Chopes of Bideford

Decline and Rise 1973-1998

People

Pages can be written detailing the dry facts of commercial history: shops and departments open and close, wars, bankruptcies, changing lifestyles all have their effect on trade.

Throughout the story of any family business runs a lively thread of continuity and interest provided by people: staff, customers, agents and travellers, builders, painters, plumbers and electricians, bankers, accountants and solicitors. Mercifully, at the time of writing, the bailiffs have not featured in this list.

In the staff photographs, we find many faces recurring. There are six staff members in the 1948 photograph who also feature in the 1973 photograph. In the 1988 photo, there are two faces from 1948 and six from 1973. In the 1998 photo, there are three faces from 1973, and eight from 1988.

Many will remember in the 1948 photo Lily Turner who bought the Fashions; Joyce Short who retired in 1982 after 45 years; Mrs Cunningham who ran the Bargain Shop; Harry Phillips, First World War veteran, who, during the Second World War slept on the premises in High Street in case of air raids; Gertie Glover who could add a column of pounds, shillings and pence, in her head, from top to bottom or bottom to top!

This thread of continuity has always been strong among Chopes' staff down the years. Some have stayed for many years continuously; others have left to work elsewhere, move away or raise families, and yet have often returned later to work another spell at Chopes.

Had the 1948 photograph been taken a year later, it would have featured the face of someone who then appears in all the subsequent photos - a very special person...

Aileen Badcock started work at Chopes as a 17-year old on the 13th June 1949 at a wage of £1,5s.Od (£1.25p) per week. She commenced in the Material Department under the Buyer, Mrs Florrie Beer. She moved to Mr Phillips' Department selling Household Linens and Soft Furnishings, before becoming Buyer of the Haberdashery when the price of a reel of Silko was 4d against its 1998 price of 99p!In 1966 Aileen became Buyer of the Corsetry and Underwear, only giving up the buying in 1992 when she was sixty and began to work fewer hours.

Aileen retires on Saturday 8th August 1998 having served nearly fifty years with Chopes. She has run two very successful departments as Buyer, but her outstanding quality has always been her ability to sell. She has a genuine interest in people and the warmth of her personality has turned legions of customers into her friends over the years.

Aileen has lived all her life in the same cottage in Littleham. Whilst for the first 25 years of her working life she cycled regularly to and from work, latterly her brother Lionel has provided transport and the Reliant Robin three-wheeler with brother and sister installed is a familiar sight.

It is almost unfashionable to speak of a person as being 'Christian', but Aileen, with her lifelong support of her church in Littleham and her concern for and interest in her fellow human beings can be described as such. It has been a privilege for all of us to have known her and worked with her, and all at Chopes wish her a long and happy retirement.

The Shop

In 1988 Chopes celebrated its 90th Birthday with the excuse that the business might not survive to reach its hundredth. Whilst providing a somewhat grim excuse for a party, there was some justification, at the time, for a degree of pessimism. Despite the installation of a new shop front in 1987 and the establishment of a Menswear Concession, run by Peter Bowes in the space created; despite the opening of Bideford's new bridge and bypass, despite buoyant economic conditions and a booming housing market, there were indications, following the trend of the 1970s, that business and trade was being syphoned away from small towns, and into larger centres and out-of-town shopping developments.

Since 1973 Chopes had taken no radical new direction in retailing terms. The Car Park at the back of the shop was proving to be a vital asset by creating customer flow through the shop. In 1974 Truscotts the jewellers in No. 12 next door was purchased and leased off as a lighting shop. Westward Ho!, badly affected as a holiday resort by the growth of the package holiday industry, declined as a shopping centre. When the lease of the Westward Ho! shop came up for renewal in 1984, it was decided to close.

The first example of out-of-town shopping came to Bideford when in 1975 Normans opened a cash and carry on the Clovelly Road Estate. The effect of this was very noticeable in a reduction of the number of people using the town centre. In 1983 the small supermarket in No. 18 high Street, originally Waltons but finally Spar, closed for good and the following year the Midland Bank at No. 16 moved to the Quay. Presto (now Safeway) opened on the Kingsley Road in 1984 and this competition closed the Co-op in the High Street in 1986. The opening of the new Torridge Bridge finally bypassed the town and connected it with the large new shopping facilities on the edge of Barnstaple.

Chopes decided that an increase in trade might be doubtful and planned to make as much income as possible out of its property assets. When the lease of the hairdressing salon on the first floor ended, the first and second floors were gutted and refurbished as office suites, and leased. New tenants were found for No. 12 High Street and for The Schoolroom in the car park. In 1989 high interest rates burst the bubble of the housing boom and the economy slumped into a recession.

So, what future was there, in 1989, for a small family business in a small country town at the start of a recession? Not clear by any means, but a decision was taken for Roger Chope and his family, and his sister, Gillian Turner, to buy out the shares of Mrs Helen Chope and cousins Hazel and Caroline. This severed the connection between the business and the Norman Chope side of the family, but would facilitate arrangements for either the continuation or the winding up of the business.

The new shop front and menswear concession were a success. In 1986 Chopes had joined Associated Independent Stores, a voluntary buying group of about 200 shops. The full advantages of this move quickly became apparent in the form of price-competitiveness through combined buying power. The expertise of AIS in other merchandise fields has enabled Chopes to expand into Cookware, China, Glass and Gifts.

By 1993, Roger and Janet Chope had sufficient faith in the future of the business and the town to search once more for a family member to take on the Chope connection. Second daughter Katie Chope was pursuing a successful career as a Speech Therapist, and son Oliver, a Marine Zoologist, was working in Hong Kong. Phoebe, Roger and Janet's eldest daughter, and husband Simon Miller were at the time running a small restaurant at the bottom of Bridge Street. Seeing a better long-term future in Chopes, they applied for the job. Simon started immediately in a part-time capacity as Assistant Manager whilst the restaurant was being wound up, but was soon doing full time and was quickly able to relieve Roger Chope of many routine managerial duties.

What a transformation! With youthful energy and ideas permeating the shop; with confidence in the economic future returning, short and medium term plans could be made. The Centenary target has been set to achieve a £1,000,000 turnover. A Goods-in and Ticketing Room was established in 1995 in the old jeweller's workshop behind No. 12 High Street enabling new departments to be opened. In 1997, on the departure of the tenants to Mill Street, building work to enlarge the sales floor of No. 12 High Street was completed in September by Terry and Neil Hole. On November 1st, in time to catch the Christmas trade, a Bookshop, named Walter Henry's after the founder of the firm, was opened. It is interesting to read in the early pages of this booklet that in 1919 when No. 15 and No. 16 were purchased, that these premises were occupied by Mr. G. W. Fluck as a bookseller and stationer.

Shares in the company have now been passed to the next generation and Simon and Phoebe Miller have been made Directors of the firm. It is our hope that this will open a prosperous new chapter in the history of W. H. Chope and Sons at the beginning of its second century.

History Index

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