WITH reference to the photograph of a tailors shop at the corner of Union Street and Lord Street in Leigh that was recently published in the Journal, I would like to add a little more to the story of the premises.
A John Thomas Grounds (1898-1961) was living at 17-19 Union Street in 1927 as a bespoke tailor in gents and ladies ware.
By 1936 he was also occupying the corner shop at 15a Lord Street.
He also had an overall factory above a drapery shop at the top of Lord Street (Market Street end), occupying the top two floors, which later became a wine bar.
In 1946-47 he moved the factory part of his business to Bond Street using the name Welwyn Garments Ltd, formerly Richard Greenough’s Brass Foundry.
Meanwhile he moved to live in Culcheth and had bought the Greystokes hotel in Blackpool near to the Pleasure Beach which his wife Hilda was running during the war period.
He still had the shop on the corner until 1954.
He died suddenly from pneumonia in Astley Hospital in February 1961.
A while after the business was sold and his widow retired to Ringwood in the New Forest.
J Grounds
Belmont Avenue
Atherton
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