Memories of Marshall & Snelgrove

Memories of Marshall & Snelgrove

Shopping

Memories of working in the leather goods department at Marshall & Snelgrove, Leicester

East Midlands Oral History Archive

Interview with Maureen Partridge held by the East Midlands Oral History Archive

East Midlands Oral History Archive

1950s

Maureen Partridge

You may use this item in accordance with the licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/

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English

Oral history

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1 min 32 secs

Well, it had a rather imposing entrance at the front, straight off the street. You know where it stood? Gallowtree Gate. And so, when you went in you’d got a lower floor here, each side, and then you went up some rather imposing steps, and right at the top of the steps was the handbag and luxury leather goods department, and I was there. And then when you went upstairs, on the first floor on […] the right side as you were going in was the shoe department, and so we worked in conjunction because the handbags often matched the shoes. That was very much an education in how to speak properly. I was doing that at the grammar school, but you had to have a certain behaviour. ‘Madam’, ‘Sir’, you didn’t say, ‘Can I help you?’ Not until - if they were browsing, then you could say, ‘Excuse me, can I help you sir? Excuse me, can I help you madam?’ And a lot of the people we sold to had accounts, it was not often a cash flow. And I learnt so much about leather goods, it’s unbelievable. We had dyed lizard skin, we had calf skin, pig skin, peccary, we had a whole range of leathers – leather goods – and on every item there was 50% purchase tax then.

Colin Hyde

Maureen Partridge

Whitwick, Leicestershire