History of Chopes

Walter Henry Chope

Fifty Years of Fashion 1898-1948

Fashion may be a narrow term applied only to apparel, but the draper is well aware that it has equal significance in relation to everything he sells. The changing habits of people empty his shelves of some kinds of fabrics and force him to increase his ready-made stock. It contracts his workrooms and expands his showroom. It depresses his sales of millinery at one time and boosts his sales of hosiery at another. If he is unready he will be asked for things he has not got while he puzzles over an accumulation of goods that nobody seems to want.

This ever-changing demand, this bewildering disregard for tradition, this thing called Fashion, can be a trap for the unwary, but for a trader of initiative and enterprise it can also provide an opportunity for profitable service - to offer the public what they want when they want it.

This, at any rate, was the sphere of activity chosen by Walter Henry Chope, born at 17, Buttgarden Street, Bideford, on September 9th 1871.

His father was a saddler and his elder brother, Sidney Redclift Chope (Mayor of Bideford throughout the 1914-1918 war) continued the business in the shop now occupied by Mr Johns. Educated at Brook's School in High Street and later at Shebbear College, Harry Chope chose the drapery trade as his career and was apprenticed for four years with Messrs Vellacott, Trapnell and Merefield, of High Street, Bideford. Finishing his time in 1891, and furnished with an excellent testimonial which is still a proud possession of the family, he wasted no time in going to London for further experience.

In those days a certain standard of height was demanded of their assistants by the best West End stores and young Chope was nearly rejected on this score by the Staff Manager of Marshall and Snelgrove. However, a bold, possibly truth-straining, rejoinder that he hadn't stopped growing yet got him in and he spent five years learning the fickleness of fashion in a hard school.

About this time he made the acquaintance of a young lady, Grace Elizabeth Lock, who held court at Little Weare Barton at Gammaton, near Bideford, at a distance from the town convenient enough for young men who lived there to pay frequent calls in the course of an afternoon's walk, but heartrendingly remote from the metropolis.

To facilitate his wooing, young Harry Chope obtained a position with Colsons of Exeter, where he could pursue the enlarging of his experience and at the same time, by dint of hard cycling over forty miles of 19th century road, keep in somewhat closer touch with the lady of his choice. This was in 1896, and two years seems to have been sufficient for the furtherance of his courtship, for in June 1898, we find him marrying Bessie Lock in the little chapel at Gammaton, and on August 4th of the same year, he opened the door of No. 13, High Street, Bideford, as a Draper and Costumier on his own account.

The history of the premises he took over can be traced back over a period of some years. In 1827 it was occupied by Bryant Bartlett, painter and glazier, and then in 1859 it passed to Samuel Short, watchmaker and jeweller. Two years later Mr Short evidently found the premises larger than he needed and sold them to Gilbert Babbage, draper who traded in No. 13, while Sam Short, and later Richard Bailey, continued to occupy No. 14. Gilbert Babbage died early in 1864, but his widow continued in the business for thirty years until in 1894 she sold the business and premises to Thomas Richards.

Richards did not last long. Unable to cope with the fickle goddess and lacking the somewhat subservient deportment necessary to a country draper at that time, he soon lost the "patronage" of so many customers that he was willing to sell out when an offer was made to him in 1898. In the best traditions of property dealing this was effected in devious ways, and by second and third parties. But it was Harry Chope who was seeking a livelihood for himself and his bride, and, though he himself was sent on a holiday to keep him off the stage, his brother, Sidney, negotiated and bought the premises, mortgaging his own house to do so, to set his young brother up in business.

The purchase price of £2,000 seems reasonable enough by present standards, but it represented a considerable undertaking in those days and involved a fairly heavy responsibility for a young fellow of twenty-seven, with an enviable bride but little capital, and only his own brains and industry with which to encounter the well-known pitfalls of his trade, the best efforts of his competitors and the baleful eyes of his creditors.

Nothing daunted by the prospect, we find that his very first step was to install a new shop front. Even this modest effort was considered revolutionary at the time, because the glass was taken down close to pavement level. Wiseacres predicted that it would not long survive contact with the feet of passers by. No photo of the original shop front seems to exist, and the one on page 14, taken in 1900, is the earliest we can find. Even before this front was in, the first baby had arrived, and Harry had to work hard to meet his added responsibility. What with interviewing travellers, dressing the windows, keeping the books, shopwalking and general supervision, his time was fully occupied.

However, a foundation was being well and truly laid, and by 1907 with two boys now added to the family, we find him taking in No. 14, which had for some years been Thornbys sweet shop. No doubt the children disapproved of this step, but it evidently paid, for two years later Mr Chope was in a position to buy the stock of Messrs Sawtell, of Ilfracombe. Besides being a profitable deal, the sale of this stock had immense advertising value and really put the little shop on the map. From then on Chopes was almost a household name in Bideford and district and that intangible asset "goodwill" was really worth something, though the item never figured in Mr Chope's balance sheet.

No attempt was made to make a quick fortune during the 1914-1918 war, but on the other hand no crippling losses were sustained when prices eventually fell. So it was possible, when the opportunity offered, to buy the next door premises Nos. 15 and 16, then in the occupation of Mr G. W. Fluck as a bookseller and stationer. At first the only use made of the new acquisition was to knock a hole through the wall and occupy a portion while Mr Fluck continued as a tenant of the remainder.

