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Redgates


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I can always remember when I took my two daughters up town we always had to go to Redgates otherwise they dragged their feet and moaned the whole time. They used to love the fact that you could buy dolls shoes in several sizes and furniture for the dolls house. When my eldest was 3 we took her for a little tricycle but she sat on a go cart and insisted she had that instead......So sad that was 40 years ago. :(

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Guest davide463

I remember my old mom used to work at the latest Redgates. They used to have an offer on baby stuff, where you gave the estimated date of your birth and if you got it right, you got the cot and pram for free.

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Seen as Redgates was established in 1857,

I see no mention to the Fargate shop, or have I missed it ?.

19 Fargate,

Redgate Co (Sheffield) Limited

(The), perambulator manufacturers.

Kelly's 1925

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Guest KevinM

Hi all.Just found this forum.I find myself missing Sheffield more as I get older.Anyways... there was a toy shop in Fitzalan Square called Wilson and Gumpert,just opposite the taxi rank on the corner near the Odeon,which,unless I'm mistaken,was later to become Redgates.I may be wrong,just a fuzzy memory from the back of my mind.

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Hello and Welcome to the Site KevinM - what kept you ?? lol

You'll be correct about the Gumpert/Redgates

Hi all.Just found this forum.I find myself missing Sheffield more as I get older.Anyways... there was a toy shop in Fitzalan Square called Wilson and Gumpert,just opposite the taxi rank on the corner near the Odeon,which,unless I'm mistaken,was later to become Redgates.I may be wrong,just a fuzzy memory from the back of my mind.

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Guest KevinM

Thanks Richard.I thought I could vaguely remember my Mum and Dad taking me there on dark,cold December afternoons in the run up to Christmas.Truly magical memories.My Mum still lives in Sheffield and I visit perhaps twice a year.It brings tears to my eyes to see what they've done to it.Progress.......

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I used to drink with Mike Nunn, whose family owned Redgates., and I knew him qite well. He always said that people would go into the store ,see what they wanted....ask questions of their staff...and then when satisfied go and buy it from a catalogue whose price might be cheaper but didn't employ staff who knew about 'toys'.

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Guest JK WKA

I think I remember reading that the first Redgates store was on Ecclesall Rd, and I think they sold prams, etc, then branched out into toys after the owners visited trade fairs. There's still a little toy/model shop in Fitzallan Square - previously the Wilson & Gumpert (?) shop that's been mentioned I think, and more recently it became "Tags" and now "Antics" (one of several stores nationwide). It's nice to think that there's been that continuity of use. If Redgates had had a store there during the war, it makes sense that it would have been destroyed in The Blitz - it's virtually next door to the site of The Marples pub, which took a direct hit, I believe.

I also remember the big Redgates store on Furnival Gate - I used to collect diecast models by Dinky, Corgi, Solido, etc - and still have them all! One birthday, about 40+ years ago, I received a terrific Corgi gift set of a tri-deck car transporter and six cars from Redgates, which cost the princely sum of £4-00. I still have it, in very good, but slightly play-worn condition, and it's now worth between £500 and £1000 or so.. (ISAs? - pah! who needs em?!..) (Wish I'd bought two now..)

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I really am not sure about which store was bombed but, apart from the area around the Marple's so was the Moor....As a kid it was a flat desolate "blitzed" area with just the odd building standing.

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Guest plain talker
I really am not sure about which store was bombed but, apart from the area around the Marple's so was the Moor....As a kid it was a flat desolate "blitzed" area with just the odd building standing.

Atkinsons store was also pretty much flattened, as were Walshes store, Cockaynes, and the Co-op further north in the city centre.

There were other bombed buildings such as the building that houses Carson's stationers on West street.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=West+St&hl=en&ll=53.381031,-1.474421&spn=0.001142,0.004823&sll=53.380762,-1.475242&sspn=0.002521,0.004823&geocode=FZGHLgMdL3zp_w&t=h&mra=mr&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.381031,-1.475444&panoid=sHvHSDoAd2bgiJJx3xo2bg&cbp=11,154.51,,0,-22.71

you can see the "seam" in the middle of the building. the right hand half being destroyed. There was a photo of the bomb damage somewhere (I thought it was on picture sheffield) but I can't find it.

