Shops

BIRKENHEAD. "Butcher's shop" (could be the same as below). Wire system. Paul O'Grady show, 28/11/2008.

BIRKENHEAD. Co-op grocery shop, corner of John Street and Grange Road. "Money paid for purchases were placed in a cylindrical shiny metal container and attached to an overhead wire and pulled by a wooden handle by the shop assistant. This sent the container to the cashier who sat in a raised area in the centre of the shop. Change was returned back to the assistant in the same way." WW2 People's War

BIRKENHEAD. Co-op, Church Road, Tranmere. Branch 13, opposite the Regent cinema. Wire system. See Anecdotes

BIRKENHEAD. Co-op, Woodchurch Road. "Well remember the Co-op... LH side was the Butchery Dept. RH side General Grocery. Both served by the Lamson Paragon [sic] overhead wire cash delivery system." Wirral Wiki

BIRKENHEAD. Rostances, Oxton Road. "Always fascinated by them as a child." Joyce Parnell Griffiths on Facebook

BIRKENHEAD. Robb Brothers, 232-246 Grange Road. "Our premises are now equipped with the latest Cash Tube System. In this particular we again lead Liverpool, as it is the only installation of its kind in this part of the country." Birkenhead News, 30 May 1908, p. 6

BIRKENHEAD. Sturlas, Haymarket. "Always fascinated by them as a child." Joyce Parnell Griffiths on Facebook

BROMBOROUGH. Co-op butchers. Shelagh Bradshaw in posting to Facebook

CHEADLE. Co-op, cnr of Wilmslow Road and Gatley Road. "Several straight wires and one long route that went round at least one corner." (Andrew Hunt). Also mentioned (same shop?) in late 1940s and early 1950s by David Branyer in posting to Whirligig message board, 20/11/0

CHESTER. Beck's. "Mr. Dudley Beck .. will open his new store for men in Bridge-street Row this Saturday... To speed up service a Lamson pneumatic cash system, the first of its type in the country, has been installed." Cheshire Observer, 12 Feb. 1949, p. 3. [I don't know what special type this was.]

CHESTER. Co-op, ?Foregate Street. "The total [was] written on a small ticket torn from a carboned book. That was put into a cash cup with the money and shot along the overhead wire to a little glass cash office from where the cashier shot back the cup containing any change." Caption at Chester History & Heritage Service

CHESTER. Duttons (grocers). "Messrs. Dutton and Sons' premises have recently undergone extensive enlargement and improvement. The cash railway, recently introduced for transmitting payments to the cashier's desk, is in itself a novelty. Those who have not seen it at work should pay a visit to this establishment and set the "ball a rolling" by a seasonable purchase. Cheshire Observer, 24 Dec. 1887, p.6
• "My grandmother patronised some shops in Chester... Dutton's for groceries, a visit to which was always exciting for us children as thy had a cable system by which cash canisters from the counter would be whizzed overhead along the wires to a central cashier and the change whizzed back." St James' Christleton Parish Magazine, June 2006, p.8

CHESTER. Vincent Williams. "By order of Vincent Williams Limited, 55, Bridge Street Row, Chester, Swetenham, Whitehouse & Co. .. will sell by auction .. costly Lamson triple cash tube to 3 floors." Cheshire Observer, 1 Jul. 1966, p. 12

CHESTER. William Jones (provision merchant), Bridge Street. "Your photograph of the Lawson [sic] rapid wire system brought back many memories .. when I used to go into William Jones's shop and stand on the counter so I could pull the wire to send the carrier; this was a treat I looked forward to each week. It's nice to know that it will not be scrapped and that many people will see this fabulous machine." Cheshire Observer, 23 June 1962, p. 1
• "The writer remembers the 'old' shop as it was in the 1920s... The counters were linked with an 'elevated' cash desk, back in the shop, by wires on which ran pulleys and 'balls' of wood which unscrewed in the middle to receive the bill and cash to the desk and then to return the change and receipt back at the counter & customer. An impulse from a spring sent the apparatus 'humming' up the slope and gravity took care of the return journey". E.G.Williams. Chester then and now. Unpublished typescript, 1981. [There seems to be confusion between the Rapid Wire system and the Cash Ball system.]

