Bedworth and Nuneaton

I remember someone drowning in that old clay pit behind the Arden. Locals called it the Blue Lagoon, no idea why, it was neither blue or a lagoon. Swam in there several times myself. Stupidly. Water was always very cold and deep in most places. Almost as cold as Gosford pool. Norman

Was that a relative of Don Twigger, who co-owned Bedworth Hypermarket originally? I worked there from its first day until 1978

Hi Woodford, sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Not really sure but quite possible as they were a widespread family in Bedworth. The hypermarket that you refer to, was that where Clear Hooters the car horn manufactures once stood? We called Clear Hooters the Snuff Factory.

I think this is the hypermarket in question. I think I do remember an earlier shop that the owners called a hypermarket. It was a scruffy, disorganised place that sold all kinds of clearance lines that they no doubt picked up from shops that were closing down or whatever. For some reason my memory has churned up an image of some strange looking 3 volt cycle lamp batteries they had in at one time. In those days the Ever Ready batteries had cardboard on the outside but these were cased in plastic and had no makers name.

This may or may not be of interest to forumites here. As an ex-Nuneatonion I frequently have look at this site and frequently find something new. I was fortunate enough to see Larry Grayson live in working men's clubs on a couple of occasions and although I have seen the clip on the Nuneaton site several times it still raises a smile. Plenty of rail, bus and canal nostalgia. Don't know if this link has been posted before.

Lets hope Nuneaton and Bedworth stays away from developers. I recall the police station and law courts prior being demolished. Bridge Street is where I used to live, the Bull Hotel now known as George Eliot.

I seem to recall a guy in Bedworth riding his cycle around the streets often, in Top Hat and Tails as though he was going to Ascot, think it was the early fifties, anyone know anything about this?

Hypermarket Bedworth

It was great to read that folks have not forgotten the Hypermarket. We employed around 250 people and they were the best team any one could ask for. I first was on the market selling cut price groceries then open our first shop in Bell Green. I extended the shop to make it a small supermarket. This was the first Shoppers Paradise. I found out that Hursts old warehouse in Bedworth had retail planning permission so we took it but I needed byelaw permission for a shop front. Bedworth UDC would not grant it so we said "sod you" and opened up without a front. The headlines in the local paper read "Shoppers Freeze in Paradise" This turned out to be fantastic free publicity and we just took off. We eventually got our shop front but we were so successful that Bedworth UDC asked me to move into the centre of the town and that was the birth of the very first Hypermarket in the UK. We planned to open up at 10 o'clock on the 24th Aug.1972. I looked out of the windows at 9 o'clock and there was no one there. I was quite concerned but by 10 oclock the town was totally jammed. My wife with the Chairman of the Council cut the ribbon to open and the crowd surged in and they were trapped behind the doors for sometime. Twycross Zoo had brought a PG chimp but she took one look at the crowd and shot off out of the back never to be seen again. No one could touch our prices. We had Tesco over the road and we just slaughtered them. For example. The majors did not try and sell Xmas Turkeys until the last 10 days before Xmas. We had sold 5,000 in October. How? We sold a 12lb Turkey for £3 and gave away a bottle of Asti Spumanti. The customers paid and received the wine and a receipt for the turkey to be collected Xmas week. Does anyone remember the hot donuts we sold. 3 for 12.5p.We sold around 25,000 per day. Some customers couldn't wait to get home and ate them in the store. The problem was that the hot donut liquified the jam so if the did not have the hole facing down their throat the jam spurted all down their clothes. I slipped up and should have opened a dry cleaning shop as well. Happy days and love to all my old customers. Johnm, Jersey

A young George Eliot made by Community gardening People in Action in Bedworth.

Hi all I love this picture. I enjoyed a coffee with a friend in Bedworth Costa yesterday, where afterwards we had a wander around. He remarked that unlike Coventry, the fountain is working here. Maybe Bedworth should apply for culture status! Thank you for the picture, Morgana.

You're welcome Philip, the praise should go the the volunteer elderly lady who was working on it.