Photographs

Devizes: Museum

Trowbridge: Museum

Shops

ALDERSHOT, Hants. Thomas White department store. Pneumatic tube system. In 1961 became Army & Navy. (Photograph taken in early 1950s in Moss and Turton)

ANDOVER, Hants. The Co-op Store, Bridge Street. Operating in 1975 according to article in "This England"

AXMINSTER, Devon. Dawkins Ltd, drapers. Operating in 1975 according to article in "This England". "About four or five routes went straight out from the cash desk through a sort of gloomy arch or doorway, after which there was a great mass of bends all crammed together. From these bends the wires went off to the various departments, some down gradients. One route went vertically up from the cash desk and appeared upstairs through a sort of ragged hole in the carpet." (Holt)

BATH, Som. 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, Som. 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, Som. 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, Som. 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

BRISTOL. Co-op, corner of Newfoundland Road and St Nicholas Road. Wire system. Jeff Knaggs autobiography

BRISTOL. Clouds Hill Co-op, Old St George. "The transfer of bill and cash to cashier by the means of an overhead rail system generated by a spring handle." Bristol Evening Post, 28 Sep. 1999, p.2/3

BRISTOL. Co-op, Southmead. "Money was sent to the cash desk in a box on an overhead wire, checks and change returning the same way." (Bristol Evening Post, 1 Oct. 2002, p.53)

BRISTOL. Central Co-op, Castle Street. Opened 29 March 1930. "A pneumatic cash carrier system serves all floors." (Bristol Evening Post, 16 July 2002, p.51 quoting from a contemporary magazine)

BRISTOL. Hinces drapers, Stapleton Road. Wire system. Bristol Evening Post, 8 Feb. 2000

BOURNEMOUTH, Dor. Bobbys department store. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. (Brian Hamilton Kelly)

CAMBORNE, Corn. Coop Stores. Now a chemists shop. Wire system. (Royal Inst. of Cornwall Library)

CAMBORNE, Corn. Vivians Stores, Basset Road. "The largest and finest commercial establishment in the town." Wire system. (Osborne, J.Arthur and Thomas, David H. Victorian and Edwardian Camborne. Camborne: the authors, 1986). The monthly commission for each salesperson was worked out from the names on the receipts.

COLEFORD, Glos. Trotters."Another for uniforms was Trotters in Coleford. Had a system of receipt on wire overhead there." 1940s? (Joyce Latham in National Sound Archive)

DEVIZES, Wilts. Charles Sloper & Sons (drapers), 14-15 The Brittox (now Boots). Photograph. Installed in 1929 and still operating in 1975. Gipe closed wire system No. 10 (John Liffen). "From memory this was a four wire system, with three for the ground floor and one going uphill to the balcony, which was horseshoe shaped above the entrance doors. All the wires meeting at the cash desk at the rear of the store virtually opposite the doors" (Andrew Hunt). One line now in Devizes Museum.

EXETER, Devon. Waltons department store, corner of Sidwell and Queen Street. Vacuum system in 1950s. Posting to soc.genealogy.uk+ireland newsgroup, 21 Nov. 1996 compares it to packets travelling round a local area network. "The money taken at the cash desk used to get sent up to the cashier's office by air tube." (Bradninch website: Then & Now)

FALMOUTH, Corn. Co-op, Market Street. Cash carrier. (Royal Inst. of Cornwall Library)

GLOUCESTER. Rexs, Southgate. Cash Ball system. Said to be the last system running on wooden rails until demolished "a year or so ago" in "This England", 1975.

MIDSOMER NORTON, Som. 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)

PENZANCE, Corn. Jacobs Frank, 32-33 Market Jew Street. Wire system in 1950s/60s. Shop ceased trading in 1992. (Cornwall Studies Library)

PENZANCE, Corn. Simpsons. Wire system. (Rev. P.Stephens)

PLYMOUTH, Devon. Costers clothing store, New George Street. Pneumatic tube system. Site now occupied by W.H.Smith. Cyber-Hertiage website

POOLE, Dor. Bon Marché. Wire system in 1950s (M.Dyke)

POOLE, Dor. Butlers, Ashley Road, Parkstone. Wire system in 1950s (M. Dyke and "A history of Upper Parkstone")

PORTSMOUTH, Hants. Allders, Commercial Road. Lamson pneumatic tube system, still used for internal communication and till clearance. In September 2003 I saw five PneuArt stations on the first floor, all recessed into stanchions, and six on the second floor as well as some exposed vertical pipes on stanchions. The ground floor is extensively renovated and some stations may be behind cupboard doors. In February 2008 some terminals were still visible on the second floor, painted to blend in with their surroundings - as were the tubes.

PORTSMOUTH, Hants. Will Browns. Rapid Wire system in 1940s. (J.Tupper)

REDRUTH, Corn. Cockings (drapers), Fore Street. Cash carrier. (Cornwall Studies Library)

SWINDON, Wilts. Ansteys. Wire system in 1950s/60s. (Brian Hamilton Kelly)

TAUNTON, Som. Brakes dept. store. Overhead wire system in 1950s. (Sheila Green)

TAUNTON, Som. Co-op. Pneumatic tube system in 1950s. (Sheila Green)

TOTNES, Devon. Paignton Co-op Society, Fore Street. Wire system with about six stations. Herald Express (Torquay) 22 Nov. 1983

TRURO. N.Gill & Son. "Overhead rail system". Rex Barratt. Life in Edwardian Truro (Truro: Rooster, 1977), p.6)

TRURO, Corn. Hugh Rice (drapers and gents outfitters), 10 Quay Street (or Boscawen Street). Cash carrier. (Royal Inst. of Cornwall Library)

TRURO, Corn. W.J.Roberts & Sons, drapers and haberdashers, aka Bon Marché pre-WW2. "Mrs Phyllis Spurrrell, now aged 95, remembers how the shop assistants would put the money in a screw-top container, and by pulling a chain would send it along rails to the cashier, seated higher up in the shop, who would send change back the same way." (Acton, Viv and Bob. A history of Truro. Vol. 2. Truro: Landfall, 2002, p.61). Shop occupied by Ottakers in 2003.

TRURO, Corn. Webb & Co. See Truro. Gill

WELLINGTON, Som. 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

WEYMOUTH, Dor. Northovers (groceries and provisions), 54 St Thomas Street. "Northovers .. went self-service in 1967. Prior to this, the old-fashioned shop .. had a wonderful system of conveying the customer's payment to the cashier at the rear of the shop via a system of pulleys and cables." Photo shows a Rapid Wire system. (Attwooll, Maureen. Weymouth: more golden years. Tiverton: Dorset Books, 2002. p.8)

Museums

DEVIZES, Wilts. Museum. See DEVIZES: Sloper above. No carriage when I visited in April 2006 but good access to the propulsions.

TROWBRIDGE, Wilts. Museum. Gipe wire system from Slopers, Devizes.

indicates systems which are still there (as far as I know) though they may not be working.