Partridges is absolutely huge. It stretches from The High Street all the way through to
Magdalen Way…a full 5 buildings long. Over
the years it appears the store has grown, gobbling up all the buildings that
stretch behind it until it had to stop, running into streets on three sides.
The shop looks to be about the same age as our house, which would mean
it is over 700 years old.
During the reign of one of the early King Georges
somebody decided to jazz up the part of the building that faces The High
Street. The latest fashion was to
build on a false front, making the pitched roofed two-story building look like
a three-story building with a flat roof. It was no matter that rafters blocked
the upstairs windows, because a couple hundred years ago the old place looked
quite “modern.”
My favorite parts of Partridges, however, are the huge
windows. Each window that borders
the streets holds all kinds of interesting things to look at.
There are hundreds of colorful pieces of pottery, teapots
and cups, candlesticks and many things I can’t identify.
The garden sculptures stare out at me as I stare back.
Looking in those windows makes me imagine what it felt like back in
Victorian times, strolling down the High Street, looking in wonder through the
500-year-old windows of this same shop at the ordinary and exotic wares of the
day.
Just inside the main doorway, the kitchenwares section
grabs the customer with all types of scales, aprons, pans, and almost anything
else you can imagine. There are
baskets hanging from the ceiling. Folks
use them for gathering flowers, shopping or carrying vegetables from the
garden.
Next are cleaning chemicals, dyes and stuff with names
I’ve never heard of…the British seem to like big names for things.
It all looks great, but I still don’t have any idea what they use
most of that stuff for.
Past the kitchen wares they sell flower bulbs of every
description, plus garden tools and lawn sculptures. My favorite garden tool in this section is a simple handle
that different fittings like a hoe or cultivator.
The one I bought in France is terrific.
The next section is devoted to fireplaces.
They have thick cast iron plates that fit behind the fire to reflect
the heat. These have been molded
with lovely scenes of deer or families, and range from really tiny (for coal),
to very long.
Barbeques, mowers, blowers, etc. take up a relatively
small section. Wellies, short for
Wellingtons, are high topped rubber boots that everyone seems to own.
Several versions of those, plus hard -toed work boots, tweed hats,
walking sticks, and hunting jackets are displayed here...practically
everything for the country gentleman (or lady of the manor).
Upstairs are the ironmonger supplies.
Ironmonger is another name for metal bits and bobs.
This department sells tools like the stuff Goss’ sells in Zanesville.
The counter is constantly busy. In
another room there is one huge section for anything connected to lamps.
They also seem to sell a lot of useless things like resin
hedgehogs, and a giant plush kangaroo costing 200 pounds ($360), and some
other critters I don’t recognize.
The clerks, however, are about as friendly as a
stonewall. They know where
everything is located but are terribly bothered to have to move to go find
something. I know they can smile,
because there are pictures of them flashing their teeth on the walls behind
the registers.
But I haven’t seen any of them so much as grin in
“real life.” Service with a
smile is still just a theory in “jolly old England.” But despite the sour mood, this place is fantastic.
Partridges Hardware Store is the kind of store that could only be in a
700-year-old building. It is the
kind of place Harry Potter might shop in if he were looking to buy a hammer,
or even a giant plush kangaroo. It
is, in a word, “magical.”