Snappy dresser

Last week's pictures of the store were loaned by Ivy Eden, who inherited them from her friend Zena Arthur. At that time, we did not know why they were in her possession. We do now.

Several readers contacted me to explain that Mrs Arthur's father, Henry Arthur Bradshaw, worked at Walton's.

Moira Stacey and her family were great friends with the Bradshaws. She brought in these pictures of Mr Bradshaw in a church choir and working behind the counter at the tailors. The picture of Zena behind her xylophone is also from her collection.

Mrs Stacey said the Bradshaws moved to York from London. In the picture we published last week of Isaac Walton's stall at Driffield Show, Mr Bradshaw could be seen in second from the right, she believes.

"He was always immaculately dressed," she said, a testament borne out by tonight's photographs.

Mrs Stacey also revealed that daughter Zena - "a great character" - was christened Scenie Arthur. She performed her music, on accordion and xylophone, at many places including the workhouse.

Mrs Rowe of Dunnington wrote to say that "Zena was an only child and used to be taken every Sunday to St Laurence Church by her father and mother when my brothers, sisters and I went.

"I can also remember when, as a teenager, she used to give piano lessons in her father's sitting room."

Martin Marsh rang to say his father was vicar at St Laurence Church when Mr Bradshaw was a churchwarden there.

Joan Oyston, of Greencliffe Drive, York, also wrote in about the family. She said: "The family lived off Lawrence Street and worshipped at St Laurence Church. I knew Zena at St Laurence Sunday School."

She added that Mr Bradshaw was a manager at Walton's for many years. Quite how many was revealed by reports from the Evening Press in the 1950s. One, dated November 28, 1951, summed up Mr Bradshaw's exemplary work record.

It began: "When a man completes 57 years service with a firm it is a commendable achievement, but when he can add that during the whole of that time he has never had a moment off for sickness and has never been late, then it becomes a career bordering on the incredible.

"But such is the case at the branch of Isaac Walton & Co Ltd, the outfitters in Lendal, York, where Mr HA Bradshaw has been presented with a gold wristlet watch by his employers. An inscription on it records his 57 years with the firm."

He began working for Walton's in London in 1894 and spent nine years at the branch. The rest of his time, save for two-and-a-half years with the Signals section of the Royal Artillery during the First World War, was spent at branches between York and Newcastle.

In his early days at York he opened the Parliament Street shop at 7.30am and closed it at 9pm. After he married, he settled in Milton Street, York. Later he lived in Hempland Drive.

To mark his long-service presentation, Mr Bradshaw retold one of the many amusing incidents from his long career.

It concerned a customer who came in to buy a vest. By the time Mr Bradshaw had got one from the shelves the man had taken off his overcoat, jacket, waistcoat, shirt and vest, and was standing behind the counter stripped to the waist.

"He slipped on the new vest," Mr Bradshaw told the Evening Press, "and expressed himself satisfied with the fit, but ordered three more a size larger.

"When I assured him the vest would not shrink, he replied: 'Oh no, it isn't that. But if I buy three more a size bigger it will save me buying a shirt."

Mr Bradshaw died in 1959, having completed 60 years at Isaac Walton & Co. A number of you rang to correct my statement that when Walton's was on Lendal it was found where Burn & Co solicitors is today. That misconception came about because the tailors' address was Lendal House, the same name as Burn's premises.

In fact, Walton's was on the other side of the road where the Pierre Victoire restaurant is. York historian David Poole revealed that Lendal was renumbered in the Sixties, which accounts for my confusion.

The Pierre Victoire building, he tells me, was once congregational chapel, evidence of which can be seen in the arched windows. It is believed to have been built in the mid-1800s, before the congregation moved to Burton Stone Lane in the 1920s. For a time the Burton Stone Lane church was still known as the New Lendal Congregational Chapel.

Another question we posed last week concerned the picture of Walton's decked in bunting with soldiers posing in front of its large windows.

Could this be connected to victory in the Boer War, we asked?

Frank Atkinson, 80, of Haxby thinks so. His father Stephen was in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in Mauritius when the South African war began.

Desperate for more soldiers, the British Army despatched HMS Powerful to pick up the troops. Mr Atkinson said: "When Powerful arrived, the ship's captain paraded the ship's company and called for volunteers to fight on land in South Africa.

"My father's version of it was the whole ship's company volunteered, which said a lot about life on board ship!" The sailors were given rolls of khaki drill cloth and worked through the night to cut and sew makeshift army fatigues. One of those soldiers outside Walton's in last week's photograph, on the left hand side of the float, was in such an improvised uniform, Mr Atkinson said. His father survived six battles and a lightning strike before returning home to Yorkshire.

u This Is Wigginton, the history book featured on this page earlier this month, is now available from Wigginton Stores and Haxby Post Office, price £4. It can also be obtained by post for £4.70, cheques made payable to Wigginton Parish Council, from Janet Calvert, 33 Walmer Carr, Wigginton, York YO32 2SX. The book, which traces the village's history, includes the picture of Wigginton schoolchildren used with our feature. Words on the back of the picture wrongly suggested this dated from 1928; the correct caption is in the book.

Suits you sir: Henry Bradshaw, serves a customer at Issac Walton & Co, the famous York tailors.