A Gentleman's Outfitters In Shotton -Interview with Edward ("Ted") Jones

Description

As a much younger but high-street contemporary of “Ted Jones", "The Star”, I met with him and enjoyed his company often. Through our common shop-keeper interests and membership of groups such as the Deeside Chamber of Trade and the Rotary Club, we shared much in the business and social life of our town. I related closely to his observations, as set down in this remarkable recording. They are both accurate and fascinating.

Ted tells of the major changes the second world war brought to a typical high-street and the birth of a “consumer society” of which the personal apparel and fashion industry was an essential part. But he was an entrepreneur; an independent, small-business professional. A sector-specialist who knew that markets were fickle and change inevitable. His commentaries on future directions of retailing brought about by supermarkets and concerns for constraints on shopper parking are most prescient.

With splendid introduction and thoughtful questions posed by Kathy Growcott, the listener is treated to an illuminating record of first-hand involvement with a vibrant high street which was at the heart of a prosperous, Flintshire conurbation. Ted's candid recollections bring focus to the dynamics of community life of the day and the, often demanding, relationship between customer and shopkeeper.

Mr Jones's daughter, Jennifer, continues to run the business (2016) from the original premises. This recording was compiled and digitised by me using material from an audio compact-cassette tape in the possession of the family.

The cassette recording notes indicate that the interviewer was “Kathy Growcott” and the date was 24 Feb 1981. I believe this item was one of a series of recordings made by Flintshire (Clwyd) County Council as part of an “Oral History” project. There is no reference to any constraints of “copyright” and, though the make-up of the recording suggests there was one, I have not been able to find any evidence of a “master” tape.

My volunteer digitisation of this item -which is offered here for education and research purposes only- is dedicated to the ethos of business and enterprise which continues to cascade down successive generations of aspirational Deesiders.