A SHOPKEEPER who has supplied residents in a Powys town once known as the smallest in the UK with everything from sheep dip to shotgun cartridges, has celebrated his 80th birthday.
Peter Cook marked the milestone this week, at the shop he has been working at for over 60 years.
Peter moved to Llanwrtyd Wells from Sutton Coldfield as a teenager in 1965, as his father wanted a change from the West Midlands.
He helped his parents out in the shop – which originally had a petrol pump outside, and also sold a huge variety of items, from paraffin and vaccines for sheep, to garden fertiliser, tobacco and alcohol – from the age of 19.
His father, William, was the local pharmacist for many years. He died in 1998 and his mother Joan passed away in 2005.
For the last 21 years he has run the shop, W Cook Sundries, on Llanwrtyd’s Irfon Crescent, by himself.
He is hugely loved in town, with the community turning up at the shop on Tuesday, May 5, to surprise him on his 80th birthday.
Read more
-
Family who raised amazing £100,000 in mum's memory now taking on London Marathon
-
Joy for Powys school as it is removed from Estyn 'significant improvement' list
-
Town hit by vandalism defiant as it focuses on Britain in Bloom bid
“Quite a crowd came out to sing happy birthday, in English and Welsh, and they presented me with cards,” said Peter.
“The owner of Bryncelyn Guesthouse brought in a big lemon sponge cake. Someone brought a huge teapot and some patio furniture and Rebecca from Cupboards & Cakes even brought some China cups.
“Local schoolchildren came in on Wednesday morning and sang happy birthday to me again and presented me with a book they’d made.
“It was a lovely day. A lovely surprise.”
After leaving the Midlands, Peter said the family attempted to settle in a variety of places, including the seaside, but when they eventually moved to Llanwrtyd, he described it as “heaven”.
“What I liked was being on the banks of the Irfon, with its trout, salmon, pike and chubb,” said the keen fisherman.
“It was heaven to be here. The Irfon had some very big trout back then, I’d never seen any as big. I think the biggest I ever saw was about 6lb.”
He celebrated 60 years behind the counter at the shop last November, adding: “It’s been very nice and different here.
“It opened as a country chemist shop, which did everything. My father was the pharmacist.
“We had a petrol pump on the street outside, as well as an Aladdin Pink Paraffin tank in the back yard.
“We sold sheep dip, worm drenches, vaccines, fertiliser for the garden, cigarettes and tobacco, wine, spirits, fishing tackle and even shotgun cartridges.
“I helped dad in the dispensary, counting out the tablets, while filling the paraffin tanks outside was my main job.”
Peter highlighted how much life has changed in Powys for both consumers and businesses over his six decades as a shopkeeper, adding: “The doctors’ prescriptions were all handwritten back then – they used to look like Egyptian hieroglyphics.
“Dad would also make up a lot of items, such as ointments and creams, on site, which is unheard of nowadays.”
He described arriving in Mid Wales as a bit like “coming to a foreign land” in 1965. “A lot of people spoke Welsh here,” said Peter.
“People lived a simpler life. Farming is very technical today, but back then a lot of farmers were good stockmen.
“They looked at an animal and could tell if they were ill. Now, they have to be routinely dosed and checked.”
Despite it being tough to turn a profit as a small-town shop today, Peter says he has no plans to retire or sell up.
“Little shops don’t make money these days, and it actually costs me money to keep the shop open, but I’ll carry on going as long as I’m fit and able," he said.
“These little country shops aren’t as popular today. In 1965 there were 19 full-time shops in Llanwrtyd, now we’re down to about three that are full-time, one of which is me.
“There were three butchers when we arrived here, a hardware shop, a draper's, grocers, bakers, and haberdashers. I could get everything I needed right here. Shoes from the cobbler, and clothes.
“It’s the local community and the fact I love it that keeps me going.”
He likened Llanwrtyd’s once bustling town trade to the beloved BBC sitcom Open All Hours, starring Ronnie Barker.
He revealed that one of Barker’s shorter-lived sitcoms, The Magnificent Evans, was actually filmed in the town.
“Ronnie Barker came here,” said Peter. They made a pilot in Llanwrtyd, but I don’t think it caught on, like Open All Hours. I remember them filming in the old Gwalia bakery.”
The Magnificent Evans starred Barker, as tactless but likeable Welsh photographer Plantagenet Evans.
It also starred Sharon Morgan and Myfanwy Talog, the latter the long-term partner of English actor David Jason, who played Barker’s nephew in Open All Hours.
Share