Five shops across the town
CAN you remember the Scoggins family newsagents?
Well the family business used to run five different shops and newsagents across Loughborough, and at one point even had around 100 newspaper boys and girls sending the Echo across the town.
Looking Back has spoken to one of the sons of Arthur and Dorothy Scoggins who started the business in the 1960s It was 25 years ago Dorothy closed up shop in Ward’s End for the last time.
Simon Scoggins, 46, of Outwoods Drive, is the youngest of the three Scoggins brothers, and was the only one who wasn’t a partner in the business.
Simon’s two brothers, David and Steve, were partners with their mum and dad for quite a few years in the 1980s when the business changed from A.J and M.D Scoggins to Scoggins and Sons.
Simon said at its peak the family had businesses in Ward’s End, Derwent Drive, Bedford Square, and two on the Loughborough University campus.
The flagship (and arguably most popular store) was in Ward’s End and is now The Kelso bar.
It was the first shop that the couple opened in 1962, and was a newsagents and toy shop.
Simon told Looking Back that his dad was a sales rep for Farmer and Stockbreeder magazine, and would travel all over with work.
He said that on one business trip his dad ended up talking to the current owner of the shop in Ward’s End, and he told him that if they ever were thinking of selling up that he would be interested in buying it.
And lo behold they were.. and that’s where the business began.
Simon said that the family business also had a shop opposite, that is now a hairdressers and that was his mum’s shop - ‘Candy Corner’ - which was an old fashioned sweet shop, with jars of everything from rhubarb and custards to black bullets and mint humbugs.
But Simon said that the sweet shop eventually became a gift shop - called ‘The Gift Shop’ - and that was what his mum wanted to sell all along.
Simon said other stores the family ran included one in Derwent Drive, that is still a newsagents now, and that they had a kiosk at the top of the university, next to the engineering buildings and another in the student union.
He said: “Most people in Loughborough knew my mum’s name, and she would say hello to everyone - even though she didn’t know everyone’s name, but that was the kind of people they were, and the shops that they had were real community shops, and they had really good relationships with the customers.”
Simon said that he still has people stop him in the street, and tell him that they used to work for his mum and dad as newspaper boys and girls, and he thinks that at the height of the business there must have been nearly 100 of them.
He said that every morning at 4.30am his father and one of the managers would go into the shop and mark up the papers for each different round.
Simon said: “I was never old enough to be a newspaper boy, but it was something that I know a lot of kids really enjoyed doing.
He said: “My mum and dad worked really hard and it was something that they always wanted to do, and I think what they liked the most was the relationship they had with customers, and that they liked being in control of their own business.
“But I know it got harder and harder as the years went by, and they had to slim down to just one business that was ‘Scoggins the Stationer’ as time moved on more and more mass chain shops opened and they weren’t making enough money.”
He said: “When both my brothers left the partnership in the early 1980s, my parents sold up all the businesses except ‘The Gift Shop’, and opened ‘Scoggins the Stationer’ at number three Ward’s End (now the ‘Queen B’ beauty salon).
“They ran these for a few years and then integrated a gift shop into the stationery premises so they could exit the corner ship at number 52.”
Simon said that sadly his dad passed away in 1991, and that his mum kept running the business for a year or so but it finally was sold, and it eventually became the Newshouse pub - aptly named because it had previously been a newsagents - and then became the Kelso bar.
Simon said that he remembers going upstairs in the Kelso for the firs time, and said that the last time he was in the building he was eight years old.
He said: “I could still see where my dads desk in his upstairs office used to be, and I could still see him sitting looking out over the square.”
• Do you remember Scoggins and Sons? Maybe you used to go in the shop, or used to know the family?
If you have any photos or any memories of the business please contact Liam Coleman on 01509 635806 or email
liam.coleman@trinitymirror.com