Nostalgia

A story about a shop in Warwick which had remained virtually unchanged for over 100 years going out of business because it could not compete in the modern world brought to mind a name which I am sure will ring a bell with many in my neck of the woods - Snapes of Wolverhampton.  This was a tea and coffee shop in Queen Street which had been trading there since the end of the 19th century and its charm was that the fixtures and fittings were basically still as they were all that time ago.  All the teas and coffees were sold loose and kept in jars and drawers behind the counter and your purchase would be wrapped in paper and tied with string which hung down from a ball in the ceiling - this in itself was a work of art, and people would come miles for the experience.  Sadly for various reasons, there was nobody to take it over when the last tenants retired, and in 2002 it closed and the contents were sold at auction.  Nothing remains but the memory.