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Atkinsons store was also pretty much flattened, as were Walshes store, Cockaynes, and the Co-op further north in the city centre.

There were other bombed buildings such as the building that houses Carson's stationers on West street.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=West+St&hl=en&ll=53.381031,-1.474421&spn=0.001142,0.004823&sll=53.380762,-1.475242&sspn=0.002521,0.004823&geocode=FZGHLgMdL3zp_w&t=h&mra=mr&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.381031,-1.475444&panoid=sHvHSDoAd2bgiJJx3xo2bg&cbp=11,154.51,,0,-22.71

you can see the "seam" in the middle of the building. the right hand half being destroyed. There was a photo of the bomb damage somewhere (I thought it was on picture sheffield) but I can't find it.

Top image on page 39. It was the left hand side which was destroyed, if looking from West Street.

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Guest plain talker

Top image on page 39. It was the left hand side which was destroyed, if looking from West Street.

Thank you! excellent! That was the picture, Madannie, and yes, I apologise, I said the right hand side, and it was the left hand side that was flattened. *holds hands up*

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"I remember one year they had a train set on display there - not a normal size one - this was huge - the sort any backstreet kid could only dream of simply because it was designed to carry kids. A slightly smaller version of the minature railways you can ride on in Stately Homes or at seaside resorts"

The train you remember ( and I remember it too) was by Minic which was a subsidiary of Lines Brothers (ie Triang Toys) its in the following youtube video

And more information is here:

http://www.tmnr.co.uk/his.htm

I remember for a fact that The Rising Sun at Bamford had a Minic Garden Railways setup by its swimming pool. ( when it had a swimming pool)

Regarding locations of Regates I know there was a branch in Chesterfield and there was also another branch at Hillsborough Corner

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Guest eyoule

There is one of the Redgates that was on the Moor, following it being bombed, on Picture Sheffield.

As I remember the history of Redgates (I once read a load of info about it somewhere on the net) it started on The Moor and moved once or twice before settling where Sunwin House now is?

I'll try and find more info..

It would seem that Redgates has had 3 locations:

1) Bottom of Ecclesall Road (when Ecclesall Road met The Moor, London Road, Cemetary Road and St. Mary's Gate with a roundabout - Redgates was a little way away from the junction)

2) Near top of Moor (Where Sports Soccer currently occupies, opposite Debenhams)

3) Furnival Gate (Where Sunwin House now occupies)

It was a family business for some years until a gentleman bought it in the 30's - he was the chap responsible for it moving up the bomb-damaged Moor during the rebuilding process and turning it into the much grander scale that is remembered by many a kid-at-heart now.

I'll try and find out more...

I can recall going to the Redgates on Ecclesall Road - not to mention the other later locations - great shop.

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This is the Redgates store that I grew up with in the 1950s. The BEST one...the one with the fantastic atmosphere that the new, Sunwin House one never had.

post-513-1180529610_zpsbf6cac36.jpg

It was one of the first new stores to rise from the ashes of the Blitz on The Moor, and was right next door to Woolworths ( which was THE first of the re-built stores).

The original Redgates stood,roughly, in the space between what is now the empty McDonalds corner site and Woolworths and was wiped out in the Blitz.

You can see it on the right hand side of this painting:

image-2_zpsc4652c7b.jpg

This is how it looked after the Luftwaffe had re-modelled it ! :

post-513-1179819818_zps73819e69.jpg

The Woolworths store was the first one to be rebuilt on The Moor and, here you can see it standing proud and all ready for the Coronation, in 1953. :

http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y01299&pos=1&action=zoom&id=48386

How it looked after Redgates moved to their new premises and Quadrant Stationers took it over.....and, how it looks today :

s23183_zps2835b6c2.jpg

http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;c04274&pos=1&action=zoom&id=91867

At that time, the Wilson Gumpert toy shop had nothing to do with Redgates and stood on the top side of Fitzalan Square.

Marples Corner had been obliterated in the Blitz, but, the rest of that block remained intact, as it still is today. (Apart from the left hand end).

It stood in the unit that is occupied in the second photo by Colonnade (with the blue sign).

The Tags model shop of today is in the unit next door, which was, back then ( I think ?) a branch of Clarkes the Cleaners.

http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s00013&pos=1&action=zoom&id=4031

post-273-1197583071_zps60697a88.jpg

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