Photoscoot 2020: formerly the London and Provincial Stores (James Stores), Terrace Road Aberystwyth

Description

The 'Borough' guide produced by the Town Council and Edward J Burrows & Co contains a full-age advert for James's. The shop was a tea, wine and provision store being sole agent in the district for brands that have since become household names, such as Crosse and Blackwell; Huntley and Palmer's and Peak Frean's biscuits and cakes.
In 1818, Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell were taken on as apprentices to a company established in 1706 specialising in pickles, sauces and condiments, plus salted fish. The company held Royal appointments to George III, George IV and William IV and by the time of Crosse and Blackwell were packaging and supplying sweet oils, foods preserved in oil, and crystallised fruits and preserves. The company was bought out by Crosse and Blackwell in 1830 and was one of the first to secure a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria, in 1837.
Amongst other items advertised are Lazenby & Sons pickles. The Lazenby company profited from producing pickles, soups, soup squares, potted meat and baking powder, but most prominent amongst their lines from Harvey Sauce. The original recipe is said to date back to 1760 and is attributed to the mother of one Captain Charles Clumber, who passed it to Paul Harvey, the proprietor of Black Dog Inn, Bedfont, Feltham. A London grocer, M Lazenby, married Harvey's sister, Elizabeth, and was given the recipe as a wedding present.
The sauce is based upon anchovies, vinegar, India soya, mushroom catchup, two heads of garlic, cayenne and cochineal for colouring. Such was the popularity of the sauce that it was written referred to in books by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Rudyard Kipling.
Amongst the dairy products sold by the store were Harris's Wiltshire Bacon - the Harris family developed the method of Wiltshire curing in 1840s. Two brothers, John and Henry, each developed their own successful businesses. It was John's sons, Charles and Thomas, who later became the driving force (C & T Harris).
The shop also sold Bass & Co Burton ales and stouts (in 9 and 18 gallon casks, and pint and half pint bottles) and were sole agent's for W & A Gilbey's wines and spirits (producer's of Gilbey's Gin). The company was formed by Walter and Albert Gilbey in 1856, whose brother Henry was already a wholesale wine-merchant. The business made a speciality of importing South African wines and opened premises in Oxford Street, London. The company began to distil gin in 1895 and was a well-known brand by the early 1900s.
An advert for James' Store in the 1924 'Aberystwyth Official Guide and Souvenir' highlights that Gilbey's wines and spirits were still amongst the leading brands stocked. Their bacon was now sliced by electric slicing machine and the store also had its own vans for prompt delivery.