Elliott’s Store, Saltash

Elliott’s Grocery Store in Saltash was opened in 1902 by Mr H Elliott. His son, Frank, inherited the family business but his disapproval of decimalisation and new business rates in 1973 led him to cease trading and shut up shop permanently. He continued to live above the shop, slowly eating and drinking his way through the stock. When the content of each packet, bottle or can was consumed, he carefully replaced each item (apart from jam, which he disliked, the full jam jars remain untouched to this day!).

Frank Elliott was determined to keep the shop as a museum. He approached national organisations to take it on, they declined. The Tamar Preservation Society stepped in and secured the shop’s future. In 1995, two days after settling his new will, Frank died aged 99.

What remains to this day is a time capsule, a rare opportunity to step into a shop that has hardly been touched in 37 years. A museum of 1970’s packaging in situ, with many of the shops features and fittings predating this. It’s a feast for the eyes, with every surface covered in advertising, packaging and leaflets as they were left in 1973.

The Tamar Preservation Society have restored the back parlour with family effects, created a reading and research room and recently worked on the shop front to bring it back to its original splendour.

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