Photographs

Walker and Ling, Weston-super-Mare

Shops

BATH. Cater, Stoffell and Fortt, High Street. "We have briefly referred to the completion of the handsome premises in High-street which have been absolutely transformed from the 'Bath Drapery Bazar', vice The Greyhound... Provisions and drugs are, perhaps, somewhat incongruous companions, and it may be that this prompted the placing of the hansdome cash desks between these two departments. This desk will be fitted with Lamson's Store Service System, as used at No. 20, High-street." Bath Chronicle, 15 Nov. 1894, p. 5

BATH. James Colmer, Union Street. Pneumatic tube system. Cash office was situated on the top of the building inside the offices. Bath Chronicle, 18 May 2004, p.10

BATH. Co-op, Odd Down. Cash carrier. Frank Sumsion in posting to Facebook

BATH. F. Ealand and Co. (silk mercers). "An old-established business house (drapery) .. will shortly be having a vacancy in their cash desk... Cash railway used." Western Daily Press, 25 Jun. 1909, p. 2

BATH. Evans & Owen. "It consisted of large wooden balls which one had to screw together joining the two halves, after first placing the cash and bill inside. They were then sent along tracks to the various departments from the little cash desk which one had to climb into via an iron ladder." Bath Chronicle, 18 May 2004, p.10

BATH. Shop on Milsom Street (Evans & Owen?). "I hadn't really expected to find that wonderful shop still there, near the Turkish Baths where customers handed over their money which was screwed into a wooden ball and by some magic this was sent travelling overhead, along a wire track, to some very dignified looking cashiers who sat looking down on the proceedings." Bath Chronicle, 8 May 2003, p.11

BATH. Mitchells (haberdashers), Southgate Street. "They had those little cash boxes which were screwed into units on the ceiling and then hurtled across the shop to the cashier like trolley-buses." Bath Chronicle, 11 Sep. 1998, p.27. "I recall shopping with my mother in about the mid 1920s at a shop called Mitchells.. I was fascinated by the cash system from counter to cash desk in tubing that ran overhead. As far as I remember it was called Lampson Paragon Pneumatic tube type system. Ibid., 7 May 2004, p.10

BRIDGWATER. E.W.Hill, Cornhill "has the honour of introducing in Bridgwater the American automatic cash railway." Bridgwater Mercury, 13 Oct. 1886, p. 5
"There are seven stations, and the arrangement is such that the carrier from No. 7 will pass, with unerring precision, the other six stations, and deliver itself at No. 7... The carriers travel by gravitation, there being two tracks, an up and down, both laid at a gradient of about one inch in thirty-six. Each station is provided with four carriers and these vary in size." Ibid.

GLASTONBURY. Co-op, High Street. "The Glastonbury and Street Co-op was next. The original building was modernized just before the war. An overhead wire system conveyed the cash to the cash desk." Glastonbury Conservation Society website

ILMINSTER. Dyers, 21 Silver Street. Cash carrier. Bob Pendleton

MIDSOMER NORTON. Co-op. "When you bought anything, the assistant would put your money and the invoice in a canister, which was then attached to a wire above his head. The canister would whizz across the ceiling to the cash office. A few seconds later, it would come whizzing back with any change needed and the invoice stamped 'paid'." Woman's Weekly, 27 June 2006, p.33

MINEHEAD. Floyds. Cash carrier. Rita Willis in posting to Facebook.

RADSTOCK. Co-op. "The new railway cash system which had been initiated had given every satisfaction." Somerset Guardian, 9 Jul. 1904, p. 5

TAUNTON. W. Brake (dept. store). See court cases.
• Overhead wire system in 1950s. Sheila Green

TAUNTON. Clements and Browns. Olivia Clabburn on Facebook

TAUNTON. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. Sheila Green

TAUNTON. County Stores. Wire system in 1950s. Wendy Feder

TAUNTON. Heading Mitchell, 2 Fore Street. "Arthur W. Parker & Co., F.A.I., have been favoured with instructions from Messrs. Heading Mitchell Ltd. .. to sell by auction on the premises .. shop fittings .. including Lamson Paragon Cash Railway Installation." Taunton Courier, 14 Sep. 1957, p. 2

TAUNTON. Wilson & Marke, 12 East Street. "With the click of the cash carrier our responsibility to each customer commences." Taunton Courier and Wester Advertiser, 28 May 1924, p. 4

WELLINGTON. Co-op, North Street (now Belvedere Court). "[In 1928], Win Troake was in the office which was connected with each counter by an overhead cash system."
"I well remember the overhead cash system being used. The counter assistant would put your money and the amount owed in a little container, pull a wire, and it would be whisked to the office where your change would be made up and returned to the counter with your divi cheque." Wellington Weekly News, 8 June 2005, p.8

WELLS. Alan Clare. "About 80 years ago an enterprising young businessman, Alan HAmes Clare, was running a draper's shop in Wells Market Place... The shop was one of the marvels of my life. There was an overhead railway that fetched the change... The girl behind the counter .. put the sixpence and the bill inside a round wooden ball that came in half in the middle and was screwed up again, and placed it upon the railway above her head." Central Somerset Gazette, 18 May 1978, p. 13

WESTON SUPER MARE. E.M. Trevor. "I used to work in E M Trevor, opposite Colmers. I sat at the till in the office at the bottom of the chute putting the change in and stamping the receipts!" Jill Hulin on Walker and Ling Facebook page
• "When I worked in Trevors (Saturday office girl, 1972). Used these tubes to send customers change." Diane Walton on Walker and Ling Facebook page

WESTON SUPER MARE. Walker and Ling, 84-86 High Street. "These Lamson tubes have been carrying change and receipts at Walker & Ling for over 50 years. The pipes link to every department on the shop floor and all meet upstairs in the office. There's only one tube working now, but we use it every day. The other tubes are blocked with old canisters and old shillings! The engine has not been serviced since around 1993!" Walker and Ling Facebook page with photographs.
• "I used to work in the office and whenever a canister came up, it made me jump, even after five years when you think I’d be used to it!! It was all working then, but that was nearly 30 years ago." Sue Price on Walker and Ling Facebook page
• Photographs of the shop since its early days and good views of the 12 terminals at the cash office on SomersetLive website
• "Highlights [of summer events, 2022] include visiting hostoric family-run department store Walker and Ling .. with its Lamson pneumatic cash tubes." North Somerset Life website.

YEOVIL. Clements & Sons, 22 High Street. "Messrs Clements & Sons have recently installed a cash railway system, an ingenious arrangement for conveying cash from various points .. to the cash desk." Western Chronicle, 20 Jan. 1905, p. 5

YEOVIL. Main Co-op, Middle Street. Wire system in 1950s. ?Three lines. Tony Jervis
• "Men in suits always served behind the counters, wrote out your purchases on the triple invoice pad then sending the top copy to the cashier who was housed in a cubicle the size of a telephone box with a glass window having a cut out to pass your money through (only cash in those days, credit/debit cards were unheard of and never even imagined). The invoice arrived to the cashier by whizzing in a container on a wire operated by the man at the counter which was the most thrilling part of the experience in the store for us boys." Roger Froude. Shopping trip to Yeovil in the 1950s

YEOVIL. Eli Wilson & Sons. "The second firm in Yeovil to institute the overhead cash railway system is Messrs. Eli Wilson & Sons, in whose extensive premises this up-to-date method of dealing with customers' payments is now adopted." Western Chronicle, 3 Feb. 1905