Phil Gillam: Another one gone but not forgotten

Was there not an amazing old-fashioned stationery shop in The Square until about 1975 - or did I just dream that one?

What about Durrants record shop at the top of the Cop and Mansel's toy shop half way down the Cop? What about Timothy Whites?

All now just memories.

And now, of course, we must add to our list the iconic C.R. Birch & Son, that extraordinary hardware store just off Smithfield Road.

It is so very sad that this wonderful store is having to close after 105 years.

Simple economics (a world in which there is no room for sentimentality) and the tide of history have finally forced the owners of this much-loved Shrewsbury institution to shut up shop for good.

It closed just after Christmas - certainly not a decision the Birch family took lightly, with the owner Peter Birch saying he had been battling with the inevitable since 2009 when the store celebrated its centenary.

"We have been here for sentimental value really for the last five years or so," said Peter.

"It has taken us a long time to come to this decision and it's going to be difficult to tear ourselves away from it."

Out-of-town shopping, internet shopping, and lack of easy car parking were some of the reasons Peter put forward for the store's demise.

It's also, perhaps, worth mentioning what I call the Woolworth factor. When the mighty Woolworth's disappeared from our high streets a few years ago, everyone you spoke to said: "Oh, I really loved Woolworth's. It's such a shame. I'll really miss it." But the truth was, of course, that, yes, everyone had fond memories of Woolworth's and a soft spot for the store, but how many people actually shopped there during its final years?

And, I suspect, the same is true of Birch's. Everyone has a soft spot for the old place, but how many actually shopped there?

The store opened in 1909 with Charles Birch renting the property from a blacksmith. In the decades that followed it became the place to go for the farming community - until the cattle market moved from the centre of town out to Harlescott.

Shrewsbury-based author Pauline Fisk has written eloquently about Birch's in her blog and book, My Tonight From Shrewsbury.

And Selby Martin paid handsome tribute to Birch's in a letter in this newspaper last week (opposite Nathan Rowden's fine article about the store's closure).

Mr Martin wrote: "It was certainly a most unconventional shop. Each day an array of brooms, shovels, spades, mats and so on was hung up on the walls outside. The building is odd, with two walls at an angle, each with a wide entrance and doors standing open summer and winter."

Perhaps the National Trust should step in and save places like this as part of the nation's heritage.

Mr Martin is also right, of course, to point out that it is small family-run shops such as Birch & Son that add so much to Shrewsbury's character and attractiveness for visitors.

Let us hope we don't see too many more casualties like Birch's as our lovely small shops do battle with cold economics.

Phil Gillam's gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books in Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from amazon.co.uk