ONE of Warrington’s oldest family-run retailers marks 100 years in business this week.
Hancock and Wood, on Bridge Street, will be hosting a big day of celebrations on Saturday as it marks 100 years of trade.
Now run by brothers Michael and Chris, it remains the biggest shop on what was once the main street through the centre of town.
Even the Queen passed by the premises in the 1960s on an official visit to town.
Selling a variety of clothes and gifts, it is a shop every Warringtonian will have visited in their lifetime.
Its history began in 1914 when the well situated store of Thomas Grime came onto the market when the owner retired.
Selling dress materials, mantels, jackets, millnery and hosiery, it was housed next door to the shoe shop run by the Roberts family.
They alerted Frederick Samuel Hancock (a travelling haberdashery salesman who had married their daughter) that the business was for sale and he jumped at the chance to buy it.
Soon after though, he joined the First World War as a Royal Marine and during the war years, an elderly partner David Wood ran the firm.
And the company has been known by the name of Hancock and Wood since.
While the store inside has changed beyond recognition, it has become the oldest surviving retail business in Warrington town centre - with a small shop on London Road in Stockton Heath too.
This Saturday sees a major celebration in store with a range of prizes and discounts on offer for shoppers.
And it follows a cake celebration last Saturday when shoppers brought in their creations to be judged in store.
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