got into that packet, and that once it was a living organism, that walked. Any more memories and stories, please post up when you can on the relevant picture, or open a thread on the forum.
 
I remember being fascinated by the nodding dog? polar bear? in the window.

I remember being fascinated by the nodding dog? polar bear? in Mr Newth’s window.
 
I remember this shop from my childhood. My Gran lived at 24 Adelaide Street (where I was born) and I spent a great deal of my life in that street! I remember Newth's, Bond Clarkes, the pet shop with the scruffy looking monkey in the window, the fish and chips shops at the top and bottom of the street, the greengrocers at the junction of Adelaide Street and Market Jew Street and Nigh's shop.
 

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