My hardware shop survived two world wars, recessions & Covid – now Rachel Reeves has KO'd it after 160 years

The Sun

18-06-2025

FOR 160 years Mogford & Son has been a trusty ­hardware shop just like the one seen in the Two ­Ronnies' famous 'fork handles' sketch.
But running a small ­independent shop has become no laughing ­matter for its ­current owner Paul Gillam.
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Because of a tsunami of rising costs, including Rachel Reeves' employer National Insurance increase, Paul, 57, has been forced to call it a day.
At the end of September Mogford — one of Britain's oldest shops — will close its doors for the final time.
Queen Victoria was on the throne in the 1860s when businessman WH Mogford first opened his ironmongers store on the high street in Westbury-on-Trym, north Bristol.
This Aladdin's cave has survived two world wars, the Great Depression, recessions and Covid but the current owner has had to make the heartbreaking decision to stop trading.
Close to tears, Paul told The Sun: 'I'm working seven days a week but things have got more expensive. From staffing costs to National Insurance and bank charges.
'The car park up the road has started to charge £2, so people can no longer park for free, because the council is short of cash. My business rates keep going up.
'It's been a hard decision but I can't carry on.'
Standing at the till, Paul is surrounded by thousands of objects for the home, from bamboo and compost to jubilee clips and, of course, ­candles.
He has a wry smile as he poses with four candles, like shopkeeper Ronnie Corbett in the famous TV sketch, but he looks sad as he surveys his stock.
There are house numbers, bolts, rabbit food and aquarium cleaners all stacked neatly on shelving that has carried everything the local community could want for the past century and a half.
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Paul's wife Babs, 55, who has been working in the shop since two staff retired recently, not to be replaced, says: 'The Government say they want to keep High Streets open but then all the banks close.
"Then the car parks start charging, then the shops close. People end up going online or to one of the big retailers.'
The car park up the road has started to charge £2, so people can no longer park for free, because the council is short of cash. My business rates keep going up.
Paul
To try to counter the online threat, Paul's shop has a Facebook page and offers a delivery service.
He charges £1 for anything under £20 and free delivery on orders over 20 quid.
Paul makes just £1.60 on a bag of compost and in 30 years of working at Mogford he has never increased all his prices at once to keep pace with inflation.
He raises prices as little as possible and he reluctantly puts a £3 limit on the card machine because of the cost of using it.
Paul would have liked his daughter Sophie and grandson James to take over but he decided they would be better off in jobs with a future.
Paul remembers walking past Mogford's shop as a boy. He says: 'There was everything round here.
'Clothes shops, shoe shops, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers. You could get every single thing you wanted.'
He points across the road to the shops that have closed down — a newsagent's, a women's accessories shop and a shoe repair bar.
He says: 'When Covid happened, we were considered an essential business.
'We extended our hours, opening at 6am and not closing until 9pm because our footfall went up so much with ­people working from home, and we wanted to help.'
When The Sun visited, all morning there was a steady stream of customers coming in to buy goods from washers to dog bowls, super glue to carpet cleaner.
Paul knows most of them by name and all seem upset that the shop will be gone in just ten weeks' time.
They say it's the latest nail in the coffin for their High Street and they don't know what they'll do when Paul locks up for the final time.
He says: 'I will close the doors with a heavy heart.
'It's not for lack of trying either but there's simply nothing I can do. I'm breaking even and have been for a while, so I've been left with no choice.'
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