Parkin’s Fruit Stores, Cambridge Street, Cleethorpes c1920.
A detail from an original, unposted, real photographic postcard by J. W. Hardy, photographer, of Cleethorpes. Presumably, Thomas John Parkin, fruiterer and his son, Herbert, are the people in the picture.
The shop was located at 91 Cambridge Street, Cleethorpes where ‘Message in a Bottle’, specialist bottle shop and weekend bar, is today. The Parkin family lived at nearby 61 and then 53 and 63 Cambridge Street. The Original Emporium, home to a variety of artisan businesses, is located at 53 Cambridge Street today.
Thomas John Parkin (1872-1959) and his wife, Sarah Elizabeth (1874-1947), were born in Crowle, Lincolnshire. Six of their nine children were born in Crowle and three (including a set of twins) in Cleethorpes. Thomas’ final home was at 16 Sea View Street, where his son, Harold, was an antiques dealer. This property is where Hermes Antiques is today and is Cleethorpes’ oldest shop.
Thomas John Parkin and his wife retired to Broughton but Thomas returned to Cleethorpes after the death of his wife. The couple are buried in Broughton.
Note the apple box from Tasmania, Australia. The poster in the window advertising the film ‘Man’s Plaything’, starring Grace Davi(d)son and Montagu(e) Love, dates this photograph nicely to 1920.
The photographer, John William Hardy, was born in Sheffield on 10th February 1876. He was the son of a newsagent. John married Minna in Sheffield in 1905. He was already a photographer by the time of his marriage. By 1911, he was working as a photographer in Cleethorpes. After living in Signhills Avenue in the early 1920s, the Hardy family moved to 52 St Peter’s Avenue (where the Co-op in now) between 1925 and 1926. J. W. Hardy also had a studio on the seafront. He took outdoor, souvenir photos of holidaymakers walking along the promenade sitting in deckchairs, paddling in the sea etc.
John William Hardy worked as a busy photographer through many decades. He still had the studio at his home at 52 St Peter’s Avenue when he died on 29th or 30th July 1954. His son, (John) Keith Hardy (1907-1955), was also working there as a photographer.
Research by Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum.
