WF Simes Shop

What a surprise!
This is my great-grandfather William Francis Simes (Old Bill) and his wife Edith. Their two sons William Francis (Frank/Simo) my grandfather on the left and Clarence Edward, right. This shop was in St Georges Road. There is still a faded sign up on a side wall there in 2017.

This must be on the lower part of the road between Vicarage and Calvert Rd. If so I had as paper round there in the `1960s but rather than formally giving up after three years just rarely turned up towards the end which was not fair towards the owners. I have always felt guilty about that!

I know what you mean Colin. I did a few things in my teen years which I have always felt guilty about as an adult. Nothing serious but i'd like to put them right if I could go back.

I think this was the place where my Dad used to be the 'delivery boy', around the mid 1930's . :-) He ended up having a 'collision' with a car at some point and discontinued his work there!

He was also a taxidermist on the side and had labels printed to this effect. There is a mirror carp specimen in the Hastings Museum store mounted by him (W.F.).

Could the Simes family in the photo have been related to Private E. S. Simes, of Hastings, who fought in the Boer War?

I guess the Simes sold up and moved on at some point ...I only recall the shop as Savages...next door to them on the left I recall a rather large lady whom we knew as Miss Pegram...one always knew when she had been in the shop because Mrs Savage used to refresh the air so to speak!

I live this shop now, unfortunately it doesn't look quite as nice now as it did back then! It's very interesting to see how it looked and to find out about the buildings past.

My paternal grandparents were the Savages. I walked down St George’s Road on my 60th birthday in 2018. I traveled from Australia to do that and only spent one day in Hastings. It was my only trip home since leaving with my parents as a six year old. I hope to come back one day. It was midsummer and very hot and it all looked a bit sad, to be honest. It was a surprisingly emotional day! I can’t tell you how much it means to see this. I have a photo of my grandparents with their shop which was part of a slideshow at my father’s recent memorial service. Harry lived to be 90. I remember Miss Pegram as Aunty Peggy. Thanks to Bernard’s sister, Maggie, for sharing this with me. We met through MySpace a few years ago to discover that we both had connections to St George’s Road and that our fathers used to play darts together! Thanks again!

Mr and Mrs Simes were in the shop when I was small I don't remember them but my mother often spoke of them . I remember Mr and Mrs Savage well also his son or son in law, apart from sweets which were on ration, I collected my Lion then the Eagle comics once a week .I agree with what my cousin Bernard says there were enough shops to never want to go to town except for clothes it was a self sufficient street.I remember Harry's car if I remember was a Wolsley 680 in beige or grey, there were few cars in 1950s the only other one was a Ford Consul Taxi belonging to Mr White opposite the corner of Calvert Road so this gave plenty of room to play football or cricket.Just loved that street.x

I’m pretty sure mum has a photo of the Wolsley. Might see if I can get hold of some photos to upload.