Photographs

Coes, Ipswich

Shops

The first shop in Suffolk to have a cash railway is claimed to be Edward Brand (Friendly House) in Ipswich.

FRAMLINGHAM. Carleys (grocery). "We would also buy a few items from time to time in Carley's shop itself and the girl at the check-out, as we would now call it, would put our bill, with prices marked and the money to pay, in a small container which whizzed on a taut wire to the cashier in his office, across the shop. Arthur Staniforth. Farmers: from producers to park keepers (Victoria B.C.:Trafford, 2005) p.23

HAVERHILL. Co-op. Cash carrier. (Betty Fowler)

IPSWICH. Edward Brand (Friendly House), drapers and furnishers, 30-36 Tacket Street. "Opening of our cash railway... Edward Brand is now showing in all departments a large and well-assorted stock of useful drapery." Ipswich Journal, 13 May 1887
• "There are stations all over Mr. Brand's premises, the branch lines running off on one side to the furnishing department and on the other to the haberdashery and trimming shop... It may be noted, too, that Friendly House is the only business establishment in Suffolk where the cash railway has yet been laid." Bury Free Press, 14 May 1887, p.2
• "Suffolk Agricultural Show, June 1891. Visitors to the above are invited whether purchasers .. or not to walk through the extensive showrooms, warehouses, and factories... Also inspect the Ready Money System with its numerous trains running every second on the cash railway, which is composed of wires, points, signals, junctions, main lines, branch lines, permanent way, stations, &c. Special service of trains during the show." Ibid., 30 May 1891, p.4

IPSWICH. Coes (men's and women's clothing and sportswear), 20-28 Norwich Road. Pneu Art and later Lamson pneumatic tube systems and a cash lift. Still in use for making change when I visited in October 2010.
• "True to its traditional feel, the store on Norwich Road still operates the Lamson cash transfer system." Evening Star, 2 Sep 2002. "Money is loaded into a plastic carrier and gets sent to the store's secure office using vacuum power."

IPSWICH. Central Co-op. "The last one [cash ball system] I remember was in the Ipswich Industrial Co-op. It was replaced some forty years ago by the Lamson 'whizzer'". Daily Mirror, 6 Dec. 1968.
• Overhead wire system in 1930s. Marjorie Goldsmith in National Sound Archive and staff at Coads.
• Pneumatic tube system in late 1950s. Douglas Self.

IPSWICH. Co-op, Caulder Hall Road. Wire system in late 1950s. (Douglas Self)

IPSWICH. Footmans. "The well-known firm of Footman's of Waterloo House, Ipswich, is marking the completion of their great re-building scheme... Footman's realised that their cash system must also be brought up to date and all transactions are now dealt with by vacuum tubes, cash being received down in the basement within a few seconds of despatch from any point of the building." Bury Free Press, 10 Oct. 1931, p. 10
• "The cashier was in the basement and money was sent to the store vault by air tubes if notes were enclosed. Change was returned through a chute with a receipt." Shop demolished and replaced with Debenhams in late 1970s. Evening Star website, 11 June 2002

LOWESTOFT. Catlings. "I know that Catlings had one of those 'air pipe' systems for sending the money to the cash office." Trigger in posting to Lowestoft Online 23/1/12

LOWESTOFT. Co-op, Clapham Road. "Lowestoft Co-operative Extension... The cash railways were provided and fixed by the Samson [sic] Supply Company." Eastern Daily Press, 13 Mar. 1903, p. 9

LOWESTOFT. Co-op, Kirkely. "The shop in Kirkely with the little cups on wires to put the money in was the Co-op opposite Clarement Rd." Frankiesays in posting to Lowestoft Online, 23/1/12

LOWESTOFT. Devereux. "The Lamson Cash Railway .. has been introduced here by Mr. John Devereux, family grocer and provision merchant, of London House, Lowestoft... For many years in our large establishments, we have noticed the 'cash-boy'. His presence has been a necessary evil. The advantages to assistants of Lamson's device over the old system, in which the assistant was obliged to walk to the cash-desk with the money received from each customer, is great and enables the assistants to keep in better working order, and to wait on customers more effectively... We feel assured that Mr. Devereux, with his well-known civility, will explain the system more thoroughly to any who may desire it." Lowestoft Journal, 23 Oct. 1886, p. 4

LOWESTOFT. Robertsons. "Yes Robertsons did have one [a wire system], my Mum worked there too." Funkychic in posting to Lowestoft Online, 23/1/12

LOWESTOFT. Tuttles. Cash carrier. Paddy Welch in posting to Facebook

NEWMARKET. Co-op. "Throughout the premises the cash carrier system has been installed by the Dart Cash Carrier Co." Newmarket Journal, 25 Jun. 1938, p. 3

SUDBURY. Winch and Blatch, Market Hill. (Formerly C.F.Winch and on King Street until premises burned down in 1920s). "John and Vera [Blatch] overhauled the ramshackle acounts system and installed up-to-the minute overhead pulleys to take cash and bills from the counters to a cashier... Their son Richard, now in his 50s and the firm's managing director, has early memories of climbing up to pull the cord and send the containers whizzing to the cash desk." Suffolk Free Press, 28 Oct. 2005

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