Popular shop was bombed

When we ran a story asking if anyone could confirm Joyce Kinslow’s memory of a shop called Hills and Stills in Week Street, we weren’t expecting quite the response we received.

Ena Winch, from Maidstone, 84, remembered visiting in December 1939 and said children were given a ticket for a free Christmas gift. Her family went there to buy clothing. She said it was taken over by British Homes Stores.

Brenda Grimwood, 84, from Somerfield Road, Maidstone, said it faced St Faith’s Street and was next to Richards dress shop. She remembered going with her mother in 1939 and 1940, but thought the name was Steels not Stills, which was confirmed by Gillian Davies, 83, from Boughton Monchelsea, who said it “was like a cheaper version of Marks & Spencer”.

May Godden said her mother always called British Homes Stores “Hills and Stills” – even after it moved into the Mall Chequers and became Bhs.

Valerie Johnson, 82, said her mother, Lilac Wellard, had been a part-time sales assistant. She said: “My sister and I used to love visiting and trying on all the hats at the hat-stand.”

We also heard from Rosemary Sage, whose mother-in-law worked there.

Roy Fellows, 85, of Heath Road, Coxheath, also thought the name was Hills and Steels, but he was the only one with an explanation for the shop’s closure – it was hit by a bomb on October 31, 1940 in the same raid that saw a bomb fall in Sandling Road and Mill Street.

He said: “I remember it distinctly. It was about 8am and I was about to set off to go to All Saints School. The store was destroyed and never reopened as Hills and Steels again.”