The BBC comes to Clacton

12:35pm Thursday 4th November 2010 in News By Dave Lambert

The BBC comes to Clacton The BBC comes to Clacton

THOUSANDS of visitors are expected to descend on Clacton's BBC shop this weekend.

An empty shop on Pier Avenue has been transformed into an interactive 1930s grocer store

It will be open from November 5-7.

Actors have been employed to play roles in the shop, such as the shopkeeper.

There will also be an interactive timeline charting the history of Clacton's high street.

Clacton's shop is one of 11 around the UK, and the first one to open in Truro, Cornwall, was well received by visitors.

The store drew over five thousand people in over the weekend, and officials are hoping for a similar reaction in Clacton.

Tendring Council communications boss Nigel Brown said: “The turnout in the Truro shop was fantastic, but I think we can do even better.

“It will be great to get people excited about the high street again,” he added.

The shop in 73-75 Pier Avenue, which used to be the Co-op jewellery store, is designed to get people excited about their local high streets.

It is running in conjunction with a popular new high profile BBC series called 'Turn Back Time – The High Street'.

On Friday school children will flock to the store, while families are being encouraged to visit on Saturday and Sunday.

Comments(9)

Mr Disgusted says...
4:19pm Thu 4 Nov 10

What a wonderful progamme

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Feisty CBC says...
5:31pm Thu 4 Nov 10

Agreed. The BBC do come up with little gems like this now and again. Regading the bakery in the first programme though. I don't recall my father (baker by trade) telling me about loaves being "bulked out" with poisonous substances as suggested. However, I can confirm that everyone that visited my ancestors shop in the victorian age has since died .

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Anna Key says...
6:08pm Thu 4 Nov 10

Feisty - your grandfather may have not been guilty, but the adulteration of bread and other food is an historical fact in Victorian times, this is not disputed by any historian of any political persuasion (was your Grandfather really running a bakers in Victorian times? Not disputing you, but as somebody with a passion for history this sounds fascinating). It was the prime motivation behind the working-class forming the Co-op. Alas, that organisation has sold-out and will now sell us the modern day equivalents of adulterated food (not exactly poisonous, but far from healthy).

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Feisty CBC says...
7:04pm Thu 4 Nov 10

Well, Grandfather ran shops in Wivenhoe and East Hill. in the thirties and forties. Great-grandfather delivered milk in and around Wivenhoe (no doubt watered down). Ancestors ran the old bakery in Wivenhoe (still there) during Victorian times

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Anna Key says...
8:02pm Thu 4 Nov 10

Feisty CBC wrote:
Well, Grandfather ran shops in Wivenhoe and East Hill. in the thirties and forties. Great-grandfather delivered milk in and around Wivenhoe (no doubt watered down). Ancestors ran the old bakery in Wivenhoe (still there) during Victorian times
You were talking fancified nonsense them? Glad I kept away from your a adulterising ancestors then?

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Boris says...
10:18pm Thu 4 Nov 10

Anna, you are not old enough to have been a customer of Feisty's progenitors. Whatever adulterising, or even adultery, that went on in those days (and there was a lot of both) is now history.

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Feisty CBC says...
2:24am Fri 5 Nov 10

Eh?

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Poacher says...
4:01pm Fri 5 Nov 10

I thought this was a brilliant programme. There is an interesting lesson in this (other than padding out of bread with sawdust which for some reason I knew about!). The town centre where this is based died a few years back when the superstore opened. If ever you wanted an example of the effect out of town shopping has then this is it. Manningtree, Walton will go this way to when the inevitable march of progress takes it course. Boutiques and novelty shops with one to one customer focus might just be able to redress some of the balance. Maybe what is needed is a new 21st century Coop movement, aimed at precisely this market where they can compete.

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Feisty CBC says...
4:33pm Fri 5 Nov 10

Too true Poacher. However, I feel that the onslaught of online shopping is the real bugbear and not the big supermarkets as others would have you think.

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