A Story Of A Chesterfield Icon
15th November 2024
In: News, Members' Articles
Members may remember Ken Davis wrote an article for the Newsletter a year or so ago about a project that he was so pleased he completed as it is no longer possible to do. Here is a summary of the story:
A Project I Was So Pleased I Did
Ken Davis
Leica M Series have been used by the 'greats' to record pivotal moments of human history and one of the reasons I bought my first M was to try to use it to capture aspects of life around me. Now, please don’t think I'm trying to place myself with the 'greats' but this project is one I had on my mind for a number of years before I started it and the M’s were ideal cameras to complete it.
The Subject.
There was a famous hardware shop in Chesterfield called Johnson's Ironmongers (or Tinny Johnson's – more of that later) and it was a haven for hundreds of us. If you wanted 27 No 8 1¼ inch countersunk steel screws then you could have 27 of them. Mr or Mrs Johnson would wrap them in a white paper bag and charge you much less than B&Q, where you would probably have to buy 50 screws in plastic packing. You could buy shovels, brushes, buckets, oil lamps and paraffin; all sorts of tools and bits and pieces for the home. As one of the photographs show it had been operating since 1888.
The Project
I had used the shop lots of times and always thought it would make a great subject for a documentary project. So in about 2002 I asked Mr & Mrs Johnson if I could photograph the shop and they happily agreed. So, with both slide and colour print film loaded in separate M bodies, I set about my task.
The outside photographs of the shop (Nos 1, 2 and 3) show how so many of the hardware items were displayed, brushes, pans and buckets amongst other stock. As you will see from the ladder on the corner of the store (Photograph 1) you could buy bigger things. The man leaving the shop in Photograph 1 is another satisfied customer.
Moving inside, Photographs 4 to 7 show Mr & Mrs Johnson and the amazing variety of hardware and domestic items for sale, you could even buy paraffin as Photograph 6 shows. The term Aladdin's Cave comes to mind; a friend of mine wanted a post for a washing line and Mr Johnson took him upstairs. This was evidently just the same. My friend noticed that there were a number of old radios stacked in a corner dating from the sixties and maybe earlier and he asked Mr Johnson about them. Mr Johnson told him that they used to repair radios and they were completed repairs that the customers had not collected! When I did the project I asked Mr Johnson why it was called 'Tinny Johnsons'. He told me that the business was started by his great grandfather; who, when he was 60 was told by his employer that he was too old and sacked him. So he started the business with his son and they enamelled tin baths, hence the name. Mr Johnson said that his great grandfather had to do that as there were no pensions in those days to which I said 'a bit like today' which raised a smile.
The reason I took both slides and prints is that I used the prints to give copies to Mr & Mrs Johnson. This is always important and is easy to do in our digital age. The slides became part of my history of recent Chesterfield years.
Now to the sadder part of this story, in the early 2010's Mrs Johnson developed dementia and eventually had to go into a home. Mr Johnson continued with the shop but he died in 2017, he was well into his 80s. He had two daughters and a son-in-law worked in the shop but they could not maintain the business and it closed in that year after 129 years of trading. Photograph 08 shows the empty shop.
What happened after that? Well an up-market boutique has opened, a very different use of the shop, photograph 10 shows 'Dotique'.
So I did manage to record an important bit of our local history and I look back with affection at these photographs.
Ken Davis
Johnson's Ironmongers, Chesterfield 2022
Johnson's Ironmongers, Chesterfield 2022
Johnson's Ironmongers, Chesterfield 2022
Mr & Mrs Johnson 2002
A Selection of Goods
The Paraffin Pump
Customers in The Shop
After 129 Years Johnson's Is Now Closed
Johnson's Becomes Dotique
A Project I Was So Pleased I Did
Ken Davis
Leica M Series have been used by the 'greats' to record pivotal moments of human history and one of the reasons I bought my first M was to try to use it to capture aspects of life around me. Now, please don’t think I'm trying to place myself with the 'greats' but this project is one I had on my mind for a number of years before I started it and the M’s were ideal cameras to complete it.
