27 Lower Fore Street, Saltash, PL12 6JQ
Tel: (01752) 843388
Email: info@tamarprotectionsociety.org.uk
Web: www.tamarprotectionsociety.org.uk
Step back in time
Take a walk around Elliott's Grocery Store in Saltash which remains unchanged since its closure in the early 1970's.
The famous Elliott's Shop has been in Saltash since 1903. Before that it was a butcher's shop although it changed to become a grocery in the late 19th century.
Frank Elliott traded in the shop until 1973. He disagreed with the idea of decimalization and he decided to shut up shop. The local council still claimed the new business rate even though the shop had ceased trading so wily Mr Elliott turned the shop into a museum to avoid having to pay the rate.
Frank Elliott was one of Saltash's memorable characters. He spent nothing and saved everything. In his spare time he enjoyed photography, taking pictures on his trips to the Middle East, Europe and all over Great Britain.
Never one to stay in the shadows, Mr Elliott would write to local government advising them of his recommendations on a regular basis.
When he was in his 90's Frank Elliott requested that The Tamar Protection Society took over the running of the shop's museum.
Just one day after the agreement between the shop-keeper and the society Mr Elliott passed away, safe in the knowledge that his beloved store was in safe hands. There was one condition to the society taking over Elliott's store, that it remained unchanged.
The society has kept to Frank Elliott's wishes and more than 30 years after the shop closed its doors as a business, it remains a popular museum.
Stepping into Elliott's store really is like taking a quantum leap. You immediately leave the Saltash of today and re-visit the town's past.
The simple scales, the delivery bicycle propped up against the wall, and the stacked shelves take you back to when Elliott's store was a genuine 'Open All Hours'.
And the shelves house a lifetime of memories. Can you remember 'Red Ring' self-raising flour...or maybe Crosbie's Strawberry Jam? Did you enjoy a tipple of Imperial Bond Sweet Sherry or Whiteway's Wine?
All these products of yesteryear sit proudly on the shelves as they would have done when Mr Elliott's faithful customers did their daily or weekly shop in his store.
Thanks to The Tamar Protection Society this amazing shop has been preserved to help people understand what it meant to go shopping in the years before 24-hour opening, self service tills, and buy one get one free offers!
Just a short walk down the hill from the town centre.
Opening TimesApril - October Admission Charged |
Mary Newman's Cottage Saltash Saltash Museum