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WIGFALLS TV and Electrical Store Fitzalan Square


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Anyone remember WIGFALLS television and electrical shop in Fitzalan Square?

The main memory of this shop for me was when it had the MASSIVE fire that brought it to it's knees.

I seem to remember Wigfalls fans in and around Sheffield all the time doing their deliveries too

Definitely remember the fire though. It was big news at the time in the Sheffield Star etc (might even have made Look North and Calendar!)

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I remember Wigfalls because my parents used to hire a washing from them and once a month we'd go in, stand in a queue and pay the fee. In return you got to use the machine, have it serviced and repaired, and get a replacement when it failed. It seems so odd now but back then lots of people hired washing machines, televisions etc. Rumbelows used to do quite a lot of rental business for TV sets.

After paying Wigfalls we'd cross the road and queue in the YEB (Yorkshire Electricity Board for those too young to remember) to pay the electric bill. The days before widespread direct debits I suppose.  Back then insurance companies used to collect premiums door to door and you had to queue in the bank to draw money out. Amazing how things have changed!  

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7 minutes ago, Old Phart said:

I remember Wigfalls because my parents used to hire a washing from them and once a month we'd go in, stand in a queue and pay the fee. In return you got to use the machine, have it serviced and repaired, and get a replacement when it failed. It seems so odd now but back then lots of people hired washing machines, televisions etc. Rumbelows used to do quite a lot of rental business for TV sets.

After paying Wigfalls we'd cross the road and queue in the YEB (Yorkshire Electricity Board for those too young to remember) to pay the electric bill. The days before widespread direct debits I suppose.  Back then insurance companies used to collect premiums door to door and you had to queue in the bank to draw money out. Amazing how things have changed!  

Yes certainly different in those days.I remember going on holiday to cornwall and needing to get cash from bank,they had to phone to my bank in sheffield to check that i had money in my account before cashing cheque. 

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I attended this fire and the Classic cinema fire in Fitzalan Square just a few weeks apart. We were mobilised from the old central fire station on Division Street (now Bungalows and Bears pub) as soon as we turned out of the station we could see the large plumes of smoke over the city centre. On arrival at the scene we were told that several people were missing on the first floor and entered wearing breathing apparatus to carry out a search and deal with the fire. We made our way to the central staircase which was a wooden construction and found it well ablaze so we feared for the people on the first floor if they hadn't been able to get out. When we left the building to replenish our compressed air cylinders we were told that they had escaped down the fire escape at the rear of the building and due to the intensity of the fire had to go round to Pond Street to get back round to the front of the premises to carry out the roll call. A really intense fire and very lucky no one was seriously injured.

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Wigfalls hay day was in the days of the rented televisions. I came out of industry to be a TV repairman at Telefusion  another TV rental company. In those days all TV's had operating them and Cathode ray tubes to display the picture. On average colour TV's broke down 3 times a year. Companies like Wigfalls and Telefusion disappeared with the prices that discounters were selling TV's at and the reliability of modern TV's  

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Wigfalls were still opening new shops right up to the point they were bought out by Dixons in the 80's. I was working at the Hallgate branch in  Doncaster though they had opened another branch within MFI on York Road, Doncaster just months before the takeover.  A couple of years later I was working for Comet, moved around a few stores including Lincoln and Worksop before starting at the Meadowhall Retail Park store when it first opened. I didn't really know Sheffield that well but still managed to get out and about doing 20-30 deliveries a day on the van. I left before it closed as I got my HGV and one of my first trips out in an artic was a multi drop run around Sheffield, think of it being an early version of Hermes with a 38 tonne truck. It was a heck of a way to learn the ropes and I only stopped driving a couple of years back after heart problems.  

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I used to have to queue for ages to pay my mothers rental fees she rented everything including her iron!  She paid 1 shilling  for some things sixpence for others I found it embarrassing as people used to huff and puff because it took so long no wonder she wouldn’t go herself

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Always remember Wigfalls aka as Wiggies. as a youth I came home one day to find my parents had either bought or hired a cracking record player with inbuilt radio, this was back in the mid 60's so no stereo but it did have 2 speakers, the problem being was we had no records, so off to my cousins and borrowed some, 1st one played was a song called Concrete and Clay by a group known as Unit Four Plus One. Happy memories of days long gone.

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On 17/07/2022 at 20:34, Hopman said:

Unit Four Plus Two

 

Ah what memories this song brings, happy days as a youth in the 60's. Thanks for the video.

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Ah what memories this song brings, happy days as a youth in the 60's. Thanks for the video. ( In my original message i mentioned i borrowed a song as above but quoted the band as Unit 4 plus one, it is of course Unit 4 plus 2, just a senior moment.

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