Meanwhile the family had been growing up. The eldest boy, Arthur, had completed his education, served his apprenticeship with Colsons of Exeter and put in a couple of years obtaining London experience before, coming home to enter the business in 1924. Norman, the younger son, had started in the business in 1922, but as soon as Arthur came home he was packed off to London for his spell of outside experience. He was to return in 1928, which was a momentous date in the firm's history, a year of great decisions and spectacular advance.

Mr Fluck had given up business in 1926 and Chopes had moved in and occupied the whole of the premises, but only in a makeshift manner and without utilising fully the possibilities of the extensive building. To do so properly would entail re-building and it was doubtful if trade would justify the great expense involved or whether the existing departments could possibly expand to fill adequately the considerable space available. But something had to be done. The family had moved out of the living accommodation upstairs to a house in Abbotsham Road (another sign of the times) and the vacated space was only partly occupied by a tenant, a ladies hairdresser. The living rooms of Nos. 15 and 16 were not being used at all.

A solution was found by the sale of twenty-three feet of the frontage to the Midland Bank and a complete rebuilding of No. 15 which also included excavation to the floor level of Nos. 13 and 14, and making the three properties into one unit. This was very skilfully done on the steep hillside by Messrs. John Cock and Sons, under the direction of Messrs. Oliver and Webber, architects. At the same time Messrs. Courtney Pope submitted designs for a very handsome bronze shop front which doubled the window space by an effective arcade. To finish the job many hundreds of pounds were spent on glass counters and quick serving fixtures and, at long last - a carpet for the showroom.

And so, in September 1928, Bideford people found a really modern shop created in their midst and it was the talk of the town for some months. Mannequin parades were held for the first time ever in the town; Betty Sparling, a model well known just then, showed off to advantage some of the latest creations; a skilled embroideress was kept busy putting customer's initials on purchases of underwear; the new windows were a blaze of light after dark; people flocked to see the new Chopes and marvelled at the change the little shop had wrought.

The initial success of the venture was not a flash in the pan. Sales increased fifty per cent at once and continued to climb steadily even through the depression of 1929-31. From a little shop dealing mainly in fancy goods with a small trade in household linens, the business was transformed to a. fashion centre which attracted custom from a very wide area.

The two sons were taken into partnership on August 15th 1930.

Nothing succeeds like success and within two years we find Chopes buying No. 17 High Street, occupied by another draper, Mr H B Kemp. There was some hesitation about bow best to use this but at last it was decided to snake it a Bargain Shop, where the cheaper drapery goods would be displayed on the Woolworth principle, and a cash and carry policy would justify really cut prices. This also was an instant success as it happened that the depression had flooded the market with some remarkable values. Mr Chope revelled in the new experience of ordering goods in grosses instead of dozens and his new shop would be so packed on a Saturday afternoon that it was difficult to make a way through the crowd.

Other minor alterations and extensions took place nearly every year. In fact it was said that Mr Chope was not happy unless he had the masons in. Several lumps of masonry were done away with in the original shop, and the floor taken down to the level of the new portion. An area at the rear of No. 17 was rented from Mr Burton arid the space used to sell rugs and mats. The first floor was gutted, supported on girders and used further to extend the selling space. The huge windows were cut down in size and the space thrown into the shop. Each extension justified itself and the business was a thriving concern, catering in its two shops for a large clientele drawn from far and near.

Mr Chope was now able to indulge in his passion for travel and with his two sons in the business he could spare the time to visit America on two occasions, Canada, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Norway. Alas, he was not to enjoy for long the fruits of his labour as an attack of angina pectoris in 1933 led to his death in 1935 at the age of 63, to be followed, almost exactly a year later, by his widow.

But the tradition of the business, one of steady expansion, was maintained. As has been noted the first floor of Nos. 13, 14 and 15 had been let for some years to Mr Cutcliffe, a ladies' hairdresser. In 1936 Mr Cutcliffe sold his business to Chopes, who ran it for twelve months in the existing accommodation. The experience thus gained showed them the possibilities of the new department, and in 1937 a considerable sum was spent on gutting the first floor, using some of the space for increased showroom accommodation, and fitting out the remainder as a first class ladies' hairdressing salon. This later work was carried out by Messrs. Serventi and resulted in a salon second to none in the provinces, and with few better even in London.

Hardly had any benefit been reaped from this latest extension before war broke out. After dealing with the hectic rush of business in 1940 resulting from the evacuation to Bideford of many thousands of people from London and elsewhere, both partners went into the forces, Arthur into the Navy, and Norman into the Air Force, leaving the business to the care and management of Mr R. S. Grose, who proved a faithful trustee for four long trying years. Both returned unscathed in November 1945, being among the early release groups, and Mr. Grose stayed until the following March to enable them to find their feet in a strange new world of coupons and quotas, licences and vouchers.

Fifty years after the opening of the business comes a pause. Not for eleven years has a mason been inside the shops except for repair work. One floor of the Bargain Shop is still idle for lack of supplies and many fixtures are still empty or only half full. The future is uncertain in many respects, and nothing is likely to be undertaken in the way of expansion for some time to come. However, the spirit of the firm remains young and vigorous and a revival of Fashion Parades this Spring showed that the public still appreciates enterprise, so that Chopes can enter the second half of their century with every hope of retaining the confidence of the good folk of Bideford.

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Chopes of Bideford • 13-15 High St • Bideford • EX39 2AE • 01237 472091