PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Messrs ALBERT PENGELLY Ltd
Whether the fact that his younger brother, Richard, was already a tobacconist and newsagent helped him to make that choice is not clear [1]. Mr Albert Pengelly married Miss Emma Coke at Devonport in 1893. [5] When the owner of the premises put up his rent Albert refused to accept it and forced him to go to court. The rights of the landlord were upheld and he was ordered to be evicted. But Albert vowed to get as much publicity from the event as possible. He advertised an "Eviction Sale", with notices plastered over the shop windows, and the sight of his furniture laid out on the pavement created a lot of sympathy. In fact he left the furniture there all day. What nobody else knew was that he had already secured new premises at number 102 Fore Street. When he re-opened just a few doors away from his former shop he found that not only did his old customers come with him but many new ones, witnesses to his setback, brought their business to him as well. [3] As was common amongst tobacconists at the time, he carried out hairdressing at the rear of the shop. [2] Within a couple of years he opened a second shop at number 106 Fore Street and then in 1913 opened his first shop in Plymouth, at number 58 Bedford Street, adjacent to the Sun Buildings [2][2a]. It is claimed that he guessed that the amalgamation of Devonport into Plymouth would result in the decline of the Devonport shopping area [3]. To those three shops he soon added numbers 26 Tavistock Road and number 1 Russell Street, both formerly run by Mr A Conick [3][2a]. At the time of his death he was operating eight shops, each supervised by a member of his family: Mr Albert Pengelly; Mr Leslie Russell Pengelly; Mr Stuart Coke Pengelly; the twins Mr Eric Pengelly and Mr Ronald Pengelly; and Miss Dorothy Pengelly [4].
In November 1940 Player's Navy Cut cigarettes, plain or cork-tipped, were nine pence for ten or 1s 5½d for 20. An interesting addition to the adverts of the time was the remark: 'In the National interest empty your packet at time of purchase and leave with your tobacconist'. [6a] 1941 was the worst year in the firm's history. It started when Mr Stuart Coke 'Jack' Pengelly was injured by a bomb at Woodland Terrace, Greenbank Road, on January 13th 1941. He died in the City Hospital on January 17th 1941 [7]. Not long afterwards, on January 24th 1941, his older brother, Mr Albert Pengelly (the second), died in a Plymouth nursing home at the young age of 47 years [8]. As a result of this double loss, Mr Leslie Russell Pengelly became the managing director [10]. The Blitz of March 1941 knocked out most of their premises but the reconstruction gave them the opportunity to expand even further on to new sites. In 1953 they were at 6 Drake Circus, Old Town Street; 67 Ebrington Street; 17 George Street (what little there was left of it); 11 Hyde Park Terrace, Hyde Park Road; 50 Mutley Plain; Norwich Union House, 3 St Andrew's Cross; 70 Royal Parade; 31 Tavistock Road; and 64 Union Street. There were other branches elsewhere in Cornwall. [9] Mr Leslie Russell Pengelly died suddenly on Tuesday December 24th 1957 [12] and the twins Mr Eric Pengelly and Mr Ronald Pengelly then became joint managing directors, with Miss Dorothy Pengelly as chairman of the board. Before the War she had looked after the branch at Bank of England Place but when that was destroyed she moved to the headquarters on Mutley Plain. [10]+[11] Miss Dorothy Pengelly died on Friday November 11th 1966 at her home, Kingsley House, 1 Kingsley Road, Mutley, at the age of 61 and Mr Albert Hubert 'Joe' Pengelly joined the Board of Directors. By this time the business had been built up to 15 shops, including ones in Saltash, St Austell, Redruth, Camborne, and Launceston. [10]+[11] In August 1969 the business was sold to Messrs Finlay and Company, of London, although the name continued to be used along with the advertising slogan of "THE Tobacnist" [10]. This spelling, incidentally, owed its existence to a mistake made by the man employed to create the first shop sign in 1893. Mr Albert Pengelly decided to keep it and so it remained until the end. Following the demise of the Company, Mr Joe Pengelly went on to become well-known throughout Devon and Cornwall as presenter and announcer for BBC Television in the South West. The photographs above are reproduced with his kind permission. Sources:
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