Shops

KETTERING. Co-op, Abington Street. Pneumatic tube system. (Executive on Sunday. Northampton: W.P.Publications, 1989)

KETTERING. Co-op, Wellington Street. "Shopping was at the 'Co-op' in Wellington Street where they had an overhead type of railway. Cash, no credit cards or cheques in those days, was placed in a container, attached to the runway; a cord was pulled and off it whizzed to the cash office." Burton Latimer website

KETTERING. Woodcocks (dept store), corner of Montagu and Newland Street. Overhead wire system. Later became part of the Co-op department store. (Addis, Ian and Mercer, Robert. Kettering Then and Now. Moulton: Jema, 1997, p.10)

NORTHAMPTON. Brice and Sons. "The introduction at Messrs. Brice and Sons', general drapers and outfitters, The Drapery, of the ingenious Lamson Cash Carrier, is an instance in point. The system .. consists of a light elevated metal railroad, on which hollow balls - to contain bills and money - travel from the counter to the cash desk, and then back to the counter... There are nearly 40 shop assistants to use the new cash transmitter... This line of railway is 100 feet long... Altogether there are 500 yards of the railway in the establishment... There are four lines issuing from the cash desk to the various parts of the shop, and one, the longest, is a marvel of ingenuity. After passing two stations, there is a junction at the terminus of which there is a third station (in the counting house), and at the terminus of the main line a fourth... Its sterling palpable advantages are three - time is saved, the assistant never leaves the counter, and the steps of the assistant are very materially reduced." Northampton Mercury, 17 July 1886, p.6
• "The cash railway has been connected with the new premises." Northampton Mercury, 5 Oct. 1894, p. 6

NORTHAMPTON. Co-op, 64 Abington Street. Large shop with many departments. Pneumatic tube system. Tony Barker
• "Wtd., Assistant Cashiers (female) for central cash tube office." Northampton Chronicle, 30 Jan. 1950, p. 2

NORTHAMPTON. Co-op, St James' Square. Wire system in 1950s. "I would often accompany my mother and delight in seeing the canister travel through a hole in the wall to the cash office." Tony Barker

NORTHAMPTON. Frisby Dyke. "Messrs. Frisby Dyke and Co., of Waterloo House, have just had completed at their establishment a system for transmission of cash and bills from the assistants to the cashier's desk. The apparatus, which is called the Lamson Cash Carrier, is a most ingenious arrangement. Briefly it consists of two elevated tram lines, light, and not disfiguring, running near the ceiling over each counter to the cashier... The system is installed throughout the premises, there being five stations in the downstairs-room, one in the show-room, and one in the furnishing department, which is under another roof." Northampton Mercury, 10 Jul. 1886, p.9

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.