The Subject.
There was a famous hardware shop in Chesterfield called Johnson's Ironmongers (or Tinny Johnson's – more of that later) and it was a haven for hundreds of us. If you wanted 27 No 8 1¼ inch countersunk steel screws then you could have 27 of them. Mr or Mrs Johnson would wrap them in a white paper bag and charge you much less than B&Q, where you would probably have to buy 50 screws in plastic packing. You could buy shovels, brushes, buckets, oil lamps and paraffin; all sorts of tools and bits and pieces for the home. As one of the photographs show it had been operating since 1888.
The Project
I had used the shop lots of times and always thought it would make a great subject for a documentary project. So in about 2002 I asked Mr & Mrs Johnson if I could photograph the shop and they happily agreed. So, with both slide and colour print film loaded in separate M bodies, I set about my task.
The outside photographs of the shop (Nos 1, 2 and 3) show how so many of the hardware items were displayed, brushes, pans and buckets amongst other stock. As you will see from the ladder on the corner of the store (Photograph 1) you could buy bigger things. The man leaving the shop in Photograph 1 is another satisfied customer.
Moving inside, Photographs 4 to 7 show Mr & Mrs Johnson and the amazing variety of hardware and domestic items for sale, you could even buy paraffin as Photograph 6 shows. The term Aladdin's Cave comes to mind; a friend of mine wanted a post for a washing line and Mr Johnson took him upstairs. This was evidently just the same. My friend noticed that there were a number of old radios stacked in a corner dating from the sixties and maybe earlier and he asked Mr Johnson about them. Mr Johnson told him that they used to repair radios and they were completed repairs that the customers had not collected! When I did the project I asked Mr Johnson why it was called 'Tinny Johnsons'. He told me that the business was started by his great grandfather; who, when he was 60 was told by his employer that he was too old and sacked him. So he started the business with his son and they enamelled tin baths, hence the name. Mr Johnson said that his great grandfather had to do that as there were no pensions in those days to which I said 'a bit like today' which raised a smile.
The reason I took both slides and prints is that I used the prints to give copies to Mr & Mrs Johnson. This is always important and is easy to do in our digital age. The slides became part of my history of recent Chesterfield years.
Now to the sadder part of this story, in the early 2010's Mrs Johnson developed dementia and eventually had to go into a home. Mr Johnson continued with the shop but he died in 2017, he was well into his 80s. He had two daughters and a son-in-law worked in the shop but they could not maintain the business and it closed in that year after 129 years of trading. Photograph 08 shows the empty shop.
What happened after that? Well an up-market boutique has opened, a very different use of the shop, photograph 10 shows 'Dotique'.
So I did manage to record an important bit of our local history and I look back with affection at these photographs.
Ken Davis
Johnson's Ironmongers, Chesterfield 2022
Johnson's Ironmongers, Chesterfield 2022
Johnson's Ironmongers, Chesterfield 2022
Mr & Mrs Johnson 2002
A Selection of Goods
The Paraffin Pump
Customers in The Shop
After 129 Years Johnson's Is Now Closed
Johnson's Becomes Dotique
Comments
By David Askham: Ken, l applaud your project which records a little piece of local business history. The sight of the picture of a parrafin pump brought back instantly the memory of visits to former hardware stores. Parrafin was a pervasive smell, rivaled only by tarred twine for use in the garden. Four candles also comes to mind! By Ken Davis: Thank you David.
Yes, as well as being a great hardware shop, the shop brought back memories of childhood and being sent by my mother along the bridle path to the next terraced street to fetch a gallon of paraffin, I was about 8 I think. By Keith Walker: Well worth recording. A set worthy of the Chesterfield Museum Archives I think! By Ken Davis: Thank you for that thought Keith. I'll put it on my list of things to do. I'll see if they are interested.
Ken