CONGLETON. ? 15 High Street. "Total disposal sale of shop fittings... Lamson Cash Railway ... To be sold in the premises." Stockport County Express, 14 Oct. 1965, p. 9

CREWE. T.L. Johnson. Down the decades [articles from past years]. "October 10, 1886. A 'cash railway' in Crewe. Mr T.L. Johnson of Crewe, who is making extensive alterations and enlargements of his Chester Bridge establishment, has introduced a novelty in the form of a 'cash railway'... This is the only one in the neighbourhood... The credit of the invention belongs to Mr. Lamson, an American, whose agent from Liverpool has fitted up the system." Crewe Chronicle, 21 Mar. 1974, p. 63

GATLEY. Co-op, High Street/Oakwood Avenue. "The staff would be standing to attention, and neatly spaced behind the brightly polished counter. The cashier, Miss Morris, had her separate, and very demure enclosure, to which overhead wires led from the counter positions. After a customer had been served, the money together with a bill giving the amount and 'divi' number, would be placed into a container. This would be fastened to the overhead wire, and with a sharp tug on a wooden handle attached to a short rope, it would be fired along the wires to the cashier. Within a trice the change and the 'divi' check would be returned with a self satisfied whine." Gatley website

HELSBY. Co-op. Cash carrier. Barbara Plant in posting to Facebook

HOOLE. Co-op, Walker Street. "The arrival of the Co-op in 1906 which included a grocer, a butcher and a shoe and clothing store on the upper floor, was a major event . Many will remember getting their divi and buying milk tokens there as well as the cash pulley system." Hoole Round About website

HOYLAKE. Co-op. Cash carrier. Chris Webster in posting on Facebook, 8 Mar. 2021

HYDE. Co-op. Cash carrier. Marion Edwards in posting to Facebook

KNUTSFORD. Wildgoose (drapers and outfitters), Kings Street where Boots is now. "There was a high cash desk with wires, which whizzed the small canister with the bill and cash inside, backwards and forwards above one's head, while customers sat on a bent wooden chair." Knutsford Guardian, 23 Jan. 2003

LYMM. Co-op. Cash carrier in 1950s. (Holt)

MACCLESFIELD. Co-op (Equitable Provident Society), Brook Street. "On the first floor are to be arranged the main general offices, managers' and cashier's offices, committee rooms, cash tubes." Macclesfield Times, 19 Sep. 1930, p. 2

MORETON. Co-op. "The kids were always fascinated by the money containers flying across the store on a wire pulley to a central cashiers booth, then came flyin back with the change and a co-op receipt with your divvy number on it." Wirral History website

NESTON. Coopers (grocers). Cash carrier. Catherine Mayers on Facebook

NESTON. Irwins. "I remember them in quite a few shops. Irwins in Neston had them. I used to watch them wizz aceoss the ceiling." Ann Jones in posting to Facebook

NEW FERRY. Rostences. Cash carrier. Shelagh Bradshaw in posting to Facebook

NORTHWICH. "Army and Navy Stores when it was the big store at the bottom of Northwich." Karen Weedall on Facebook

RUNCORN. Co-op (drapery and millinery dept.), Church Street. "Another innovation to Runcorn is the method of dealing with the customer's book and cash. These are placed in a special container and propelled along overhead wires to the cash office in the centre of the ground floor, from where the book and change will be promptly returned to the various counters." Runcorn Weekly News, 4 Dec. 1931, p. 5. (If the carrier actually took the customer's book it would have to be a basket carrier.)

RUNCORN. Robinsons. "Robinson's Haberdashery store had aerial runways that criss-crossed the shop carrying cash and receipts between sales assistant and the cash office." Heather J. Höpfl in Aesthetics of organisation, ed. S. Linstead and H.J. Höpfl (London: Sage, 2000) p. 93

STOCKPORT. Burtons. "An old pneumatic tube cash system connected the first floor with the cash desk downstairs." Roheho comment on Flickr

STOCKPORT. I. & E. Co-operative Society, 27-39 Chestergate. "Require the services of female cash-desk workers for the Central Emporium, Chestergate: Dart csh carrier system in operation." Manchester Evening News, 19 Oct. 1950, p. 8

STALYBRIDGE. Co-op. Sturtevant pneumatic tube system with 8 stations. Sturtevant letter of 13/8/29

WILMSLOW. T. Seymour Meads (grocery chain), Grove St. Wire system in 1930s. Graham Ellis